Cool and the Crazy

Starring:Jennifer Blanc, Matthew Flint, Jared Leto, Alicia Silverstone, Bradford Tatum, Christine Harnos, Tuesday Knight, Christian Frizzell, John Hawkes, John Kapelos, Marianne Bergonzi, Michael Lowry, Richard Singer, Joseph G. Medalis, Catherine Nagan, Rodrigo ObregÃ³n, Lisa Cash, Marc Wint, Steven Cavarno, Andrew Cavarno
Director: Ralph Bakshi
Studio: Dimension
Product Type: DVD

Average customer rating:

Cool and the Crappy
Losers, and the women who love them

Cool and the Crazy
Starring: Jennifer Blanc , Matthew Flint , Jared Leto , Alicia Silverstone , and Bradford Tatum
Director: Ralph Bakshi
Manufacturer: Dimension
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

General | Comedy | Genres | DVD | Video

General | Drama | Genres | DVD | Video

Suspense | Mystery & Suspense | Genres | DVD | Video

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Prefontaine

ASIN: B00009OOFH
Release Date: 2003-08-05

Customer Reviews:

Cool and the Crappy.......2006-10-24

So I read the review for this movie and it sounded like it was going to be an entertaining B rated moive. I'm a huge Jared Leto fan and love pretty much every movie Alicia Silverstone has been in so I had high hopes. Well I put it on last night since I just received it from Amazon on Monday and boy was I ever disappointed. The review above mine gives a good depiction of the storyline but this movie was terrible. I found myself watching it to see if there was a chance of it getting better... it didn't. The highlight of this movie was getting to see Jared shirtless. It was long and drawn out with too many stupid, back and forth type scenes which left me begging for the movie to just end. The acting wasn't great and although the storyline sounded good, wasn't successfuly executed. If anyone is interested in this movie to see Jared in his younger, acting days I'd suggest checking out something other than this.

Losers, and the women who love them.......2006-07-24

This is a story about the "traditional" paradigm of a young woman whose life has gone astray. Alicia Silverstone plays an All American beauty, girl-next-door type - the prom queen type who was popular in high school. She marries young, has a child and immediately finds herself.....bored. Her husband is a good man, but works long hours to support his family. What's a girl to do?

The story takes place apparently in the late 1950s. This is appropriate for a couple of reasons. First of all, at this time it was still normal for the man to be the breadwinner and the woman to be a housewife. This concept is almost un-heard of today in dual-income families.

Second, this was the hey-day of the "bad boy" types. The fellows who are 10 time losers but believe themselves to be cool. The bullies who think they're tough by having 5 of their friends beat someone up. As you've probably guessed by now, our prom queen has too much time on her hands and gets seduced by a punk.

The timing is also consistent as the late 1950s were on the eve of the sexual revolution and the idea of "free love" that came into its own in the 60s. Some allusions to this are made as well.

While the plot of this movie may sound like a Romantic comedy, it is not. It's a drama. It's about a turbulent time in the social fabric of American history, when women ceased being "satisfied" as stay-at-home mothers, and economic conditions forced them not to be such.

Average customer rating:

Lusty song in a land of ice
Luke Warm & Relaxed
Moving and uplifting
Another great film
(aka Heftig og Begeisteret)

Cool & Crazy
Starring: Odd Marino Frantzen , Einar F.L. Strand , Arne Wensel , Kare Wensel , and Arne Blomso
Director: Knut Erik Jensen
Manufacturer: First Run Features
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

General | Musicals & Performing Arts | Genres | DVD | Video

Biography | Documentary | Genres | DVD | Video

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ASIN: B000060MU7
Release Date: 2002-04-23

Customer Reviews:

Lusty song in a land of ice.......2007-05-29

My wife hated this film, but I loved it. Not sure why exactly, as it has lots going against it.

The film focuses on a few of the 30-odd members of the Berlevag Men's Choir. They live in a small arctic fishing village on the northern tip of the Norwegian coast, and seem to have no lives to speak of other than their involvement in the choir. A couple of the older gents (the 96-year-old kind of old) have wives, but the rest seem to live in mateless isolation. The film alternates between handheld monologues (in which the men talk about themselves) and set pieces in which the choir -- dressed in bowties, parkas or natty sailing caps -- sing of the natural glories of Scandinavia whilst perched comically upon enormous gasoline tanks, along the winter-whipped Atlantic, or enshrouded in beard-encasing blizzards. The men are quite ordinary -- a fisherman who giggles as he pulls his catch from the sea; a former druggie; a self-styled communist who weeps when pondering wartime Russian sacrifice; an irreverent, foul-mouthed (and fumble-fingered) church organist. On their way to a concert, all (except for the communist) stare aghast at the environmental devastation of the Murmansk industrial area. Dwellers in a land with a harsh beauty, they are clearly in love with it and inured to its limitations, both social and scenic.

I found these men fascinating and their music beautiful. Unintended ironies abound. The men sing of the beauty of pine bough and flower blosssom in a place that is stark and unforgiving much of the year. They sing of church in a land where religion seems to have no hold on anyone. The most beautiful thing they have is their spare Nordic furnishings and their camaraderie. Somehow, though, of all of this coalesces into a film that held my attention and made me love this group of very real, very special men.

Luke Warm & Relaxed.......2006-04-03

I have read several reviews that ask the question, "Why was this film made"? I myself found that question looming in my mind as the hour and twenty minute feature seemed to drag near the middle, only to give off the sensation that it was picking up steam at the end, when in actuality it was doing nothing of the sort. So, "Why was this film made"? I think that is a great question for those watching Heftig og begeistret to ask themselves. This reviewer is proud of director Knut Erik Jensen for giving us this powerful image of hope, brotherhood, and inspiration with this all male choir, but I do not think that Jensen did enough to bring a gripping story to the table. Let me pose this question to you, "Do audience members need more in a documentary than just a straight forward story to maintain interest"? My answer is yes, and this is where Jensen failed. Heftig og begeistret was a good documentary, but it was far from great. Jensen did a horrible job with the story and dedication of the subjects. It was great to hear the songs, but over time, those songs seemed dull, overwhelming, and a bit precocious. From the opening scene where our men are singing their hearts out in a blinding snow, I knew that I was hooked, but as the film developed I lost interest. Why? Jensen never took us, the audience members, to the next level. He kept the playing field level and ultimately hurt the overall tone of the film. Was this a movie about the music or about the men in the choir? The world may never know.

Again, I would like to state that Jensen did a phenomenal job of finding an interesting story about this group of men who have definitely seen hard times and how they coped with that through music, but it was as if the all male choir were a bunch of the most boring men ever created. Jensen gave us the music superbly, but it was the characters, the subjects, that I knew nothing about by the end of the film. In the mix we had a 97 year old man who still had his driver's license, we had a large man in a tub singing classic American songs, we had old men who were once heartthrobs in their youth, we had some tension between the youth of the choir and the veteran singers, and we even had an ex-drug addict that had only been clean for eleven years. Did Jensen develop these interesting stories at all? Nope, he left them on the table. It was obvious that these singers were willing to talk further about it (see the political man who missed his political days), but Jensen seemed to clear away from those heartfelt moments and head straight back into interesting places that he could have the choir sing. To me, the music was defined at the beginning of the film, I wanted to be introduced and hear the stories of these individual men. They were all captivating, yet Jensen seemed to ignore them completely.

By ignoring the major subjects of this documentary, Jensen became unsuccessful in creating any sort of tension towards the end. Without giving the ending away, I felt like Jensen was coloring in the lines. Instead of being bold outside the lines, he chose to create no moment of sympathy, emotion, nervousness, or sadness. Jensen took our subjects from point A to point B to point C without asking us to become involved in any way shape or form. I can see how national sentiment had made this film into a huge success in Norway, but for everyone else watching (i.e. ME) more was necessarily needed. I wanted to feel for these guys. I wanted to know if they were going to do well as they traveled, or just find themselves loved in their own city. There was no story, mostly in part to no development of the subjects. When you watch modern documentaries (oddly, this film was made in 2001), you want it to play out similar to any Hollywood feature film. You want suspense, realism, and drama, alas, with Heftig og begeistret you get nothing of the sort.

Overall, I must ask the question again, "Why was this film made"? My final answer Alex, is that Jensen wanted to show how troubling times and a changing economy can still produce happiness in even the coldest places of Earth. I think that Jensen wanted to show human dedication and how something as simple as singing can unite a population. With that said, Jensen demonstrated that perfectly in this film, but he did not create a good documentary. When you make a film of this nature, I feel that you must look within the group, examine the choir participants and hear each one of their stories to bring about an ending that will grip your heart. The only thing that this film gripped was my attention span as it attempted to leave the room at rocket speed. Again, I do not want to sound negative about this film because the music was excellent and the men singing did bring about a feeling of honesty, but I needed more. With documentaries becoming a bigger staple of the film community, one expects a bit more than what Heftig og begeistret handed to us. I want to see reality and people, not just another song and dance routine!

Grade: ** out of *****

Moving and uplifting.......2005-03-01

I adored this film. Like others, I found it slow at first, but once immersed in the lives of these remote villagers, I was hooked. It's heartbreaking, uplifting, funny, and inspirational. What a wonderful contrast to the life we lead in the corporate, TV-driven USA. I'm sending it to all my (grown) kids.

Another great film.......2003-11-11

If you think Cool and Crazy is good, I recommend you check out another film from Scandinavia, Screaming Men by Mika Ronkainen. Yes, it's another film about a choir, but it's totally something you've never experienced before. It's a choir that screams national anthems and children's songs... Totally unique stuff!

(aka Heftig og Begeisteret).......2003-04-30

I love this movie.
perhaps it's because I lived in Finnmark, where it was filmed.
perhaps it's because I wandered Berlevåg with some of those guys and they treated us to ice cream.

Description

Lisa "Left Eye Lopes was the most flamboyant and outspoken member of the most successful girl group in American music history. TLC was known for it's outlandish style and its unabashed flavor and "Left Eye" was the perfect showpiece spearheading the charge. The world lost one of its most unique talents on a winding road in Honduras just days before her 31st birthday. This film is a tribute to the life and career of the self-proclaimed Craziest member of TLC.

Customer Reviews:

RIPOFF!.......2005-07-26

Looking at the terrible quality you can tell Left Eye's family did not authorize this. What a disapointment. All the video looks like it was taped off the TV with a VCR. There is no music and no Left Eye or TLC performances. The video looks awful. Only interviews you get are from fans. To top that off, the DVD is only 40 minutes long!! What a ripoff!

Beautiful Tribute!.......2004-07-04

This was a beautiful moving tribute for Lisa "Left Eye" Lopes. Don't listen to other people that say it wasn't good or it was a poor tribute. This DVD was 100% accurate on everything they said about Lisa Lopes. All TLC fans should buy this.

Buy it.......2003-08-20

I just watched this DVD a few minutes ago, & I would say it worth the buy. Some of the information about Lisa Lopes is inaccurate, but it is still worth buying. Lisa "Left Eye" Lopes was a pretty, talented and misunderstood and she will be missed.

Way Cool Wildlife, Vol. 1: Totally Reptile!/Crazy Creepy Crawlers

Average customer rating:

Way Cool Wildlife, Vol. 1: Totally Reptile!/Crazy Creepy Crawlers
Starring: Way Cool Wildlife
Manufacturer: Mambo Maniacs
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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General | Children's Music | Styles | Music

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ASIN: B000ARTMQ6
Release Date: 2005-09-13

Description

Volume 1 of this fantastic series features Totally Reptile and Crazy Creepy Crawlers. In Totally Reptile, children will meet the last living remnants of the ancient dinosaurs - crocodiles, alligators and more. Kids will discover the world of reptiles, including crocodiles, alligators and all the other animals that share this planet. Then, in Crazy Creepy Crawlers, nature's coolest creepy crawlies are offered up for children to explore - funny frogs, cute caterpillars, buggy beetles, beautiful butterflies and much more. Whether you are a mom, dad or a kid - if you love to shriek "ickkyyyy" and "wow" when you see the spectacular insects that roam our world, this program will thrill you to no end. Super cool facts, way cool footage and really cool music make this an unforgettable experience! Cinematographer Dr. Leonard Lee Rue is the most-published wildlife photographer in North America. He has to his credit over 1,800 national covers. He is the author of 25 books on wildlife, including How I Photograph Wildlife and Nature and The Deer of North America. Cinematographer Will Taylor's work has been featured on the Discovery Channel, National Geographic and film festivals and TV networks around the world. Cinematographer Belinda Peck's successful work has been featured on television by such producers as NBC News, Prime Time Live, Geraldo, Real TV, TNT, Discovery Channel, ABC, NBC, CBS, FOX and many more.

Average customer rating:

Lusty song in a land of ice
Luke Warm & Relaxed
Moving and uplifting
Another great film
(aka Heftig og Begeisteret)

Cool & Crazy: On the Road
Starring: Odd Marino Frantzen , Einar F.L. Strand , Arne Wensel , Kare Wensel , and Arne Blomso
Director: Knut Erik Jensen
Manufacturer: First Run Features
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

General | Music Video & Concerts | Genres | DVD | Video

Biography | Documentary | Genres | DVD | Video

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DVDs Under $14.99 | Today's Deals in DVD | Special Features | DVD | Video

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ASIN: B0000A9GHW
Release Date: 2003-09-23

Customer Reviews:

Lusty song in a land of ice.......2007-05-29

Luke Warm & Relaxed.......2006-04-03

Moving and uplifting.......2005-03-01

Another great film.......2003-11-11

(aka Heftig og Begeisteret).......2003-04-30

I love this movie.
perhaps it's because I lived in Finnmark, where it was filmed.
perhaps it's because I wandered Berlevåg with some of those guys and they treated us to ice cream.

the scenery is beautiful, the guys are hilarious, and the singing is usually wonderful. (only on a few songs are they slightly out of tune)

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