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![Dreamgirls (Two-Disc Showstopper Edition) [HD DVD]](product_images/4925000/4925182_thumb.jpg) | Dreamgirls (Two-Disc Showstopper Edition) [HD DVD] |
 | "at least they didnt turn dickie attenborough loose on this one" | 2007-06-11 |
this was supposed to be the movie that made people go see movie musicals again. guess what? it didnt. its not a bad movie. its even sorta a good movie. but its flat. it never made me want to get up & applaud, and i felt manipulated when i did enjoy myself. yes, jennifer hudson IS wonderful, but "i am telling you i am not going" has become as much a cliche as any rodgers & hammerstein song, without being half as good; beyonce demonstrates the acting range of diana ross, and i am telling you that is not a compliment; and the unjustly hyped eddie murphy gives a performance to rival tony bennett as hymie kelly in "the oscar". "dreamgirls" on stage was the triumph of director michael beennett, and not its writing team; while this is not the insult to bennetts memory that "a chorus line" is, it sure doesnt make THIS lover of both broadway & hollywood musicals want to tap his troubles away.
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 | Colonel Redl |
 | "wiener blut, wiener blut" | 2007-06-11 |
director istvan szabo and actor klaus maria brandauer had scored a huge hit a few years earlier with "mephisto", and this followup is almost as good. herein brandauer plays a corrupt military official in the waning days of the austro-hungarian empire who is eventually caught up in his own intrigues and hoist on his own petard. a sparkling film to look at, and a fine essay on the havoc personal and political corruption symbiotically work upon one another.
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 | City Lights (2 Disc Special Edition) |
 | "a beacon in the wilderness" | 2007-06-11 |
this is my favorite chaplin movie, both hilariously funny and tenderly moving, as charlot gives his all to help the young blind girl, and then feels he must disappear once she regains her sight so she will not know who her benefactor is. i defy you not to guffaw during the prize fight, and i defy you not to weep at the denouement. plain & simple, a beautiful movie.
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 | The Children's Hour |
| "girls just wanna have fun!" | 2007-06-11 |
yet another instance of how laughable the socially significant story of one generation appears to another. lillian hellmans 1930s play had been filmed a generation earlier with all hints of lesbianism redacted, and tho ive never seen that film, i wouldnt be surprised if IT holds up as more modern than this does. a "bad seed" little girl (alas, shes no patty mccormack!) avenges herself upon her scolding teachers by starting the false (or IIIIIIS it???) rumor that they are involved in an "unnatural" relationship, thus ruining their lives. the resolution is pat and silly, and oh so typical of the tragic fate visited upon "that type" of person in movies for years to come. insufferable politics and sensibilities aside, there are strong performances from audrey hepburn and shirley maclaine as the doomed duo, and the film deserves to be seen today as a film, and as an artifact of a (hopefully) bygone era.
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 | The Cowboys |
| "revenge is sweet & so is the duke" | 2007-06-11 |
john wayne gives the last significant performance of his career (i dont much care for "the shootist", sorry) in this revisionist western from director mark rydell. highlighted by the charmingly amateurish performances by the young supporting cast, and the oh-so-sinister bruce dern in his breakthrough role, the movie is vigilantly off-beat, and more true to the spirit of the 1970s than the 1870s. im not sure wayne fans will like it, but i think wayne haters (oh how i pity the fools) might.
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 | Damage |
 | "bad movies are dangerous, they just go on & on & on" | 2007-06-11 |
how strong an impression did this movie make on me? having watched it 2 or 3 weeks back, i had to just now go look it up on imdb to recollect who was in it or what it was about! a quartet of actors i like (jeremy irons, juliette binoche, miranda richardson, rupert graves) wriggle their ways thru a pretentious tale riddled with pseudo-incestuous overtones, set against a numbingly corrupt government. louis malle directed "au revoir les enfants" and "atlantic city", both among my favorite films ever; this yawn fest does not join them.
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 | Do The Right Thing - Criterion Collection |
| "maybe he shouldve stocked some nice rainbow ices ..." | 2007-06-11 |
poor spike lee: for 20 years now he has been trying to live up to the promise of this early movie -- but sad to say, two decades down the line, there wasnt as much there as people thought there was. the imagery of the streets (based on the real life howard beach horror) is a trifle too parochial, and the actions of the protagonists just a bit too easy to project before they occur. i honestly can say i didnt like a single person here; in attempting to show their flaws, lee ignores their decency. that aside, there are images that will stay with you a long time -- but as i said earlier, this should have been the heralding of a directorial career, not the peak.
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 | Donovan's Reef |
| "its no quiet man, but its still fun" | 2007-06-11 |
a year after his last true masterpiece ("the man who shot liberty valance") director john ford reunited with two of his stars, john wayne and lee marvin, for the final comedy of his career. while wayne is terrific as the brawling owner of a south pacific bar, and marvin has fun in the role victor mclaglen would have essayed at an earlier time, the movie is hurt irreparably by the stilted acting of elizabeth allen, in the role that would once have been played (and splendidly) by maureen o'hara. too many cliches of hula girls and the like, but then again there is also the wonderfully touching christmas pageant sequence, set in the perpetually leaky-roofed church. is this great john ford? not by any means. but it IS john ford, and thus deserves to be seen.
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 | Do the Right Thing |
| "maybe he shouldve stocked some nice rainbow ices ..." | 2007-06-11 |
poor spike lee: for 20 years now he has been trying to live up to the promise of this early movie -- but sad to say, two decades down the line, there wasnt as much there as people thought there was. the imagery of the streets (based on the real life howard beach horror) is a trifle too parochial, and the actions of the protagonists just a bit too easy to project before they occur. i honestly can say i didnt like a single person here; in attempting to show their flaws, lee ignores their decency. that aside, there are images that will stay with you a long time -- but as i said earlier, this should have been the heralding of a directorial career, not the peak.
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 | The Collector |
| "love is like a butterfly ..." | 2007-06-11 |
a true psychological horror movie, with terrance stamp as a nouveau riche sociopath who abducts a confused and confounded samantha eggar in this late william wyler adaptation of the john fowles novel. the movie is sinister and off-putting, yet oddly seductive -- just like its title character.
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 | City Lights |
| "a beacon in the wilderness" | 2007-06-11 |
this is my favorite chaplin movie, both hilariously funny and tenderly moving, as charlot gives his all to help the young blind girl, and then feels he must disappear once she regains her sight so she will not know who her benefactor is. i defy you not to guffaw during the prize fight, and i defy you not to weep at the denouement. plain & simple, a beautiful movie.
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 | Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (Two-Disc Deluxe Edition) |
| "more bitter than sweet" | 2007-06-11 |
yet another collaboration twixt tim burton and johnny depp produces what will forever be deemed a remake of the gene wilder "willie wonka" of a generation earlier. this time around the movie is darker, and i will leave it for the individual viewer to decide which take you prefer. me? i tend to think both movies are a bit overdone, tho i find both entertaining on their own levels. and the added attraction here is the presence of freddie highmore, a talented and pulchritudinous young actor who makes anything worth seeing.
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 | Caged Heat |
| "you cant go wrong with guns, gams, & lotsa sweat" | 2007-06-11 |
director jonathan demme began his career as did so many others: an apprentice of the great roger corman, learning his craft in a string of B (or less) movies. this "chicks in chains" flick was his first directorial effort, and it is loads of fun. filled with gratuitous violence and kinky sex, it is a masterpiece of its particular type of movie: an ideal way to waste 90 minutes of your life.
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 | The Cowboys |
| "revenge is sweet & so is the duke" | 2007-06-11 |
john wayne gives the last significant performance of his career (i dont much care for "the shootist", sorry) in this revisionist western from director mark rydell. highlighted by the charmingly amateurish performances by the young supporting cast, and the oh-so-sinister bruce dern in his breakthrough role, the movie is vigilantly off-beat, and more true to the spirit of the 1970s than the 1870s. im not sure wayne fans will like it, but i think wayne haters (oh how i pity the fools) might.
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 | Cinderella Man (Widescreen Edition) |
| "somebody up there likes him, but it sure aint me" | 2007-06-11 |
director ron howard summons the kleenex yet again, this time in a phony movie about the depression. i dont like boxing movies; i dont like subtly anti-semitic movies; i dont like russell crowe movies; i DO like opie taylor, but go back to mayberry and stop inflicting this "significant" garbage on the public.
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 | Camille |
| "well, theres still ninotchka" | 2007-06-11 |
garbo is, as usual, gorgeous to look at but this mawkish george cukor take on the dumas classic (which, btw, isnt very good) is one of the more overrated 1930s movies. robert taylor is a petulant little sissy as the love interest, and lionel barrymore is wasted as his overprotective father. this is an unfathomable mess. however, interestingly one of the extras is the 1921 film with nazimova and valentino: vastly more watchable, and the only reason id recommend someone acquiring the dvd.
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 | Damage |
| "bad movies are dangerous, they just go on & on & on" | 2007-06-11 |
how strong an impression did this movie make on me? having watched it 2 or 3 weeks back, i had to just now go look it up on imdb to recollect who was in it or what it was about! a quartet of actors i like (jeremy irons, juliette binoche, miranda richardson, rupert graves) wriggle their ways thru a pretentious tale riddled with pseudo-incestuous overtones, set against a numbingly corrupt government. louis malle directed "au revoir les enfants" and "atlantic city", both among my favorite films ever; this yawn fest does not join them.
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 | Cold Comfort Farm |
| "not quite the forsyte saga" | 2007-06-11 |
a change of pace from director john schlesinger, more familiar for dark pieces like "darling" or "sunday bloody sunday", this is one of those off-beat british comedies wherein a supposedly "normal" person (herein kate beckinsale as an impoverished smart set 1930s girl) gets plopped down in the midst of a parochially isolated village replete with quirky characers. while lacking the bite of bill forsyths "local hero", it holds up quite nicely among the genre, and if you enjoy this type of movie, you will enjoy this one.
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 | Donovan's Reef |
| "its no quiet man, but its still fun" | 2007-06-11 |
a year after his last true masterpiece ("the man who shot liberty valance") director john ford reunited with two of his stars, john wayne and lee marvin, for the final comedy of his career. while wayne is terrific as the brawling owner of a south pacific bar, and marvin has fun in the role victor mclaglen would have essayed at an earlier time, the movie is hurt irreparably by the stilted acting of elizabeth allen, in the role that would once have been played (and splendidly) by maureen o'hara. too many cliches of hula girls and the like, but then again there is also the wonderfully touching christmas pageant sequence, set in the perpetually leaky-roofed church. is this great john ford? not by any means. but it IS john ford, and thus deserves to be seen.
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 | The Cowboys |
| "revenge is sweet & so is the duke" | 2007-06-11 |
john wayne gives the last significant performance of his career (i dont much care for "the shootist", sorry) in this revisionist western from director mark rydell. highlighted by the charmingly amateurish performances by the young supporting cast, and the oh-so-sinister bruce dern in his breakthrough role, the movie is vigilantly off-beat, and more true to the spirit of the 1970s than the 1870s. im not sure wayne fans will like it, but i think wayne haters (oh how i pity the fools) might.
|
 | Cold Comfort Farm |
| "not quite the forsyte saga" | 2007-06-11 |
a change of pace from director john schlesinger, more familiar for dark pieces like "darling" or "sunday bloody sunday", this is one of those off-beat british comedies wherein a supposedly "normal" person (herein kate beckinsale as an impoverished smart set 1930s girl) gets plopped down in the midst of a parochially isolated village replete with quirky characers. while lacking the bite of bill forsyths "local hero", it holds up quite nicely among the genre, and if you enjoy this type of movie, you will enjoy this one.
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 | Colors |
| "hopper's coppers" | 2007-06-11 |
maybe if it had been filmed 15 or 20 years earlier, this dennis hopper directed movie would have seemed revelatory; however, by the time it was made, we had already lived thru several wambaugh books (& adaptations), not to mention "hill street blues". robert duvall and sean penn turn in adequate work as the grizzled vet and the callow tyro patrolling the sinister ghetto streets, but the movie never rises above pedestrian.
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![Cinderella Man [HD DVD]](product_images/4923000/4923188_thumb.jpg) | Cinderella Man [HD DVD] |
| "somebody up there likes him, but it sure aint me" | 2007-06-11 |
director ron howard summons the kleenex yet again, this time in a phony movie about the depression. i dont like boxing movies; i dont like subtly anti-semitic movies; i dont like russell crowe movies; i DO like opie taylor, but go back to mayberry and stop inflicting this "significant" garbage on the public.
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 | Camille |
| "well, theres still ninotchka" | 2007-06-11 |
garbo is, as usual, gorgeous to look at but this mawkish george cukor take on the dumas classic (which, btw, isnt very good) is one of the more overrated 1930s movies. robert taylor is a petulant little sissy as the love interest, and lionel barrymore is wasted as his overprotective father. this is an unfathomable mess. however, interestingly one of the extras is the 1921 film with nazimova and valentino: vastly more watchable, and the only reason id recommend someone acquiring the dvd.
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 | Underground |
| "a courageous and ignored great film" | 2007-06-11 |
a bit of personal background here: long ago, when tv was watchable, wor (channel 9) in new york city ran something called "the million dollar movie". twice a day, every day for a week, they showed the same film over and over and over again. it might seem bizarre, but compare it to nowadays where we get nbc repeating reality shows from 3 days before as encore events. via m$m, i got to know well irene dunne in "i remember mama"; my friend bugsy still revels in memories of "tales of hoffman"; and other friends in our generous age range have shared fond recollections. that said, one of the movies i came to know (and love) was a film called "underground": a tale of two brothers in nazi germany, one in the resistance and the other in hitlers army. i was always wary about revisiting this film many years later; other movies that impressed me as a youngster have not held up to my memory. but i recently ventured to watch "underground" for the first time in somewhere twixt 30 and 40 years. guess what? this is a great movie! perfectly acted and scripted, and with a "tale of two cities"-inspired final moment as we realize (thru the message that only his to-be-executed brother can grasp) that the struggle against the fascists will be carried forward. what i did not understand as a little kid, of course, is that this movie was made in 1941, BEFORE america had entered the war, and when sentiment in this country still allowed for loads of hitler sympathizers. director vincent sherman, later a victim of the blacklist, turned a B movie programmer into a brilliant piece of agitprop. was this as good a movie as i remember? oh yes, oh yes, oh yes.
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 | The Day of the Locust |
| "hollywood babylon redux redux redux ..." | 2007-06-11 |
it takes longer to watch this movie based on nathaneal wests short story than it takes to read the source material. this tale has been told too many times, yet filmmakers continue to think that the seedy side of hollywood is as fascinating to us as it is to them. well, its not. that said, there ARE terrific performances to be found here: donald sutherland, burgess meredith, and others, tho william atherton is his usually vapid self in the central role. im glad i saw it, but if i ever want to pay a return trip, i will visit the library and mr wests tome.
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![Tim Burton's Corpse Bride [HD DVD]](product_images/4923000/4923119_thumb.jpg) | Tim Burton's Corpse Bride [HD DVD] |
| "the nightmare before wedding day" | 2007-06-11 |
tim burton teams up with muse johnny depp and wife helena bonham-carter for what we can only hope is a warmup for the forthcoming "sweeney todd". depp overdoes his fey effete quality a bit too much, and i am not a fan of this particular animation look, but it is good if you are a devotee. strong supporting voice work from the likes of albert finney, christopher lee, and tracey ullman add to the fun. i wish i could give this a 4th star, but it just falls a trifle short for me.
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 | Demon Seed |
| "a rival for hal" | 2007-06-11 |
a superior science fiction film from the 70s about computer paranoia. how silly they were back then: thinking those machines could ever take over our lives! julie christie (stunning as always) is the victim of a rape by a computer -- dont ask -- who wants to have a child of its own, and the parallels to "rosemarys baby" are perhaps a bit too many, but this is proof of a wonderful time when this type of movie was about the story and not about spending millions on special effects. intelligent and well worth your time.
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 | Underground |
| "a courageous and ignored great film" | 2007-06-11 |
a bit of personal background here: long ago, when tv was watchable, wor (channel 9) in new york city ran something called "the million dollar movie". twice a day, every day for a week, they showed the same film over and over and over again. it might seem bizarre, but compare it to nowadays where we get nbc repeating reality shows from 3 days before as encore events. via m$m, i got to know well irene dunne in "i remember mama"; my friend bugsy still revels in memories of "tales of hoffman"; and other friends in our generous age range have shared fond recollections. that said, one of the movies i came to know (and love) was a film called "underground": a tale of two brothers in nazi germany, one in the resistance and the other in hitlers army. i was always wary about revisiting this film many years later; other movies that impressed me as a youngster have not held up to my memory. but i recently ventured to watch "underground" for the first time in somewhere twixt 30 and 40 years. guess what? this is a great movie! perfectly acted and scripted, and with a "tale of two cities"-inspired final moment as we realize (thru the message that only his to-be-executed brother can grasp) that the struggle against the fascists will be carried forward. what i did not understand as a little kid, of course, is that this movie was made in 1941, BEFORE america had entered the war, and when sentiment in this country still allowed for loads of hitler sympathizers. director vincent sherman, later a victim of the blacklist, turned a B movie programmer into a brilliant piece of agitprop. was this as good a movie as i remember? oh yes, oh yes, oh yes.
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 | The Children's Hour |
| "girls just wanna have fun!" | 2007-06-11 |
yet another instance of how laughable the socially significant story of one generation appears to another. lillian hellmans 1930s play had been filmed a generation earlier with all hints of lesbianism redacted, and tho ive never seen that film, i wouldnt be surprised if IT holds up as more modern than this does. a "bad seed" little girl (alas, shes no patty mccormack!) avenges herself upon her scolding teachers by starting the false (or IIIIIIS it???) rumor that they are involved in an "unnatural" relationship, thus ruining their lives. the resolution is pat and silly, and oh so typical of the tragic fate visited upon "that type" of person in movies for years to come. insufferable politics and sensibilities aside, there are strong performances from audrey hepburn and shirley maclaine as the doomed duo, and the film deserves to be seen today as a film, and as an artifact of a (hopefully) bygone era.
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