Wilder

Starring:Pam Grier, Rutger Hauer, Romano Orzari, John Dunn-Hill, Eugene Clark, Serge Houde, Richard Robitaille, Simone-Elise Girard, Frank Schorpion, Sacha Dominique, Linda Smith (VII), Greg Kramer (II), NoÃ«l Burton, Robert Higden, Andrea Sadler, Abede Burke, Oheneba Burke, Sam Stone, Terry Simpson, Mike Tsar
Director: Rodney Gibbons
Studio: Mti Home Video
Product Type: DVD

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dear 20th century fox.......
One of the best movies of ALL TIME
Either you like it or you don't
What the Heck !?!?!?!?!?!?
you can laugh too much

Young Frankenstein
Starring: Gene Wilder , Peter Boyle , Marty Feldman , Madeline Kahn , and Cloris Leachman
Manufacturer: 20th Century Fox
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ASIN: B000G6BLWE
Release Date: 2006-09-05

Amazon.com essential video

If you were to argue that Mel Brooks's Young Frankenstein ranks among the top-ten funniest movies of all time, nobody could reasonably dispute the claim. Spoofing classic horror in the way that Brooks's previous film Blazing Saddles sent up classic Westerns, the movie is both a loving tribute and a raucous, irreverent parody of Universal's classic horror films Frankenstein (1931) and Bride of Frankenstein (1935). Filming in glorious black and white, Brooks re-created the Frankenstein laboratory using the same equipment from the original Frankenstein (courtesy of designer Kenneth Strickfaden), and this loving attention to physical and stylistic detail creates a solid foundation for nonstop comedy. The story, of course, involves Frederick Frankenstein (Gene Wilder) and his effort to resume experiments in re-animation pioneered by his late father. (He's got some help, since dad left behind a book titled How I Did It.) Assisting him is the hapless hunchback Igor (Marty Feldman) and the buxom but none-too-bright maiden Inga (Teri Garr), and when Frankenstein succeeds in creating his monster (Peter Boyle), the stage is set for an outrageous revision of the Frankenstein legend. With comedy highlights too numerous to mention, Brooks guides his brilliant cast (also including Cloris Leachman, Madeline Kahn, Kenneth Mars, and Gene Hackman in a classic cameo role) through scene after scene of inspired hilarity. Indeed, Young Frankenstein is a charmed film, nothing less than a comedy classic, representing the finest work from everyone involved. Not one joke has lost its payoff, and none of the countless gags have lost their zany appeal. From a career that includes some of the best comedies ever made, this is the film for which Mel Brooks will be most fondly remembered. Befitting a classic, the Special Edition DVD includes audio commentary by Mel Brooks, a "making of" documentary, interviews with the cast, hilarious bloopers and outtakes, and the original theatrical trailers. No video library should be without a copy of Young Frankenstein. And just remember--that's Fronkensteen. --Jeff Shannon

Description

Mel Brooks' monstrously crazy tribute to Mary Shelley's classic pokes hilarious fun at just about every Frankenstein movie ever made. Summoned by a will to his late grandfather's castle in Transylvania, young Dr. Frankenstein (Gene Wilder) soon discovers the scientist's step-by-step manual explaining how to bring a corpse to life. Assisted by the hunchback Igor (Marty Feldman) and the curvaceous Ings (Teri Garr), he creates a monster (Peter Boyle) who only wants to be loved.

Customer Reviews:

dear 20th century fox..............2007-07-03

To the marketing idiots at 20th Century Fox: don't worry, I'll wait till you maroons give us an anamorphic transfer. What year is this???, oh, yeah, 2007!

One of the best movies of ALL TIME.......2007-07-03

If you don't like "Young Frankenstein," you need therapy. And this special edition is a wonderful way to celebrate an all-time classic that has endured, despite its lack of car chases, shootouts, and helicopters.

Either you like it or you don't.......2007-07-03

I like it and watch it a few times a year so I guess I'm getting my monies worth...

What the Heck !?!?!?!?!?!?.......2007-06-28

I usually love Mel Brooks movies and I'm a huge fan of Get Smart from TV - I even have the box set :) But this movie sucked! I wasn't even born when it was made and it felt like all the jokes were so cliched when I watched it. Now there could be 2 reasons for that - Number 1 is that this film was so influential that every other movie copied it so I had already heard the jokes a million times before or Number 2 - The jokes actually were cliched. Either way I didn't really enjoy this like I wanted to. I'm still keeping it though - although if I run out of room in my new DVD holder this is going in the trash first thing.

you can laugh too much.......2007-06-11

Is this movie the product of a genius I don't know I'm not a genius but I did find it the funniest movie I ever saw.
Is this movie well made I don't know I don't make comedies but it is the funniest comedy I've seen in the last fifty years.
Does the story stick to the book yes. The book is rather simple in principle and without a lot of pedantry describes the power of a dream that comes true. Young Frankenstein takes not only the book Frankenstein and gives it some room to grow it gives vent to all those silly horror movies of the same names. Don't get me wrong please Young Frankenstein is silly but not stupid it comes from a lot of hard work I'm sure and the acting is the best I've ever seen like I say but the script they use does roll into the weeds from time to time.

The first time you see this one your sides hurt from all the timeless jokes scattered all the way through in what I'm sure the business calls perfect timing. I still don't know how they got the cast of stars to all fit on the same set to make this very funny movie but to this day after just seeing it again on TV I'm glad we have it around none the less as it is a classic even in it's own write and it's in black and white so you have to have been around long enough to have seen at least one of the early Horror movies we used to have to watch back in the good ol' days when every thing was in black and white and usually a horror on it's own don't you know.

The second time around you'll probably just laugh because it's a funny movie just that a very funny movie. Just the thing if you've seen everything before and perhaps need the last place you look for it to get you into the air.

This is a scary movie for kids though least I think so because the places the movie takes you can be a little foreign unless you've been to Transylvania and that's hardly likely for this audience but if you did come from there you never saw the places Young Frankenstein takes you I hope.

Frankenstein is a little over the top in this movie mostly from other old black and whites but almost believable in his complexity as a character I'm sure you'll admit.

His girlfriend has always been near the top of my most attractive women list and her acting is something you have to see for yourself to criticize .

There's a love interest in this one for Frankenstein and after a twist of fate more a thrust he gets the girl and the castle and the whole bowl of rice but with a lot of class that's rare and only found in this spoof of the Baron Von Frankenstein of many an imagination gone wild. She's played by Terry Garr the girl from Star Trek that ends up marrying the secret-agent from another planet with the cat that talked and the typewriter that doubled as secretary and the ... wasn't funny.

Egor the faithful servant of every Frankenstein we see on TV is played by Marty Feldman. A funny guy even in his own write Marty makes you laugh even when you're not looking and keeps the whole movie in the air all the time.

There's some cameos by most of the other funny men of the day and a whole lot of story for a comedy especially about such a difficult subject like Frankenstein so if you've got a book report to do you can always budget it as research because this movie made an awful lot of bigbucks and still does so there.

Average customer rating:

Billy Wilder's Lost Masterwork Get's the Royal Criterion Treatment
One of Billy Wilder's Masterpieces
Not To Be Missed
Gets more relevant every year!
Billy Wilder's Neglected Masterpiece

Ace in the Hole - Criterion Collection
Starring: Kirk Douglas
Director: Billy Wilder
Manufacturer: Criterion
ProductGroup: DVD
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ASIN: B000PKG6OE
Release Date: 2007-07-17

Amazon.com

The character of newspaperman Chuck Taylor (Kirk Douglas) is best summed up by an astonished bystander (herself no soft touch): "I met a lot of hard-boiled eggs in my time, but you--you're 20 minutes!" Meet the "hero" of Billy Wilder's corrosive 1951 classic Ace in the Hole (a.k.a. The Big Carnival), a former big-time reporter whose reputation is so tarnished he's now at an Albuquerque rag, chasing down local-interest stuff. Until, that is, a local miner gets stuck in a cave--a situation that Taylor not only exploits but actually manipulates, the better to improve his career chances. Wilder got the idea for the movie from the real-life media circus that followed the Floyd Collins story (Collins was trapped in a cave for over a week in 1925). Needless to say, the opportunities for displaying greed and venality are fully drawn out by Wilder; indeed, the film looks unbelievably prescient from a modern perspective of media overload.

Although Wilder had scored a success with Sunset Boulevard just a year earlier, he misread the public's ability to stare into the merciless mirror he held up to them in Ace in the Hole. The movie bombed. Paramount changed the title to The Big Carnival, thus wrecking one of Wilder's most acidic puns, but it didn't help. It also doesn't matter: Ace in the Hole is one of the truly grown-up movies of its time, and age has only improved it. Wilder's ear for cynical dialogue is honed to its sharpest point, and Kirk Douglas has one of his best parts, which he attacks with customary ferocity. Jan Sterling plays the hard-nosed wife of the trapped man, with Porter Hall as Douglas's publisher--the lone voice of decency in the film's cruel parade. Admirably, Wilder takes this all the way down the line: the ending of the movie might be the best in-your-face finish since Public Enemy. --Robert Horton

Studio description

One of the most scathing indictments of American culture ever produced by a Hollywood filmmaker, Academy Award-winner Billy Wilder's Ace in the Hole is legendary for both its cutting social critique and its status as a hard-to-find cult classic. Kirk Douglas gives the fiercest performance of his career as Chuck Tatum, an amoral newspaper reporter caught in dead-end Albuquerque who happens upon the story of a lifetime-and will do anything to ensure he gets the scoop. Wilder's follow-up to Sunset Boulevard is an even darker vision, a no-holds-barred expose that anticipated the rise of the American media circus.

Customer Reviews:

Billy Wilder's Lost Masterwork Get's the Royal Criterion Treatment.......2007-05-05

"Ace in the Hole" is one of those movies that comes around every rare often and belts you right in the kisser. Yet, to my knowledge, Paramount has never released it on VHS, and certainly not on LaserDisc or DVD. Until now: Criterion is releasing a DVD with a cleaned-up print and all the bells and whistles. Until it comes out, I will have to console myself with my VHS third-generation copy that was recorded in the 1980s from some TV channel in Florida. The print is grainy, the sound warbles and the dialogue is out of sync at times. It nonetheless still packs a helluva wallop.

Read the bottom of pages on which Wilder's movies are sold: "Customers who bought DVDs directed by Billy Wilder also bought DVDs by these directors:

"Howard Hawks
"Alfred Hitchcock
"John Huston
"William Wyler
"George Cukor"

There isn't one weak or less than legendary director in this list. Personally, I rate Wilder right up there with Hitch and ahead of all the others. Yet, when Paramount released their DVD boxed set of three Wilder classics ("Sunset Boulevard," "Sabrina" and "Stalag 17"), "Ace in the Hole" was conspicuously absent. What a shame! I consider this his masterwork, arguably equalling "Double Indemnity" and "The Apartment."

Critics have called it a black comedy, I suppose because it's a Billy Wilder movie, so we reflexively think of him as a comedic director. In fact, having heard and read so much about this movie, I sort of felt jinxed, because when I go into a movie with high expectations, I come out of it a little disappointing.

And, the opening of this movie disappointed a little: When Kirk Douglas' character, Charlie Tatum, falls down on his luck and lands a job with an Albuquerque newspaper, it seems to be a bit of a new spin on an old classic, "The Front Page" (which, strangely enough, Wilder resurrected in 1974 as a Matthau/Lemmon vehicle).

Yet, that's the movie's genius, because you are lured into thinking it's a comedy. Yet, once Kirk Douglas finds his potential "Pulitzer-prize winning story" buried under fallen timbers in a New Mexico cave, you realise it's a cynical farce.

But then, it's no longer a farce, but a dark tragedy. Not so quick, because by the end you'll find it's an abomination -- not the movie itself, which is superbly casted and crafted -- because it shows at root what base intentions really drive mankind.

Of all his movies, it's the oddest. Imagine a cross between "Double Indemnity" and "The Fortune Cookie." Strange, I know, but that is the closest I can pin it down. Douglas' character is an even more cold-blooded version of Walter Matthau's supreme shyster Whiplash Willie. Think of William Holden's Sergeant Seften without the heart of gold, and you'll get Chuck Tatum.

Jan Sterling is equally, well, sterling as the victim's wife, whose blood runs as ice-cold as Barbara Stanwyck's Phyllis Dietrichson. Sterling, though, is no femme fatale: She's too tawdry, and can only aspire to the unimaginative dreams that accompany her former dime-a-dance persona. She does slip a pair of scissors into Douglas' flank, but, hey, he had it coming.

The ending, which I won't give away, is chilling and powerful. Nobody could write ending lines like Wilder could, and this one is no exception. It's right up there with Fred MacMurray's "I love you, too" ("Double Indemnity"), Shirley MacLaine's "Shut up and deal" ("The Apartment"), Gloria Swanson's "I'm ready for my close-up, Mr. DeMille" ("Sunset Boulevard") and Joe E. Brown's "Nobody's perfect" ("Some Like it Hot").

"Ace in the Hole" walks on the seedy and seamy side of journalist and shows the viewer all the manipulation behind the scenes of the newspaper racket. It presages other blisteringly scathing films as "A Face in the Crowd," "Sweet Smell of Success" and "Network."

One of Billy Wilder's Masterpieces.......2007-05-04

This 1951 film seems as relevant today as it ever did. Kirk Douglas is perfectly cast as an unethical newspaper reporter who, through his influence over the town's sheriff, keeps a dying man trapped in a mine for several days longer than necessary in order to milk the story for all it's worth - a strategy he hopes will help him claw his way back to the top of the journalistic world. Billy Wilder's incredibly vitriolic film tells many truths about how reality is manipulated by the media to serve personal and political ends without regard to the suffering caused by this agenda. His film spares nobody in its critique: those who perpetuate the lies, those who directly benefit from them, even those who uncritically consume the stories are all complicit in the wrongdoing. Wilder made many great films, most of which are far better known than this one, but "Ace in the Hole" is up there with the best of them.

Criterion's upcoming release is definitely cause for celebration.

Not To Be Missed.......2007-04-30

At last, at last, Wilder's finest film, "Ace In The Hole" (AKA "The Big Carnival") is released on DVD. For those without TCM (it's been run several times in the last month or two), you will now finally be able to see a film swimming in deep cynicism as well as experience one of the coldest characters every recorded on film - Jan Sterling's "grieving" wife. She is the female mirror to Kirk Douglas' down-on-his-luck, cruel Chuck Tatum.

More relevant in these media-frenzied times than when it was made, "Ace. . ." still packs a wallop in reminding us of the power of the press to manipulate (in Tatum's case for self-aggrandizment).

I first saw this film when I was about 8 or 9 years old. I couldn't grasp the story's nuances, but it sure put the zap on my pre-pubescent head.

Wonderfully acted from a great script under Wilder's sure hand, "Ace In The Hole" is a cinematic treasure not to be missed. (Especially for Wilder fans.) This is Wilder's masterpiece.

Thank you Criterion!

In short:

Reporter Chuck tatum (Kirk Douglas who's been kicked off every major US paper) ruthlessly exploits a man trapped in a cave he chances upon while on his way to cover a rattlesnake hunt (how fitting) for an Albuquerque daily. While an engineer promises to get the man out in hours, Reporter Tatum, and a corrupt sherrif, lean on the engineer to bore through rock. A process that'll take a week.

Tatum sells the story to the majors who lap it up. When the news breaks nationwide, thousands descend on the disaster. The scenes of the carnival invited by Leo's wife (Jan Sterling) to set up and cheesy country western singer twanging a guitar while singing about poor Leo (the trapped man), are powerful.

O Leo, Leo, Leee-Oooo
We're Coming Leo

Gets more relevant every year!.......2007-04-02

First of all, I want to remind people how amazing it is that Wilder managed to get this withering assessment of capitalism and the mass media made while deep in the bowels of the McCarthy era (1951) when anyone who didn't wave their pompoms for the great US of A and everything it stood for, usually got hauled in front of a Congressional committee of some sort or other. As miraculous in its own way as Marcel Carne's "Children of Paradise" getting made during the Nazi occupation of France.

Now how can you look at the Tatum character today and not see Karl Rove? Amazing!

This movie seamlessly weaves a great story into several still-timely themes, such as the mining of tragedy for profit; the distortion and manipulation of reality by the mass media for profit and circulation; the exploitation of the environment and disrespect of native peoples; the human foible of scrabbling onto the coattails of a media event for the mean purpose of self-aggrandizement. Man, this film is a veritable treasure trove of significant cultural phenomena. And to think it was made BEFORE television, satellite and the Internet! Wow.

The picture's literal "Ace in the Hole" is young Leo Cole, a young miner trapped by an avalanche in a mine shaft. He becomes Tatum's "ace in the hole" for a big story and self-glorification. Cole, in his native goodness and naivete, is almost a Christ like figure, totally beyond and ethically superior to the maggots swarming about his fate.

If this picture doesn't break your heart, you don't have one.

Billy Wilder's Neglected Masterpiece.......2007-03-14

This 1951 film seems as relevant today as it ever did. Kirk Douglas is perfectly cast as an unethical newspaper reporter who, through his influence over the town's sheriff, keeps a dying man trapped in a mine for several days longer than necessary in order to milk the story for all it's worth - a strategy he hopes will help him claw his way back to the top of the journalistic world. Billy Wilder's incredibly vitriolic film tells many truths about how reality is manipulated by the media to serve personal and political ends without regard to the suffering caused by this agenda. His film spares nobody in its critique: those who perpetuate the lies, those who directly benefit from them, even those who uncritically consume the stories are all complicit in the wrongdoing. Wilder made many great films, most of which are far better known than this one, but "Ace in the Hole" is up there with the best of them.

For now the only way to see it is on a bootlegged DVD or the Turner Classic Movies channel. A Criterion edition is due out this summer.

Sunset Boulevard (Special Collector's Edition)

Average customer rating:

Sunset Boulevard
One of Hollywood's greatest films has gotten the treatment it deserves!
Ready as Ever...
If you only see one noir in your life...
Presages Mulholland Dr

Sunset Boulevard (Special Collector's Edition)
Starring: William Holden , Gloria Swanson , Erich von Stroheim , Nancy Olson , and Fred Clark
Director: Billy Wilder
Manufacturer: Paramount
ProductGroup: DVD
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ASIN: B00003CXCW
Release Date: 2002-11-26

Amazon.com essential video

Billy Wilder's noir-comic classic about death and decay in Hollywood remains as pungent as ever in its power to provoke shock, laughter, and gasps of astonishment. Joe Gillis (William Holden), a broke and cynical young screenwriter, is attempting to ditch a pair of repo men late one afternoon when he pulls off L.A.'s storied Sunset Boulevard and into the driveway of a seedy mansion belonging to Norma Desmond (Gloria Swanson), a forgotten silent movie luminary whose brilliant acting career withered with the coming of talkies. The demented old movie queen lives in the past, assisted by her devoted (but intimidating) butler, Max (played by Erich von Stroheim, the legendary director of Greed and Swanson's own lost epic, Queen Kelly). Norma dreams of making a comeback in a remake of Salome to be directed by her old colleague Cecil B. DeMille (as himself), and Joe becomes her literary and romantic gigolo. Sunset Blvd. is one of those great movies that has become a part of popular culture (the line "All right, Mr. DeMille, I'm ready for my close-up," has entered the language)--but it's no relic. Wow, does it ever hold up. --Jim Emerson

Customer Reviews:

Sunset Boulevard.......2007-06-26

One of the all-time great Tinseltown satires, Wilder's noirish tale of an opportunistic, down-and-out young writer and the nostalgic, delusional film luminary who ensnares him takes a harsh look at an industry that eats its own. Holden, whose character narrates from beyond the grave, is impeccable as the sardonic Gillis, but the show belongs to real-life silent star Swanson, an ideal choice to play the creepy, twisted Norma. Great support from Nancy Olson (playing Joe's appalled girlfriend) and Erich Von Stroheim (as Norma's protective chauffeur) round out this shocking, sordid gem.

One of Hollywood's greatest films has gotten the treatment it deserves!.......2007-05-12

This haunting, magnificent movie has never looked so good. The archivists at Paramount did a fantastic job remastering the film, and the "extras" are very informative. Highly recommended.

Ready as Ever..........2007-04-23

Directed by the incomparable Billy Wilder, this is iconic Gloria Swanson in the comeback-of-all-comeback films (even though as Norma Desmond she protests that she hates that word, it's "Return!"). From the crumbling Spanish Revival (J. P. Getty-owned) mansion to the leopard-upholstered Isotta-Fraschini (once owned by Peggy Hopkins Joyce, the inspiration for Lorelei Lee in "Gentlemen Prefer Blonds"), this is a tour-de-force of behind-the-scenes Hollywood atmosphere, the dark flipside of the other great send up of when Talkies came to Tinsletown, "Singin' in the Rain."

But first of all, dismiss the myth that this movie was a biopic of Gloria's life. Not in the least. True, Gloria had been a huge success in silents (at age 25, the first actress with a million dollar contract) but she made the transition to sound just fine, even singing in early 1930s films like "The Trespasser" ("Love Your Magic Spell is Everywhere") and "Music in the Air" (which Billy Wilder also worked on). If anything, it was her exotic look, not her voice, that made her seem passé in the darkening days of the Depression.

To create Miss Desmond, screenwriters Charles Brackett (who also scripted "Ninotchka"), D. M. Marshman Jr. and Billy Wilder threw in all of the faded film star lore they could, combining the May-December marriage and mostly pickled later life of America's Sweetheart Mary Pickford (who was offered and turned down the part) and the quick fadeout to black of the other Norma (Talmadge). Throw in the other two Talmadge sisters, Clara Bow, Mable Normand, et al; the stories you hear are true, but a compilation and the names have been changed, sort of.

Then, once she agreed to the starring role, as an additional benefit, Gloria graciously allowed all of her personal mementos, from the unreleased and von Strohiem directed "Queen Kelly" to the plethora of 8 x 10 genuine publicity stills, to give the set verisimilitude. Her Chaplin-taught imitation of himself, her collaboration with De Mille (right down to his pet name for her "Young Fella"), the quip about Valentino and the tile floor, and more, were bonuses that make the film more than just another pastiche of a long-gone era.

Swanson and Holden do yeoman's work as the ill-fated couple in a nightmarish liaison that can only end badly. The lush Franz Waxman score augments a script replete with quotable quotes about the perils of a star's decline. There are layers and layers of Hollywood goodies, like the storyline that Holden and Nancy Olson spoof about, concerning a guy and a gal who rent the same flat, one sleeping in the daytime and the other at night, sharing the apartment on a shift basis, never seeing each other; it is a real 1933 film, called "Rafter Romance" starring Ginger Rogers and Laura Hope Crewes.

The staircase finale has become a thing of legend--deftly spoofed by Carol Burnett. Gloria enjoyed Carol's sketch so much, she made a guest appearance on the Carol Burnett Show, as a result. Even so, the film's ending line is surely one of the five greatest in all Hollywood history, the others being, "Casablanca", "The Wizard of Oz", "Some Like It Hot" and "Now, Voyager".

If you only see one noir in your life..........2007-04-13

Sunset Blvd. (Billy Wilder, 1950)

Sunset Boulevard is noir at its best, a simple story of obsessive love gone wrong, but the characters. Oh, the characters. Gloria Swanson plays Norma Desmond, a silent film queen who's been abandoned by the studios as talkies have become all the rage. (Swanson-- and her circle of card-playing friends in the movie-- were, in fact, silent film stars who had been abandoned by the studios after talkies became all the rage. Among the card players is Buster Keaton.) By coincidence, a young screenwriter, Joe Gillis (William Holden, in the first of his collaborations with Billy Wilder), pulls into her garage while fleeing repo men, thinking the place is abandoned. The two meet, and Desmond convinces Gillis to do some editing on a script she's been working on. Erich von Stroheim has a star turn as Desmond's butler, a silent film director also left in the lurch. (von Stroheim was, of course, a silent film director, whose Greed is widely considered one of the best films ever made.)

With all the similarities to real life going on in this movie, it's hard to examine it without a lengthy diversion into the movie being a savage satire on Hollywood itself, but that's not what most struck me about this movie. It's Joe Gillis, possibly the least effective manipulator ever captured on a screen, a man who desperately needs to become hard-hearted to gain his independence from an ugly, overbearing relationship. It's Norma Desmond, already half-mad at the beginning of the movie, rolling the rest of the way off the cliff as she tries, just as desperately to hold on to Gillis. It's Betty Schaefer (Nancy Olson), torn between her growing love for Gillis and her engagement to his best friend, Artie Green (Jack Webb), coming under the withering gaze of Desmond's scorn. It's Max the Butler, so proud and so pathetic, who understands exactly where Gillis' road is headed, but is powerless to do anything about it. It's Cecil B. DeMille, who didn't have to do anything other than play himself. Satire can't work unless you've got the fundamentals in place. And in this case, the fundamentals are the characters and how they interact. And they're fabulous. Sure, Wilder and collaborator Charles Brackett wrote a great script, and Wilder, as was his wont, filmed the whole thing with precision and flair, and it wouldn't be as good a movie without those qualities. But you could put these characters, with these actors playing them, on a bare stage with a single lightbulb, and let them improvise till the cows came home, and I believe the audience would have still been deathly quiet and stock still. This is genius, pure and simple. *****

Presages Mulholland Dr.......2007-04-01

A crazed aged actress played with moxie by Gloria Swanson entices a struggling scriptwriter to live in her insane mansion in a film that combines satire and horror. The writer, played by a disaffected, cynical William Holden, enters the belly of the beast and makes what becomes a deal with the devil. Part Blanche Dubois, Swanson plays a faded actress, a "sleepwalker," who lives in the past. The cynical tone of the film amazingly reminds me of the dead narrator who speaks in Desperate Housewives, a technique used in the film's voice-over. It's weird seeing the same Los Angeles roads and buildings from 60 years ago, virtually unchanged today. In fact, the film is not at all dated.

Blazing Saddles (30th Anniversary Special Edition)

Average customer rating:

Blazing Saddles
Funny, Funnier, Funniest
Classic scenes are cut out
Enjoyable once in awhile
A Mel Must-Own

Blazing Saddles (30th Anniversary Special Edition)
Starring: Richard Collier , Carol DeLuise , Dom DeLuise , Liam Dunn , and George Furth
Manufacturer: Warner Home Video
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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ASIN: B0001Z4OXS
Release Date: 2004-06-29

Amazon.com essential video

Mel Brooks scored his first commercial hit with this raucous Western spoof starring the late Cleavon Little as the newly hired (and conspicuously black) sheriff of Rock Ridge. Sheriff Bart teams up with deputy Jim (Gene Wilder) to foil the railroad-building scheme of the nefarious Hedley Lamarr (Harvey Korman). The simple plot is just an excuse for a steady stream of gags, many of them unabashedly tasteless, that Brooks and his wacky cast pull off with side-splitting success. The humor is so juvenile and crude that you just have to surrender to it; highlights abound, from the lunkheaded Alex Karras as the ox-riding Mongo to Madeline Kahn's uproarious send-up of Marlene Dietrich as saloon songstress Lili Von Shtupp. Adding to the comedic excess is the infamous campfire scene involving a bunch of hungry cowboys, heaping servings of baked beans and, well, you get the idea. --Jeff Shannon

Description

The railroad's got to run through the town of Rock Ridge. How do you drive out the townfolk in order to steal their land? Send in the toughest gang you've got...and name a new sheriff who'll last about 24 hours. But that's not really the plot of Blazing Saddles, just the pretext. Once Mel Brooks' lunatic film many call his best gets started, logic is lost in a blizzard of gags, jokes, quips, puns, howlers, growlers and outrageous assaults upon good taste or any taste at all. Cleavon Little as the new lawman, Gene Wilder as the wacko Waco Kid, Brooks himself as a dim-witted politico and Madeline Kahn in her Marlene Dietrich send-up that earned an Academy Award nomination all give this sagebrush saga their lunatic best. And when Blazing Saddles can't contain itself at the finale, it just proves the Old West will never be the same!

Customer Reviews:

Blazing Saddles.......2007-07-03

Tastelessly ribald spoof of Hollywood Westerns packs a lot of silly madcap comedy into its 90-minute running time. Just about everyone imaginable becomes the target of Mel Brooks's shamelessly funny lampooning, and Harvey Korman, Slim Pickens, and the great Gene Wilder turn in some of the loopiest performances of their careers. Madeline Kahn is especially memorable as Lilli Von Shtupp, a Marlene Dietrich-like chanteuse. If you're in the mood for humor that's lewd, crude and unabashedly infantile, hitch your wagon to "Blazing Saddles".

Funny, Funnier, Funniest.......2007-06-18

The first movie that my wife watched in one sitting and wanted to see again the next evening. Side splitting and healthy slapstick as only Mel could make.

Classic scenes are cut out.......2007-06-10

If you like this movie, DO NOT buy this edition, as some classic scenes have been cut out of this early-DVD era release. Buy the 30th anniversary edition instead.

Enjoyable once in awhile.......2007-06-01

Frankly, I don't find Blazing Saddles to be THAT funny. It's a movie that you can enjoy watching about once every ten years or so, but not any more often. Mongo is funny, and Gene Wilder gives a fantastic dramatic performance as always. Otherwise, there's not much about Blazing Saddles that's really that amazing. It's amusing, but not once did I laugh out loud. And even though it is obviously used to make a political statement, the repeated use of the "N" word still turned me off. I know it was being used tongue-in-cheek, but like most of the bits in this movie, I just didn't find it funny. Another mark against this movie is that due to its age, many of the cameos and cultural references go over the head of people today, not even realizing who they are seeing or that certain things are being parodied. Overall, more boring than funny, even when you know what the references are.

A Mel Must-Own.......2007-05-31

Probably the best, if not, the most influential of all of Brooks' films. Probably couldn't be released today with all the PC watchdogs howling, but that's another matter all together! Madeline Kahn at her finest with her tongue-in-cheek Dietrich send-up! No comedy collection should be without this masterpiece!

Terminator 2 - Judgment Day (Extreme DVD)

Average customer rating:

Ultimate and Extreme DVD's the way to go
HD version without DD5.1
Owes just as much to "Aliens" as it does its predecessor
High Def does not work in Vista
Let's Shed Some Light

Terminator 2 - Judgment Day (Extreme DVD)
Starring: Arnold Schwarzenegger , Linda Hamilton , Edward Furlong , Robert Patrick , and Earl Boen
Director: James Cameron
Manufacturer: Lions Gate
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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Similar Items:

The Terminator (Special Edition)
Terminator 3 - Rise of the Machines (2-Disc Widescreen Edition)
Predator (Widescreen Two-Disc Collector's Edition)
Aliens (Special Edition)
True Lies

ASIN: B00008PC2O
Release Date: 2003-06-03

Amazon.com essential video

After he pushed the envelope of computer-generated special effects in The Abyss, director James Cameron turned this hotly anticipated sequel to Terminator into a well-written, action-packed showcase for advanced special effects and for one of the most invincible villains ever imagined. Terminator 2: Judgment Day is a legitimate sequel: there's more story to tell about a hulking, leather-clad android (Arnold Schwarzenegger) who arrives from the future to protect a rebellious teenager and future leader (Edward Furlong) from being killed by the tenacious T-1000 robot (Robert Patrick), whose liquid-metal construction makes him seemingly unstoppable. The fate of the future lies in the balance, with Linda Hamilton (who would later marry her director) reprising her role as the rugged woman whose son will change the course of history. --Jeff Shannon

Description

He said he'd be back. This time experience T2 like never before! Go EXTREME with the best picture and sound ever! ARNOLD SCHWARZENEGGER returns as the Terminator in this explosive action-adventure spectacle. Now he's one of the good guys, sent back in time to protect John Connor, the boy destined to lead the freedom fighters of the future. LINDA HAMILTON reprises her role as Sarah Connor, John's mother, a quintessential survivor who has been institutionalized for her warning of the nuclear holocaust she knows is inevitable. Together, the threesome must find a way to stop the ultimate enemy - the T-1000, the most lethal Terminator ever created. Co-written, produced and directed by James Cameron ("The Terminator," "Aliens," "Titanic), this visual tour de force is also a touching story of survival.

Customer Reviews:

Ultimate and Extreme DVD's the way to go.......2007-06-28

This is the second movie from James Cameron that I consider to be among the best science fiction films ever. Sequels rarely stack up to their predecessor, but this film actually outdoes the original Terminator, which is saying a lot considering how good the original was. Terminator 2 has everything you need to make an excellent sci-fi including a fantastic premise, very strong well-rounded character development, groundbreaking special effects, and the kind of story that would make Rod Serling proud. If there is ever a sci-fi movie that gives you all the best the genre has to give this is it.

One of the big deals about this movie is that it's the one that introduces to the world CG animation that actually seems to interact with a live environment as well as the morphing technique unique to computer animation. While Terminator 2 wasn't the first to do it (The Abyss gets the credit for all that... another Jim Cameron film) they do get the credit for popularizing it. Practically everybody uses computer animations with live action in one form or another today. Even over a decade later the CG effects still measure up and even outdo stuff that's still being created today.

On top of the new CG stuff you get plenty of other tried and true special effects that will knock your socks off. The action in this movie is relentless at times and will be sure impress any testosterone junkie out there. There is a lot of exciting gunplay in this movie that includes some killer military hardware too like the awesome 1500 rounds per minute minigun action reminiscent of Predator. Eye candy for those with a short attention span? Check.

If Terminator 2 only had a neato special effects and action it wouldn't be as great as it is. Everything else must work as well. The story in Terminator 2 is deep with the main characters evolving as events happen around them. Even the Terminator robot gets to get some character development. While it's cool to see the action and explosions and stuff what makes the movie really fill out is the fact it delves into several different levels of the human condition. You also get a ton of background details too like who was involved with building Skynet and even a scene with the futuristic battle that John Conner grows up to lead. The theoretical twists in the plot are enough to get the thinkers debating over time paradoxes and stuff like that. Deep and involving storyline for those who prefer quality over pizzazz? Check.

The Terminator robots are as awesome as ever. Not only do you get to see the classic style cyborg bad boy like in the last movie but you also get to see a completely different concept in killer robot technology with the T-1000. The future scene has even more robot coolness to offer, though it's just a little more than what I saw in the last movie (but still sweet!).

The acting is superb as well, which is surprising considering Edward Furlong has absolutely no previous experience in acting. Schwarzenegger and Linda Hamilton play off each other well. Robert Patrick gives a stunning and eerie performance as the T-1000. The soundtrack takes the original Terminator themes and puts them to new heights. The music truly enhances the movie here.

If the original movie wasn't enough Cameron decided to make an extended cut with almost 20 minutes of new footage. I wouldn't necessarily say the new footage opens up brand new territory for the movie, but I will say the extra scenes do add some extra depth to some of the scenes. A couple of the new scenes flesh out young John Conner's character a little, which is always a good thing. I wouldn't say any incredibly cool scenes were added though there is one with the Terminator that is kinda cool, but the good stuff in that scene has more to do with fleshing out some character development with the humans than cool cyborg tricks. Speaking of cyborg tricks you get the added bonus of seeing a Terminator try to smile. Funny, funny stuff! While I can't say the extended edition is better than the original I will say it does give you more background on the story, and thats always good if you're into that.

With the exception to blu-ray fans there are only two DVD editions you should consider (the rest don't have any special features). The Ultimate Edition and the Extreme Edition. Essentially what you have is a trade off between the two. Neither edition have the same special features. The Extreme edition improved the picture quality slightly while the Ultimate edition has DTS. Here is a breakdown:

Ultimate Edition: You get three versions of the movie. The theatrical release, the director's cut and an extended director's cut via an easter egg (EDC basically includes the deleted scenes). You get three in depth documentaries including one on the Universal Studios 3-D ride. Commentaries from the crew (no James Cameron). Also included are several smaller featurettes covering all aspects of production, tons of storyboards, a 30 page hard cover booklet insert and the screenplay. Not to mention THX certified test signal package for fine tuning your audio set up, Dolby 5.1, Dolby 2.0 and DTS 5.1 for all the audio freaks out there.

Extreme Edition: Two versions of the movie with the director's cut being on the disk and the theatrical trailer as a DVDRom movie (via Windows Media Player... although you can see the theatrical version on the DVD via an easter egg). An audio commentary from director James Cameron and screenwriter William Wisher, very comprehensive text commentaries with over 90 minutes of branching video footage, a 24 minute documentary and a 12 page hard copy booklet insert.

If you have no version of T2 on DVD I would recommend the Ultimate Edition since it has the most features. Although the Extreme Edition is still worthy for its James Cameron commentary track and the excellent text commentary. Since the extras are completely different between the two this might not be a bad double dip if you get them at the current low prices. The blu-ray version has only the theatrical version (no director's cut), but includes the commentaries from BOTH the Ultimate and Extreme editions. I say wait for a better high definition release.

If you haven't seen this movie I strongly recommend it. VERY strongly. You action fans will get plenty of mayhem for your pleasure. You content fans will get rich and full storylines with character drama. You sci-fi purists will get the kind of story you would expect to be reading from someone like Phillip K. Dick. This is required viewing for any sci-fi fan. Nuff said.

HD version without DD5.1.......2007-06-19

I bought the DVD in order to watch the Hi-Def version. I already have the older version of the movie, and I've seen it many times over the years. I have an HP laptop running Windows Vista, hooked up to my 50" Panasonic HDTV (1280x720), with the VGA connection. I loaded the disk, and it prompted me to install the InterActual player. Vista warned me that the program has issues with the new operating system. I went ahead, and installed it anyway, then immediately downloaded the newest version from the Internet. It then told me that I needed a DVD decoder that I could buy on their web page. I ignored that message, and went on to play the HD version of the movie. It played OK, after some initial stuttering during the first few screens.

The picture quality was very good, but the audio was not Dolby Digital 5.1, meaning that there is no surround sound. I followed up on the InterActual web page, and they confirmed this. Apparently, Microsoft used some other audio encoding. So, even though the picture quality is better, I chose to watch the lower definition, extended edition in order to get the DD5.1 sound. I find the sound quality is at least as important as the video quality.

The standard definition image is still very good. The nVidia chip set in my laptop does a nice job of upscaling. The 5.1 sound is spectacular as ever. The added minutes in the extended edition don't really add much, but the novelty effect is nice anyway. All in all, I'd say that it is worth the price at under $10.00.

Owes just as much to "Aliens" as it does its predecessor.......2007-06-17

It's no surprise that the editors of "Entertainment Weekly" would choose both "Terminator 2: Judgment Day" and "Aliens" as two of its 25 Best Action Films of all time. Both are sequels that significantly up the special effects ante, along with the body count, and both feature two of the movies most dynamic kick-[...] heroines, Sarah Conner (Linda Hamilton" in the former and Ellen Ripley (Sigourney Weaver) in the latter.

Besides doubling the action of the first, "Terminator 2: Judgment Day" also doubles the cyborg quotient by returning Arnold Schwarzenegger in the role that he was born to play (this time as a "good" cyborg) and bringing in a more than equal combatant/foe in the from of the Robert Patrick as an "upgraded" model. The movie adds an element of surprise in the form of the much smaller (and less developed) Patrick as a superior model to Arnold's character, able to best the strongman in many a scene.

The movie also brings back Earl Boen in an expanded role as the befuddled "Dr. Silberman." He brings needed comic relief in a film that is short on words but long on action sequences.

James Cameron may have felt on "top of the world" a decade later with his Oscar-winning "Titanic" but it is for the first two "Terminator" films that he probably made his greatest cinematic impact.

High Def does not work in Vista.......2007-06-08

The movie is great, great package with lots of good features. However the WMP video could not be played at all. Some may experience this and some may not. You will to install the Interactual player to view the WMHD version.

Let's Shed Some Light.......2007-05-27

i love this film being a big film buff and all but also i've noticed that the price is fantastic and is even more cheaper in certain stores, anyway when i bought the dvd and popped it in the dvd player i was amazed with the picture pure high def 1080p i mean i baught this movie for 5.50 and it's in high definition, the blu-ray version is like 20 or 25 bucks so i'm wonderin why make a whole nother disc-format and just make standard dvd's in high def i mean perhaps u can't fit any special features but why not just make them double sided dvd's and put the special features on the other side instead of movie companies using 2 discs and waste money. i believe this will prevail and end the war against blu-ray vs. hd-dvd and just keep blank blu-ray discs for information purposes. I mean i love blu-ray and i want one so bad but u gotta pay up the nose just to get one, at least players are becoming more and more affordable but i dont want to have to convert all my 700 dvds to high def formats. it's interesting how Artisan backed this movie and now it doesnt exist anymore as soon as the high def battle started, Lionsgate is now mastering all thier old movies and they back up blu-ray 100%, it just makes you think what coinsidences emerged with all this, terminator 2 on standard dvd is in high def (for us in the US anyway) it cost me 5.50 its just a big mystery to me...

Average customer rating:

WOW
So funny!
Always a great movie!
Good, could have been great
An underrated Disney film

Mulan (Special Edition)
Starring: Miguel Ferrer , Harvey Fierstein , Freda Foh Shen , June Foray , and James Hong
Director: Barry Cook , and Tony Bancroft
Manufacturer: Walt Disney Home Entertainment
ProductGroup: DVD
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Aladdin (Disney Special Platinum Edition)
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The Little Mermaid (2-Disc Platinum Edition)
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Mulan II

ASIN: B00024I2Z4
Release Date: 2004-10-26

Amazon.com

Solid entertainment from a new group of Disney animators. The story source is a Chinese fable about a young girl who disguises herself as a man to help her family and her country. When the Huns attack China, a call to arms goes out to every village, and Mulan's father, being the only man in the family, accepts the call. Mulan (voiced by Ming-Na Wen, sung by Lea Salonga) has just made a disastrous appearance at the Matchmaker and decides to challenge society's expectations (being a bride). She steals her father's conscription notice, cuts her hair, and impersonates a man to join the army. She goes to boot camp, learning to fit in with the other soldiers with some help from her sidekick, Mushu, a wise-cracking dragon (voiced by Eddie Murphy). She trains, and soon faces the Huns eye-to-eye to protect her Emperor.

The film is gorgeous to look at, with a superior blend of classic and computer-generated animation. Directors Tony Bancroft and Barry Cook make the best of it: a battle in the snowy mountains is as thrilling as the best Hollywood action films. The menacing Huns are not cute but simple and bad. The wickedness is subtle, not disturbing. The film is not a full-fledged musical, as it has only five songs (the best, "Be a Man," is sung during boot camp). Eddie Murphy is an inspired choice for the comic-relief dragon, but his lines are not as clever as Robin Williams's in Aladdin. These are minor quibbles, though. The story is strong, and Mulan goes right to the top of Disney animated heroines; she has the right stuff. --Doug Thomas

Description

1. "An impressive achievement ranking with BEAUTY AND THE BEAST and THE LION KING!" -- Roger Ebert 2. Deleted Scenes -- Never-Before-Heard Song; Alternate Openings 3. Songs of MULAN 4. Music Videos Featuring Jackie Chan, Raven, And Christina Aguilera 5. "Discovering MULAN" -- Embark On A Behind-The-Scenes Adventure With The Filmmakers 6. Early Presentation Reels 7. Progression Reels 8. DisneyPedia: "Mulan's World" -- Explore The Fascinating World Of Ancient China With Your Host, Mushu 9. MULAN Fun Facts 10. Audio Commentary 11. Storyboard-To-Film Comparisons

Customer Reviews:

WOW.......2007-06-27

This is probabily the second best film in the world-next to Pocahontas that is. The songs are all really catchy and the animation is spectacular.

So funny! .......2007-05-23

This is probably one of my favorite Disney movies. (This and Emperor's New Groove). I love when Disney has a sense of humor and you can clearly see it in this one.

Always a great movie!.......2007-05-13

I loved this movie when I was a kid. Even now, when I watch it again, it still is just as great. Perfect for the entire family!

Good, could have been great.......2007-03-19

Being Chinese, I really wanted to love this movie, but it lacks a few key story elements that set "Masterpiece" animated features such as 'Beauty and the Beast' and 'Aladdin' apart from the rest. The animation and sound are fine as they should be and the mountain pass scenes are really cool, especially the part where the huge Mongol hoard comes charging down towards the protagonists in an endless wave of cavalry. The main musical theme "Reflections" is also well written and expresses Mulan's feelings and desires with emotion.

My issues with the movie:

1) The bad guy is certainly bad. He looks bad and he acts bad. However, there isn't really any clear logic or motivation to why he is doing what he's doing. In Beauty and the Beast, Gaston is driven by his egomaniacal desire to have Belle, the one woman in the village who shows no interest in him at all. In Mulan, the bad guy rapes and pillages China because... well... just because. There doesn't appear to be any goal or motivation for him. He destroys simply because he can, which is certainly possible, but makes for a rather flat character. Gaston, Jafar, and Ursula are much more interesting villains.

2) Mulan's romantic partner is kind of a "himbo". He's a pretty boy who doesn't really do much and isn't all that bright. It's not clear to me why Mulan would really want to get together with him other than the fact that he's a good looking dude. Besides that, he doesn't add much to the story. Which leads to my next issue:

3) In the other great Disney features, the lead and their romantic interest share in the resolution of their conflicts and defeat the villian as part of the resolution of the conflict in their romance. In Aladdin, Jasmine and Aladdin battle Jafar together as part of the resolution of the problem where Aladdin lied about being a poor street kid because Jasmine is the Sultan's daughter. Ariel and Eric battle Ursula as part of the romantic conflict brought on by the fact that he is human and she is a mermaid. Eric sees that Ariel is a mermaid in the end and doesn't care. He still risks his life fighting Ursula together with Ariel. In Mulan, it's pretty much just her and the romantic part of the story is an afterthought and they never really get into the issue of resolving that she is "doing a man's job" and shouldn't be in the Chinese army as part of their romantic conflict. It just gets OK'd in the end because she saves the emperor. They don't resolve it between themselves as individuals. Actually, up until the end he still does not accept her until the emperor accepts her. Not very romantic.

4) Finally, the supporting characters don't add much to the story either. The dragon and cricket add a little comedy here and there, but not much else. Some of the soldiers in Mulan's unit had potential, but don't really fully get there.

So, overall I liked the movie, but I didn't love it. This could have been one of their classics if they spent a bit more time developing the story and characters. It looks great, but needed some more under the hood of the story.

An underrated Disney film.......2007-02-21

Released after Pocahontas, when the Disney animated renaissance was coming to a close, this movie did not get much attention; this is unfortunate. While some of the comic relief is pained, Mulan herself is so lovingly rendered that she compensates for the groans.

Mulan, the character, is animated by Mark Henn, one of the main animators behind the beautiful and timeless Disney heroines of the 90s. Like Jasmine, Mulan's movements are feminine, lively, and nuanced, and show how much love he put into his work. Her facial expressions are subtle but clear, showing both her intelligence and her girlish immaturity. It is obvious why he was assigned to the animation of women over and over again; he is a master and considering how popular his Princesses are, I don't understand why he gets less love than Glen Keane.

Equal to Henn's animation is Ming-Na's voice acting. Her voice acting in Final Fantasy is too good; it only shows off the mediocrity of that animation. Here, though, she brings sympathy and depth to the character. Mulan to me is the perfect heroine. Her goal was not true love, she would take it, yes, but her heart seeks respect and honor first.

The plot is almost cloying but stops short at tender. Songs like A Girl Worth Fighting For are forgettable at best, but both Reflection and I'll Make a Man Out of You, the song where Mulan climbs the pole and proves herself, are classics. While sometimes irritating, Eddie Murphy's Mushu gets a few belly laughs. Still, it is the character of Mulan that makes this movie a favorite.

Double Indemnity (Universal Legacy Series)

Average customer rating:

Double Indemnity
Classic film noir from the great Billy Wilder
It doesn't get any better than this blistering jewel
a great example of the early days of film noir.......
Lust and Greed Lead to Murder

Double Indemnity (Universal Legacy Series)
Starring: Fred MacMurray , Barbara Stanwyck , Edward G. Robinson , Porter Hall , and Jean Heather
Director: Billy Wilder , and Jack Smight
Manufacturer: Universal Studios
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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The Maltese Falcon (Three-Disc Collector's Edition)
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The Conformist (Extended Edition)
Laura (Fox Film Noir)

ASIN: B00005JNG5
Release Date: 2006-08-22

Amazon.com essential video

Director Billy Wilder (Sunset Boulevard) and writer Raymond Chandler (The Big Sleep) adapted James M. Cain's hard-boiled novel into this wildly thrilling story of insurance man Walter Neff (Fred MacMurray), who schemes the perfect murder with the beautiful dame Phyllis Dietrichson (Barbara Stanwyck): kill Dietrichson's husband and make off with the insurance money. But, of course, in these plots things never quite go as planned, and Barton Keyes (Edward G. Robinson) is the wily insurance investigator who must sort things out. From the opening scene you know Neff is doomed, as the story is told in flashback; yet, to the film's credit, this doesn't diminish any of the tension of the movie. This early film noir flick is wonderfully campy by today's standards, and the dialogue is snappy ("I thought you were smarter than the rest, Walter. But I was wrong. You're not smarter, just a little taller"), filled with lots of "dame"s and "baby"s. Stanwyck is the ultimate femme fatale, and MacMurray, despite a career largely defined by roles as a softy (notably in the TV series My Three Sons and the movie The Shaggy Dog), is convincingly cast against type as the hapless, love-struck sap. --Jenny Brown

Customer Reviews:

Double Indemnity.......2007-06-21

One of the quintessential noir films, Billy Wilder's "Double Indemnity" is a masterpiece of stark atmosphere and carefully stylized suspense. The talented Barbara Stanwyck, a familiar face in the 1940s noir universe, assumes her role with feline deviousness, while "My Three Sons" TV dad Fred MacMurray--narrating the film via flashback--brilliantly plays against type. Raymond Chandler's screenplay sizzles with hard-boiled repartee and the great Edward G. Robinson is aces as always as the dogged investigator hot on the lovers' trail. Sinister, tense, and cynical, Wilder's "Indemnity" is riveting film suspense.

Classic film noir from the great Billy Wilder.......2007-06-10

"Double Indemnity" is one of the first films of the genre that would come to be known as "Film Noir".

The plot is classic film noir - a smug, womanising insurance salesman Walter Neff (played by Fred MacMurray) gets in over his head with a conniving femme fatale Phyllis Diedrichson (Barbara Stanwyck) who wants rid of her boorish husband. Neff must also be wary of a suspicious claims manager at his insurance company Barton Keyes (Edward G. Robinson).

Naturally the story has some dated elements (it was made in 1943) but it still holds up pretty well as entertainment for a modern audience.

MacMurray is excellent in his role as a heel making a change from his usual nice guy roles. He helps make the character sympathetic whereas Stanwycks role has few redeeming features - she really is "rotten". Her turnabout at the end is also somewhat unconvincing. The great Edward G. Robinson steals every scene he's in as the tenacious investigator who has a soft spot for Neff.

The DVD includes a good commentary by Lem Dobbs and Nick Redman with useful insights on the film but it also continually laments the decline of Hollywood, which I think is a trifle unfair.

Like most Billy Wilder films "Double Indemnity" doesn't really have a message - it just provides great entertainment aimed at adults. It also marks a growing shift in the 1940s towards more maturity in Hollywood film-making.

It doesn't get any better than this blistering jewel.......2007-05-30

What else remains to be said about one of the true classics of noir? Fred Macmurry is just right as the sap who thinks he's a lot smarter & sharper than he really is; Edward G. Robinson shines as a dedicated & inexorable seeker of the truth, even as his concern & disappointment for his fallen friend shows clearly; and Barbara Stanwyck scalds the screen as the trashy, blatantly sexy femme fatale with the morals of an alley cat & an icy ruthlessness that stops at nothing -- just look at that cover art! Wrap these characters in moody, bleakly beautiful black & white cinematography, give them a witty, scathing script by Raymond Chandler, and you've got a sordid masterpiece about small-timers whose greedy, self-centered dreams are much larger than their shriveled souls. I can't recommend this film highly enough!

a great example of the early days of film noir..............2007-05-20

DOUBLE INDEMNITY, a 1944 film by Billy Wilder, is one of the most definitive and beautiful examples of early film noir (literally, "black film") at its best. For those of you unfamiliar with the genre of film noir, this was a type of film made popular in the 1940s and 1950s, features very dark cinematography (plenty of shadows intermixed with light), as well as equally dark subject matter. Common themes are murders, affairs and grizzly illegal activity. DOUBLE INDEMNITY is a great example of this style at its best.

Fred MacMurray plays wily insurance man Walter Neff, who finds himself drawn to a beautiful, married woman, Phyllis Dietrichsen, played by the lovely Barbara Stanwyck. Together, they cook a plot to murder her husband, so Walter can make off with the policy money. Of course, things don't go quite according to plan. Enter Barton Keyes (Edward G. Robinson), an investigator who gets wind that "something is rotting in Denmark." Keyes knows that there is something decidedly un-kosher about the whole arrangement between Neff and Dietrichsen, and he is determined to find out where that feeling is coming from.

This film is beautifully acted, directed with great zest, and very, very engaging. Even though some of the dialogue is (delightfully) dated, you are still going to have a great time watching DOUBLE INDEMNITY. There is no question that this is an example of filmmaking, at its best.

Lust and Greed Lead to Murder.......2007-05-15

Late at night a man enters an office building. Mr. Walter Neff is working overtime. Dozens of desks for the clerical workers are void of life. In his office he begins to speak into his Dictaphone about the Diedrickson claim. It all started when Neff went to see about an auto insurance renewal. Mr. Diedrickson wasn't home, but his wife Phyllis was. [The dialogue between them shows Raymond Chandler's skills.] Claims manager Mr. Barton Keyes is skilled in sniffing out false claims. Neff returns to Diedrickson for the auto insurance renewal. Phyllis asks about an accident policy for her husband. Could she get one without her husband's knowledge? Neff explains why she could never get away with it. But Phyllis visits Neff to better explain her wants, and there is a meeting of their minds. [Use your imagination.] Phyllis doesn't like her stepdaughter Lola, and Lola doesn't like her stepmother (there is a reason for this).

Neff explains how insurance companies know all the tricks used to make a murder look like an accident. But Neff impulsively decides to help Phyllis remove an inconvenient husband. [Is this plausible? Like the rain in Los Angeles.] Mr. Diedrickson is concerned about Lola's activities. Neff explains to Phyllis why Mr. Diedrickson must travel by train. Lola also has problems with her boyfriend. Neff plans their surreptitious meeting where they can plot the crime. The film show how they could then check if a doorbell of telephone rang. The murder is cold-blooded and horrible, but off scene. [Did they leave fingerprints on those crutches?]

The actuarial tables are cited to show the encyclopedic knowledge of insurance companies. But Keyes has noticed a discrepancy in this case, and begins to question the apparent facts. Then there is another glitch, something that wasn't foreseen. Daughter Lola meets Neff and tells him some old facts, and some new ones! Keyes surmises how this accident was concocted. There is now great danger for Phyllis and Neff. More surprising complications arise in this story until the shocking ending. [Could a person who murders another be implicitly suicidal?]

One important part of this story is the background of life in 1944 Los Angeles. How much was changed in just twenty years! [There was no mention of war-time rationing or shortages in that grocery supermarket.]

Average customer rating:

outstanding!
Magnificent
Pure Smut
Wonderful movie
Marvelous

Angels in America
Starring: Al Pacino , Meryl Streep , Emma Thompson , Mary-Louise Parker , and Justin Kirk
Director: Mike Nichols
Manufacturer: Hbo Home Video
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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Similar Items:

Latter Days (Unrated Edition)
Brokeback Mountain (Widescreen Edition)
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The Laramie Project
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ASIN: B0001I2BUI
Release Date: 2004-09-14

Amazon.com

Tony Kushner's prize-winning play Angels in America became the defining theatrical event of the 1990s, an astonishing mix of philosophy, politics, and vibrant gay soap opera that summed up the Reagan era for an entire generation of theater-goers. Post-9/11 would seem to be too late for a film version--philosophy and politics don't always age well--but this 2003 HBO adaptation, ably directed by Mike Nichols (The Graduate), provides a time capsule of the '80s and reveals the deep emotional subcurrents that will give the play lasting power.

The story centers around Prior Walter (Justin Kirk) and Louis Ironson (Ben Shenkman), a gay couple that falls apart when Prior grows ill as a result of AIDS. But cancer is not the only thing invading Prior's life: He begins to have religious visions of an angel (Emma Thompson, Sense and Sensibility) announcing that he is a prophet. Louis, who doesn't cope well with disease and suggestions of mortality, leaves and starts a relationship with Joe Pitt (Patrick Wilson), a closeted Mormon who works for Roy Cohn (Al Pacino, Dog Day Afternoon)--the real-life right-wing lawyer, notorious for his ruthless behind-the-scenes machinations. Add in Joe's depressed and hallucinating wife Harper (Mary Louise Parker, Fried Green Tomatoes), his determined but open-minded mother Hannah (Meryl Streep, Adaptation), a fierce drag queen/nurse named Belize (Jeffrey Wright, Basquiat, reprising his celebrated performance from the Broadway production), and you've still only begun to discover the wealth of characters and storylines in Kushner's ambitious work.

The powerhouse cast (also featuring James Cromwell, Michael Gambon, and Simon Callow) is uniformly superb. The script has its weaknesses--some of the fantastic elements, including Prior's journey to Heaven towards the end, fall flat--but even what doesn't work is bristling with ideas and a ferocious desire to capture human existence in this time and place. --Bret Fetzer

Description

Academy Award-winners Al Pacino, Meryl Streep and Emma Thompson lead an all-star cast in a 6-hour HBO Films Event. Directed by Mike Nichols and written by Tony Kushner based on his Pulitzer Prize-winning play: Angels in America.

Customer Reviews:

outstanding!.......2007-03-25

If I could rate it 10 stars I would. Heart-Wrenching, Funny, Appalling, Spiritual, Sexual, Powerful. Evoking Anger, Laughter, Sadness, Joy, Hope, Love for fellow human beings who have been discarded and ignored instead of included and cherished. Amazing Film Adaptation.

Magnificent.......2007-03-03

I have seen many hundreds of movies, and this is only the third that I rate 5 stars. The acting was beyond superb, the screenplay and story line truly outstanding. I saw the play many years ago and totally enjoyed it. The DVD was even better.
While reading the reviews, it becomes obvious folks get different things out of the movie depending on their frame of reference. As a straight man working in San Francisco during the 80s and 90s, I watched the devastation this disease wreaked on friends, colleagues and strangers while the world ignored the issue. This movie gave me an insight into some of the emotional and spiritual struggles of the human beings affected by AIDS. I also loved how the lives of the characters intertwined in unique and sometimes outlandish ways. For me, a truly satisfying film. Most of the reviews express my thoughts better than I. A must see, but schedule 3 hours for each of the 2 DVDs.

Pure Smut.......2007-02-21

I don't recommend this movie. Not sure why the title has the world "angels" in it. Didn't watch the entire movie as it was very depressing and profane. There is a lot of language in it and there is a scene showing two men humping- absolutely nasty.

Wonderful movie.......2007-01-04

This is a long movie but well worth the time. It's thought provoking, insight and even humorous in parts. Money well spent.

Marvelous.......2006-12-19

Profoundly moving. Evangelicals, please read the description. Don't buy it just because of the name and cover. It might not be about what you think it is. Nevertheless, if you've found yourself with it and have around six hours on hand, it's definitely worth a viewing or two. Part 1: Millenium approaches might drag a little bit, but Part 2: Perestroika, is some of the best theatre that I have ever seen or read. It's well worth your time. The writing is excellent, the acting is wonderful. It's a piece of art that definitely stays with you long after you've viewed it. Additionally, for people who truly love the miniseries, I also strongly recommend you read the play itself. There are a few changes in the adaptation, and it's worth your time from a critical perspective so how things are different. Both the DVD and the written play are wonderful on individual merit. Highly recommended!

Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory (Widescreen Special Edition)

Average customer rating:

Wilder makes this movie worth it.
This is a great movie that your entire family will surely enjoy time and time again.
One of my favorite movies of all time!
Excellent Movie!
Best Movie Ever!

Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory (Widescreen Special Edition)
Starring: Gene Wilder , Jack Albertson , Peter Ostrum , Roy Kinnear , and Julie Dawn Cole
Director: Mel Stuart , and J.M. Kenny
Manufacturer: Warner Home Video
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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Similar Items:

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ASIN: B0009FGWLW
Release Date: 2005-06-21

Amazon.com essential video

Having proven itself as a favorite film of children around the world, Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory is every bit as entertaining now as it was when originally released in 1971. There's a timeless appeal to Roald Dahl's classic children's novel, which was playfully preserved in this charming musical, from the colorful carnival-like splendor of its production design to the infectious melody of the "Oompah-Loompah" songs that punctuate the story. Who can forget those diminutive Oompah-Loompah workers who recite rhyming parental warnings ("Oompah-Loompah, doopity do...") whenever some mischievous child has disobeyed Willy Wonka's orders to remain orderly? Oh, but we're getting ahead of ourselves ... it's really the story of the impoverished Charlie Bucket, who, along with four other kids and their parental guests, wins a coveted golden ticket to enter the fantastic realm of Wonka's mysterious confectionery. After the other kids have proven themselves to be irresponsible brats, it's Charlie who impresses Wonka and wins a reward beyond his wildest dreams. But before that, the tour of Wonka's factory provides a dazzling parade of delights, and with Gene Wilder giving a brilliant performance as the eccentric candyman, Wonka gains an edge of menace and madness that nicely counterbalances the movie's sentimental sweetness. It's that willingness to risk a darker tone--to show that even a wonderland like Wonka's can be a weird and dangerous place if you're a bad kid--that makes this an enduring family classic. --Jeff Shannon

Description

A poor little boy wins a ticket to visit the inside of a mysterious and magical chocolate factory. When he experiences the wonders inside the factory, the boy discovers that the entire visit is a test of his character.

Customer Reviews:

Wilder makes this movie worth it........2007-06-27

Don't let the star rating fool you. Despite this movie having an absurd plot, largely unlikable characters, particularly Charlie's family, and repetitive singing from the loompas, this is a fantastic movie. But wilder and the boy who plays charlie are the ones who really makes this movie a classic. ill leave the explanation of whats in this movie to the editors and other reviewers.

the reason for the 1 star deduction is because of the transfer quality. some scenes are quite bad. such as the sketchiness of when charlie runs home after finding the golden ticket. since its been ages since i've last seen this movie i have no idea if anything was removed.

Overall, this is a good buy. They're are interviews with cast and directors included on this too which makes even more valuable.

This is a great movie that your entire family will surely enjoy time and time again........2007-06-20

Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory is an awesome movie. I used to watch this over and over again as a child. My favorite character is Veruca Salt (Julie Dawn Cole) because she was so mean and spoiled. I loved how Veruca always seemed to get her way, it was so funny. This is a great movie that your entire family will surely enjoy time and time again.

One of my favorite movies of all time!.......2007-06-05

I don't know what it is, but when you see the opening scene of Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory, you will instantly be hooked.

So what's to like about this movie? Pretty much everything! If you're a kid, you'll love the candy scenes (yum!) and the weird and funny "tour" scenes. If you're an adult, you'll appreciate the "moral of the story" and the little inside jokes here and there.

And what's NOT to like about this movie? Not much. I find myself fast forwarding through the "Cheer up Charlie" song simply because it seems to last forever but that's not enough reason to lower my rating. Also, if you're a parent and are picky about what your kids watch, the end of the movie (where the poor kid gets everything he wants) may or may not be a not so good lesson to teach to your kids.

My verdict: 5/5 stars. I can't see why anyone would NOT like this movie. I can watch it three times a week and still be enthralled each time. This is a must have movie in every household's movie collection!

Excellent Movie!.......2007-05-09

This is a movie for the generations. My two year old niece is as fascinated as I was when I first saw the movie. She and I sing along everytime we watch the movie together. I love this movie for its strong moral content, as well as the world of fantasy it evokes. No big budget movie today can touch it. Get it for a child, and get one for yourself.

Best Movie Ever!.......2007-04-21

I have loved this movie ever since I can remember watching movies. I was just so fascinated with everything in it. I watch it all the time. If you've never watched it, make sure you do. It will always be at the top of my list.

Average customer rating:

An Excellent Romantic Comedy
ABSOLUTELY WONDERFUL GRANT MOVIE
A Fair Romantic Comedy
Houseboat - Cary Grant
Loren and Grant

Houseboat (Ws Sub)
Starring: Cary Grant , Sophia Loren , Martha Hyer , Harry Guardino , and Eduardo Ciannelli
Director: Melville Shavelson
Manufacturer: Paramount
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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