Family Comedy B

Starring:Ray Romano
Studio: 20th Century Fox
Product Type: DVD

Average customer rating:

Good tale that could have been treated better
Life in Your Head
Watch it for Patrick Wilson
Blackest of Dark Dramedies
Superb film until the ending

Little Children
Starring: Kate Winslet , Patrick Wilson , Jennifer Connelly , Gregg Edelman , and Sadie Goldstein
Director: Todd Field
Manufacturer: New Line Home Video
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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ASIN: B000N3SU92
Release Date: 2007-05-01

Amazon.com

Kate Winslet operates at a galaxy-class level in Little Children, Todd Field's gratifyingly grown-up look at unhappy suburbia. Winslet is magnificent, in an Oscar-nominated performance, as a stroller-pushing mom who becomes attracted to a passive househusband (Patrick Wilson). Their slow-burning infidelity (Field wisely allows time to pass in this unhurried film) is contrasted with a more sensational subplot, about a convicted pedophile (Jackie Earle Haley, also Oscar nominated) returning to the neighborhood to live with his mother (Phyllis Somerville). Field, who brought his civilized approach to In the Bedroom, uses a deliberately literary style here, including a device with a narrator who sounds as though he's sitting at our side as he reads from Tom Perotta's novel. (The narrator is a superb touch--his cultivated voice distances us from the sloppy passions of the characters.) The film's biggest miscalculation is a self-appointed neighborhood vigilante (Noah Emmerich) determined to make life miserable for the pedophile. But Wilson is appropriately nebulous, Jennifer Connelly solid as his wife, and Haley (child star of the Bad News Bears movies), as the creepy, childlike molester, found himself rediscovered after a long career layoff. There's decent acting here, but Winslet is in a zone of her own, with so much emotional honesty and subtlety of expression that she transforms a good movie into a must-see. --Robert Horton

Description

Kate Winslet, Jennifer Connelly and Patrick Wilson star in the Academy Award nominated film Little Children, the latest work from Oscar-nominated writer/director Todd Field. Based on the novel by Tom Perrotta, Little Children centers on a handful of middle-class suburban parents whose lives unravel in the wake of an adulterous affair.

Customer Reviews:

Good tale that could have been treated better.......2007-07-05

"Little Children," adapted from the novel of the same name, is a movie about suburbia, what lies beneath the surface and the sympathetic battles we all have to overcome whatever they be. Jackie Earle Haley excellently captures an uneasy pedophile, otherwise, the acting is competent, but not fantastic. The script is also adequate enough. The problem with "Little Children" is it doesn't appropriately rise to either its potential or its source material. What "Little Children" needs is slickness, flash and flow to highlight the message it is trying to bring across and the tremendous talent behind it. The movie needs to better deliver its product. As it is, it is very wooden and hard to digest. The movie needs to set up better and pull harder on the heartstrings.

Life in Your Head.......2007-07-03

"Little Children" captured my imagination. I found the characters fascinating. Each person seemed to be so isolated, living inside their head. Todd Field who directed the bold and dramatic "In the Bedroom" does an incredible job. He and book author Tom Perrotta deservedly earned Oscar nominations for Best Adapted Screenplay. Sarah Pierce played by Kate Winslet loves her daughter, but isn't having much fun at being a mommy or a wife. Her husband has his own private life lurking at internet websites and ordering worn panties in the mail to spur his fantasy life. Both are incredibly isolated. Contrast this to the other couple with Jennifer Connelly playing Kathy Adamson who is lost in her work as a documentary filmmaker and so wrapped up in being a mommy that their child sleeps in their bed, literally creating a barrier between husband and wife. Patrick Wilson, who is also very good in "Evening" with Claire Danes, Vanessa Redgrave & Glenn Close, plays Brad, a young stay-at-home father who has twice failed the bar exam to become a lawyer. He isn't certain he wants to be a lawyer and spends evenings watching skateboarding teenagers. The park where they meet is populated with judgmental urban wives who call Brad the "prom king" because he's a good-looking young father who fuels their fantasies. Marsha Dietlein Bennett in her second film ("Little Manhattan") plays the blonde Cheryl who is hysterical in her chronic put-downs of everyone else. She's the kind of person who really couldn't think of anything nice to say about anyone. Then we meet the sex offender Ronnie who moves back into the neighborhood after two years in prison. Again, we meet a clinically isolated man, unable to socialize, living inside his head. Jackie Earl Haley who was in "The Bad News Bears" years ago and recently in "All the King's Men" earned his first Oscar nomination as well as film critics awards in Chicago, Dallas-Ft. Worth, New York, Oklahoma & the Southeastern Film Critics' Circle. Larry Hedges is the policeman who assumes a vendetta against Ronnie, which climaxes at the film's finale. Noah Emmerich from "Cellular" & "Crazy in Alabama" plays the cop who is also isolated & whose world is falling apart.

This was one of the Oscar-nominated films that never played in our little town. I wanted to see Kate Winslet's Oscar-nominated performance, which earned her fifth nomination. In fact, she had nine nominations at festivals around the country and world for "Little Children," but remained winless. Phyllis Somerville who was in "Swim Fan" does a tremendous cameo as Ronnie's mother, May McGorvey. I was touched by how sincerely both Brad and Sarah loved their children, despite feeling trapped by their roles as parents. The laundry room affair was shocking with its intense explosion of desire.

"Little Children" was excellent because there were no clear good guys or bad guys. It shows everyone living inside dreams in their head while trying hard to cope with the world around them. As a result, it came across as extremely realistic. Enjoy!

Watch it for Patrick Wilson.......2007-07-03

Patrick Wilson is so hot in this, great body, great face. The movie is good too, but I could not keep my eyes off that hot man. Wait til you see him in a pair of swimming trunks. Whoa! Even better, when he is in the raw.

Blackest of Dark Dramedies.......2007-07-01

I'm so glad I saw this without having known anything about the storyline nor having too high of expectations about the quality of the film, because the acting and storytelling here are nothing short of a voyeuristic revelation, and not knowing about it only enhanced the experience.

Kate Winslet first caught my attention in SENSE AND SENSIBILITY, and I rooted for her character there and in TITANNIC. Since then I've watched her career with interest. But it's as though she has risen to a new level in LITTLE CHILDREN. Here she gives a far more nuanced performance as a modern-day Emma Bovary, trapped in a loveless marriage, yearning for romance and passion while saddled with dreaded parental responsibilities. Winslet's performance especially -- as well as the entire movie -- serves as a primer on moral ambiguity and its depiction in art and film. She is so good that you forget you're watching a movie featuring the star of the biggest blockbuster in history and must remind yourself that you're not peeking through the blinds of someone who lives in your neighborhood.

As I watched I was reminded of another subtle mood piece, IN THE BEDROOM, which stays in your memory just as persistently. Afterward, when I looked up the names of the writer and director, I was pleasantly surprised to learn that Todd Field had directed both films.

I can see why some reviewers have compared LITTLE CHILDREN with AMERICAN BEAUTY, what with the story about suburban infidelity, the longing for passion and youth and depiction of graphic sex. But in this movie, when the adult characters behave like self-centered LITTLE CHILDREN, their behavior feels more plausible, less comical (despite the documentary-like black comedy of the voice over -- compare with Kevin Spacey's voice over), less naive about consequences, more true to life. And while I love AMERICAN BEAUTY and can watch it over and over, I think LITTLE CHILDREN is a very different film, a better film, but one with an unfortunately more limited appeal.

No, LITTLE CHILDREN isn't a perfect movie. The character of the child molester, despite an excellent performance, is the stereotypical sniveling misfit we expect, rather than a smart and skillful child rapist from the real world, one who knows how to lure his prey with patience and subtle appeal. Jennifer Connelly's character has too small of a role for her considerable talents. And in the real world, the overbearing former police officer's actions would have landed him in jail, or at least with a restraining order, long before the climax. But all of these quibbles are hardly noticeable at all as one is quickly involved in a story that doesn't let you go, one whose moral ambiguity has you rooting for the wrong people, hating the wrong people, and daydreaming for days afterward. Highest recommendation.

(By the way, I would be careful about letting teenagers watch, as this contains explicit adulterous sex scenes, a disturbing masturbation scene (not visible) and nudity that comes unexpectedly.)

Superb film until the ending.......2007-06-28

The acting here is superb throughout, with Winslet the standout in a stellar cast. The human drama keeps you hooked all the way. The ending, though, is a bit of a cheat. You spend most of the film wondering if these two people will run away together. When they finally decide to do so, their plans are undone by basically random events. True, that happens a lot in real life, but in films you like a little more resolution. You never know if they would have gone through with their plans or how it might have worked out. It's still a film very much worth seeing, though, and the Oscar buzz about Winslet's best-ever performance is justified.

Average customer rating:

Harvey
Harvey
Movie's Good but the Play is better
big bunny
I recommend pleasant....

Harvey
Starring: James Stewart , Josephine Hull , Peggy Dow , Charles Drake , and Cecil Kellaway
Director: Henry Koster
Manufacturer: Universal Studios
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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ASIN: B0000549B0
Release Date: 2001-02-06

Product Description

James Stewart gives one of his finest performances in this lighthearted film, based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning play.
Stewart stars as the good-natured Elwood P. Dowd, whose constant companion is Harvey, a six-foot tall rabbit that only he can see.
To his sister, Veta Louise, Elwood s obsession with Harvey has been a thorn in the side of her plans to marry off her daughter. But when Veta Louise decides to put Elwood in a mental hospital, a hilarious mix-up occurs and she finds herself committed instead.
It s up to Elwood to straighten out the mess with his kindly philosophy, and his imaginary friend, in this popular classic that features a Best Supporting Actress Academy Award-wining performance by Josephine Hull.

Format: DVD MOVIE

Amazon.com essential video

It's always a small surprise to revisit this movie and realize what a subtly dark performance James Stewart gives as an alcoholic who claims he keeps company with a six-foot-tall, invisible rabbit. As Elwood P. Dowd, the actor emits a faint whiff of decay and spirits, yet Stewart also embraces Dowd's romanticism and grace with splendid ease. Based on a hit play and directed by Henry Koster, the film is terribly funny at times, especially whenever Elwood decides it's only polite to introduce Harvey to complete strangers. The supporting cast can't be beat. --Tom Keogh

Customer Reviews:

Harvey.......2007-06-28

It was sent to me in a timely manner. The movie is the best. No problems at all.

Harvey.......2007-06-27

James Stewart was a wonderful actor. He is absolutely wonderful in this classic movie. I will enjoy watching this movie over and over again.

Movie's Good but the Play is better.......2007-06-22

Oh Hollywood, Why? This movie was originally a stage play. The original script was changed enormously by these film makers. I cannot fathom why, as I think the play script is much better. 3 stars for this movie, 5 for the original play.

big bunny.......2007-05-13

This is a classic I love Harvey and we were very pleased with everything thank you

I recommend pleasant...........2007-04-03

Jimmy Stewart creates the wonderfully endearing character of Elwood P. Dowd. Dowd has a genuine interest in his fellow man and has made the choice in life to be pleasant. He goes along through life smelling the flowers and inviting everyone to his home. His best friend and protector is an invisible 6 foot three-and-a-half inch tall rabbit named Harvey. Elwood is the friendly type who wishes to introduce everyone to Harvey. This creates no small stir at home. His sister Veta (Josephine Hull) and niece (Victoria Horne) wish for a normal society life, and finally after a disastrous party determine to commit Elwood to the sanatorium.

There are a lot of positive perspectives found in this movie as everyone who cares for Dowd wishes to help him while he in turn ends up indirectly helping them. This charming film was a favorite of Jimmy Stewart and is well worth adding to the film library.

Father of the Bride (15th Anniversary Edition)

Average customer rating:

Fathers Day
An All-Time Favorite!
Wedding at it's funniest!
Is Okay
gotta love it.

Father of the Bride (15th Anniversary Edition)
Starring: Steve Martin , Diane Keaton , Kimberly Williams , Kieran Culkin , and George Newbern
Director: Charles Shyer
Manufacturer: Buena Vista Home Entertainment / Touchstone
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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ASIN: B0007RT9M6
Release Date: 2005-06-07

Amazon.com

This '90s update of the Spencer Tracy-Elizabeth Taylor hit is a mix of the pleasant and the silly, a nice enough movie but a little too controlled to become particularly interesting. Steve Martin plays the aging patriarch who is threatened by his daughter's engagement and not-quite-willing to let her go. The writing-directing team of Charles Shyer and Nancy Meyers provides Martin's character with a perhaps too-broad range of comic responsiveness to the situation, some of it gentle (a ritual game of basketball between dad and his little girl) and some of it slapstick (Martin sneaking around his prospective in-laws' house and encountering a guard dog). Martin Short turns up as a wedding coordinator--which has deliriously delicious possibilities--but his inventiveness doesn't quite strike the chord this time. --Tom Keogh

Description

You're invited to celebrate with this funnier-than-ever 15th Anniversary Special Edition of a timeless comedy. Steve Martin delivers a winning performance as George Banks, the befuddled father who has a hard time letting go of his young daughter (Kimberly Williams) when she unexpectedly announces her plans to wed. The "I do's" and don'ts of her big day prove no small feat for George as he runs into an off-the-wall wedding planner (funnyman Martin Short), his patient, level-headed wife (Diane Keaton), and hysterical hitches. You won't want to miss the never-before-seen bonus features, including behind-the-scenes interviews, commentary, and the Steve Martin & Martin Short interview -- now available to have and to hold forever!

Customer Reviews:

Fathers Day.......2007-06-28

This is a great movie and I wanted to get it for my dad for Fathers Day, Thank you!

An All-Time Favorite!.......2007-05-15

Father of the Bride has to be one of the funniest movies my family and I have ever seen! Highly recommended to all who enjoy a good belly laugh!

Wedding at it's funniest!.......2007-04-24

Steve Martin in one of his most memorable roles as "father of the bride". From the beginning to the end this movie is amusing and entertaining. All characters are well cast and act out a Hollywood version of what a wedding could be like. Martin Short is hilarious in his role as "Fronk", the wedding coordinator.
We love this movie! Five Stars!

Is Okay.......2007-04-10

This movie is good for the entire family nothing bad in it is a good movie

gotta love it........2007-04-08

getting married soon & can't help watching all these great wedding movies!

It's a Wonderful Life (60th Anniversary Edition)

Average customer rating:

It certainly is a Wonderful Life!
It's a Wonderful Life
Quintessential christmas movie
It Was Indeed a Wonderful Life!
A Timeless Classic

It's a Wonderful Life (60th Anniversary Edition)
Starring: James Stewart , Donna Reed , Lionel Barrymore , Thomas Mitchell , and Henry Travers
Director: Frank Capra
Manufacturer: Paramount
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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ASIN: B000HEWEJO
Release Date: 2006-10-31

Amazon.com essential video

Now perhaps the most beloved American film, It's a Wonderful Life was largely forgotten for years, due to a copyright quirk. Only in the late 1970s did it find its audience through repeated TV showings. Frank Capra's masterwork deserves its status as a feel-good communal event, but it is also one of the most fascinating films in the American cinema, a multilayered work of Dickensian density. George Bailey (played superbly by James Stewart) grows up in the small town of Bedford Falls, dreaming dreams of adventure and travel, but circumstances conspire to keep him enslaved to his home turf. Frustrated by his life, and haunted by an impending scandal, George prepares to commit suicide on Christmas Eve. A heavenly messenger (Henry Travers) arrives to show him a vision: what the world would have been like if George had never been born. The sequence is a vivid depiction of the American Dream gone bad, and probably the wildest thing Capra ever shot (the director's optimistic vision may have darkened during his experiences making military films in World War II). Capra's triumph is to acknowledge the difficulties and disappointments of life, while affirming--in the teary-eyed final reel--his cherished values of friendship and individual achievement. It's a Wonderful Life was not a big hit on its initial release, and it won no Oscars (Capra and Stewart were nominated); but it continues to weave a special magic. --Robert Horton

Description

George Bailey has so many problems he is thinking about ending it all - and it's Christmas! As the angels discuss George, we see his life in flashback. As George is about to jump from a bridge, he ends up rescuing his guardian angel, Clarence. Clarence then shows George what his town would have looked like if it hadn't been for all of his good deeds over the years. Will Clarence be able to convince George to return to his family and forget suicide?

Customer Reviews:

It certainly is a Wonderful Life!.......2007-06-27

Not only do I own this movie, I have the board game as well. No Christmas season is complete without at least one viewing of this classic movie. It stresses the idea of being grateful for what you have and seeing the silver lining in any given situation. Children of all ages should watch this one every year.

It's a Wonderful Life.......2007-06-25

The quintessential Frank Capra film and a heartwarming holiday treat year in and year out, "Life" is the ultimate optimistic statement on the value of love, life, and community. Capra's masterful handling of the bittersweet storyline--in which Bailey sacrifices his own dreams to run the family savings-and-loan business and keep his hometown of Bedford Falls out of Potter's greedy paws--is pure Hollywood magic. Reed and Barrymore give exceptional performances, but Stewart, in one of his all-time great roles (a personal favorite), is the dynamic, all-too-human force holding it all together. Revived in the '70s after languishing in copyright limbo, "Life" is nostalgic and achingly sentimental, but doesn't shrink from portraying the dark side of American life. If "Zuzu's petals" don't put a lump in your throat, wait till a revivified George finds a special surprise waiting for him back home. Let those tear ducts flow, because "It's a Wonderful Life."

Quintessential christmas movie.......2007-06-11

This movie is a tradition in our house during the Christmas season to watch at least once! It never grows old to see Jimmy Stewart realizing that being rich sometimes has very little to do with how much is in your bank account and more to do with how many friends you have. Get the hot chocolate out, cuddle up with your sweetie, build a roaring fire in the fireplace and put the DVD in the machine and remember that your life does matter in the world.

It Was Indeed a Wonderful Life!.......2007-06-04

What would the Christmas holiday season be like without Frank Capra's 1946 classic, It's A Wonderful Life? For millions around the world, watching this inspiring, heartwarming movie starring Jimmy Stewart and Donna Reed is as much a part of the Christmas celebration as putting cookies and milk out for Santa Claus, caroling, drinking eggnog, or trimming the tree.

Of the hundreds of movies I've seen during the forty-one years I've lived so far, there isn't one I can think of that is so quintessentially American as It's A Wonderful Life. Part comedy, part melodrama, and part supernatural fantasy, the film recounts the life of an apparently ordinary guy, George Bailey, who keeps getting the short end of the stick when it comes to realizing his extraordinary dreams and plans for the future.

However, I've learned first-hand that professing my love for this film is sure to provoke arguments with those who accept the ethics of objectivism (the philosophy of Ayn Rand). On its face, the message of the film appears to endorse self-sacrifice for the good of others. But I disagree with that interpretation. In fact, I think that the choices made by George Bailey during his life were truly wonderful, embodying a full and proper conception of personal, long-term self-interest, but without preaching egotism.

The movie opens to the voices of George's loved ones, family and friends who are sending up prayers to God to take care of and watch out for George, who's fallen on the hardest of hard times on Christmas Eve. George's bad luck doesn't look like it's about to change when he is assigned a guardian angel ("second class") named Clarence, a benevolent bumbler who hasn't even "earned his wings." We then learn what has brought George Bailey to the brink of tragedy as director Capra tells the man's life story in a long flashback that makes up most of the picture.

Ever since boyhood, George Bailey has been there for others. When he was twelve, he rescued his brother, Harry, from drowning in a pond after he had crashed through the ice while sledding. Later, working as a drugstore delivery boy, he prevented his distraught, drunken boss from accidentally dispensing poison in prescription capsules.

As he grows up, George dreams of bigger things than can be found in the confines of his small town: seeing Europe, becoming a civil engineer. About to head off to tramp through Europe before going to college, he shares with his girlfriend, Mary (Donna Reed), his secret aspirations:

"Mary, I know what I'm gonna do tomorrow and the next day, and next year and the year after that. I'm shaking the dust of this crummy little town off my feet and I'm gonna see the world! I'm gonna build things: I'm gonna build airfields. I'm gonna build skyscrapers a hundred stories high! I'm gonna build bridges a mile long!"

But at every crucial turn in his life, George's grandiose dreams are thwarted by the responsibilities of everyday life. As he's about to set sail, he learns that his father had a fatal stroke. After the funeral, George stays in Bedford Falls to run the Bailey Bros. Building and Loan, the family business that his father and Uncle Billy (Thomas Mitchell) had built up, rather than allow it to slip into the grasp of the family's avaricious nemesis, Mr. Potter (Lionel Barrymore). Potter is the town's Scrooge-like magnate, a corrupt, power-lusting slumlord who owns most of the key businesses in Bedford Falls. George puts his dreams on hold while he manages the business--and while he watches his younger brother, Harry, go off to college instead.

Then, rather than jump at the opportunity to invest in the promising plastics industry, George instead goes after his real love, Mary, finally proposing to her. One of the movie's pivotal scenes occurs on the day of their marriage. Just as they are about to embark on their European honeymoon, fate again steps in: their wedding date is "Black Tuesday," October 29, 1929--the day of the stock market crash. En route to the train station, George and Mary see the people of Bedford Falls running toward the building and loan. George rushes over to find that Uncle Billy has panicked and shut the doors to depositors, having disbursed all the money on hand. Worse, Mr. Potter telephones and tells George that he will "help" bail out the building and loan by offering its members fifty cents on the dollar for every share.

While everyone is losing his head, George keeps his cool, despite the throng of terrified customers demanding their money. George staves off the building and loan's collapse not by whining to the crowd to bail him out, but by appealing to their long-term self-interest: by asking them not to sell out their future to Potter.

"You're thinking about this place all wrong, as if I have the money back in the safe. The money's not here. Well, your money's in Joe's house, that's right next to yours. And the Kennedy house, and Mrs. Maitlin's house and a hundred others. You're lending them the money to build, and then they're going to pay it back to you as best they can....Now, listen to me, I beg of you not to do this thing. If Potter gets a hold of this building and loan, there will never be another decent house built in this town.... Joe, you had one of those Potter houses, didn't you? Well, have you forgotten, have you forgotten what he charged you for that broken down shack? Here, Ed, remember last year, when things weren't going so well, you couldn't make your payments? Well, you didn't lose your house, did you? Do you think Potter would've let you keep it? Can't you understand what's happening here? Potter isn't selling, he's buying! And why? Because we're panicking and he's not.... Now, we can get through this thing all right, we've got to stick together, though. We've got to have faith in each other."

I once argued with an Objectivist about that scene, maintaining that George and Mary did the right thing by using their $2,000 honeymoon nest egg to help their depositors weather the storm. But all my friend could see in that scene--indeed, in the whole movie--was altruism. "One of the very first lines in that movie," he told me, "is `he never thinks of himself'!"

But was that true? Consider what would have happened had George and Mary gone on their honeymoon instead of bailing out their building and loan. Yes, they would have had an enjoyable, relaxing couple of months in Europe; but what would they have come home to? The business that George's father had sweat blood to create and keep afloat would have gone bankrupt. Not only would George and Mary have had no source of income, but their depositors--family, friends, loved ones--would have seen their life savings evaporate. The housing development George had built would have fallen into Potter's hands.

For George, the choice was between short-term pleasure and long-term priorities. Did he choose irrationally?
What makes It's A Wonderful Life work so well is that we get to see a different, less readily apparent kind of heroism in George Bailey. Sure, it's easy to notice and admire the swashbuckling valor of a Scarlet Pimpernel or the "damn the torpedoes" military bravery of a John Wayne. But the real world doesn't always present opportunities for obvious and flamboyant heroism. More often than not, it presents instead tough value choices that reveal an individual's true priorities--and his true character.

It's A Wonderful Life is a testament to the power of free will when the going gets tough. In every instance when George faces adversities, he could easily make the easy choice, opting for the fleeting promise of instant gratification. But instead, he consistently makes the harder decision to delay immediate pleasure in order to achieve or preserve his larger, lasting, most profound values.

Today, most people watching the scenes in the building and loan's offices probably cannot quite grasp the bold, life-changing message on the banner that hangs there: "Own Your Own Home." But I remember as a kid talking with my father about what it was like for him growing up in a Depression-era coal mining town in West Virginia. "You had to have at least a fifty percent down payment to buy a home in those days," he told me. "If you were poor, you had to rent." More than any other movie I've seen, It's A Wonderful Life makes real the enormous benefits of the credit revolution, a tribute to "man's faith in man."

To Frank Capra, it was men like George Bailey who helped lift the working class into the middle class. Capra considered this film his personal favorite, and put into it a lot of his own experiences as a first-generation immigrant from Sicily. It's A Wonderful Life is his love letter to the American Dream.

What makes the movie so credible, and Jimmy Stewart so believable as George Bailey, is that he and Capra had both faced those tough choices just months before it was shot. It's A Wonderful Life was the first movie they worked on after World War II. Shortly after Japan bombed Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, Stewart joined the U.S. Army Air Force and served as a decorated bomber pilot. Capra spent most of the war shooting the Why We Fight series of propaganda films that proved so crucial to the Allied war effort. Both men could easily have avoided service: Capra was too old when the war began, and Stewart flunked his first physical, being too thin for service. But they put aside the glamorous lifestyle and money Hollywood afforded them for the higher purpose of defending America and freedom. I only wish that such values were held in higher esteem by Americans now, in supporting the war effort against the terrorist threat. Today, we seem less eager to make the kind of hard choices that the men and women of Capra's and Stewart's generation did.

The movie's famous climax takes place on Christmas Eve. Bedford Falls awaits the return of its hometown hero--George's brother, Harry Bailey (Todd Karns). As a Navy fighter pilot, Harry saved a transport ship full of American troops by shooting down a Japanese torpedo bomber. However, a few hours before his arrival back home, the building and loan comes up short $8,000. Uncle Billy has absent-mindedly mislaid the money, and now, with the bank examiner and police breathing down his neck, the distraught George sees his entire life coming apart. After fighting Potter all his life, he's reduced to pleading before him, begging to borrow the cash to rescue the building and loan. His only collateral is $500 equity in a life insurance policy. The smirking Potter mocks him, saying, "Why, George Bailey, you're worth more dead than alive!"

George soon finds himself standing alone in the blustery snow atop a bridge, weeping in drunken desperation, thinking about jumping into the icy rapids below.

At that very moment, guardian angel Clarence Oddbody (Henry Travers) leaps into the river himself, giving George the opportunity to let his inherent goodness emerge once more. George rescues Clarence, then slowly learns the incredible truth: that the old man is an angel sent to protect him.

But still believing that his life has been a failure, he informs the eccentric Clarence that he's wasting his time. "I wish I'd never been born," George mumbles bitterly.

The words inspire Clarence to grant George his wish. In the film's closing moments, he gives the man a shocking tour of what Bedford Falls would have been like if George Bailey had never existed.

The housing subdivision that George envisioned is never built; it becomes "Potter's Field," a graveyard for paupers. The wife of his cabbie friend, Ernie (Frank Faylen), leaves him because Ernie wasted his money paying rent for one of Potter's tenements, instead of investing in his own home. Deprived of the chance to lead a productive life with the building and loan, eccentric Uncle Billy is eventually committed to an insane asylum. George's beloved Mary remains a spinster; their children are never born. And Bedford Falls itself--a small, thriving American community right out of a Norman Rockwell illustration--deteriorates into "Pottersville," a sleazy town full of bars, strip joints, and pawn shops.

Most devastating to George, Clarence leads him to his brother Harry's gravestone in Potter's Field.

"You're brother, Harry Bailey, broke through the ice, and drowned at the age of nine," he informs George.
"That's a lie!" George protests. "Harry Bailey went to war! He got the Congressional Medal of Honor! He saved the lives of every man on that transport!"
"Every man on that transport died," Clarence corrects him. "Harry wasn't there to save them, because you weren't there to save Harry.... You see, George, you really had a wonderful life. Don't you see what a mistake it would be to throw it away?"
"You have been given a great gift," Clarence adds. "A chance to see what the world would be like without you."

As I do every Christmas, this year I'll again be watching It's A Wonderful Life with my family. I'll once more share with my loved ones Frank Capra's timeless tale of a man who always remained loyal to his highest and dearest values, and who ennobled the lives of everyone he touched through his common sense, farsighted thinking, and uncommon integrity.

To those who might dismiss George's story as not the stuff of epic heroism, I can only repeat the director's own words. Decades after It's a Wonderful Life first appeared, Frank Capra said: "The importance of the individual is the theme that it tells. That no man is a failure, that every man has something to do with his life. If he's born, he's born to do something."

He added: "To some of us, all that meets the eye is larger than life, including life itself. Who can match the wonder of it?"

A Timeless Classic.......2007-06-04

It's A Wonderful Life is a one-of-a-kind christmas movie with a hint of horror. Not only is this movie unique, but it also has a charasmatic cast. I bought this movie to add to my modest DVD collection, and its the perfect flick arund christmas time.

Average customer rating:

Blue Hawaii
Wow!!
Amazon---Greatest Quality
Blue Hawaii Movie
Greatest Elvis movie...."Aloha Bra"

Blue Hawaii
Starring: Elvis Presley , Joan Blackman , Angela Lansbury , Nancy Walters , and Jenny Maxwell
Director: Norman Taurog
Manufacturer: Paramount
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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G.I. Blues
Girls Girls Girls (1962)
Elvis Presley: Paradise, Hawaiian Style
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ASIN: 6305837708
Release Date: 2000-05-02

Amazon.com

Elvis Presley's seventh film was the first of his "Hawaii trilogy" (including Girls! Girls! Girls! and Paradise, Hawaiian Style). While its story is daft--the King has just been released from his Army posting in Italy and returned to the islands, where he's trying to avoid working in his father's fruit business--the music is not: "Blue Hawaii," "Almost Always True," and the beautiful "Can't Help Falling in Love." Angela Lansbury plays Elvis's mother, who can't seem to get through to him. Directed by the star's frequent collaborator, Norman Taurog (G.I. Blues). --Tom Keogh

Customer Reviews:

Blue Hawaii.......2007-06-02

Fun movie to watch for an old classic. Great scenery. Kind of chessy but fun.

Wow!!.......2007-05-25

This is one of the most fun movies to watch!!!
The scenery is awsome. As well as the movie itself. It is funny and just a fun one to kick back and forget everything.
Enjoy this one with the entire family.

Amazon---Greatest Quality.......2007-05-13

Brand new,great quality always feel safe dealing with Amazon.For the BEST
deals in quality and service,you just can't beat Amazon.

Blue Hawaii Movie.......2007-04-11

Excellent movie with Elvis Presley. The singing is awesome. Nice love story and beautiful scenery to showcase Hawaii.

Greatest Elvis movie...."Aloha Bra".......2007-03-29

Elvis and cast are at their top in this fun loving Hawaiian location film. Storyline is healthy and wholesome, music is upbeat as always and great! Sometimes I just pop this movie in for background. I lived in Hawaii for years and makes for a good fix!
Elvis, take me away...

Average customer rating:

These were the Best Years of Our Lives
Thoughtful, touching film
Classic Black & White War Movie
Shame on the Film Makers
The effects of war

The Best Years of Our Lives
Starring: Myrna Loy , Fredric March , Dana Andrews , Teresa Wright , and Virginia Mayo
Director: William Wyler
Manufacturer: MGM (Video & DVD)
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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Mrs. Miniver
From Here to Eternity
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On the Waterfront (Special Edition)

ASIN: 0792846133
Release Date: 2000-07-18

Amazon.com essential video

Winner of seven Academy Awards, including best picture, director, actor, and screenplay, William Wyler's brilliant drama about domestic life after World War II remains one of the all-time classics of American cinema. Inspired by a pictorial article about returning soldiers in Life magazine, the story focuses on three war veterans (Fredric March, Dana Andrews, and Harold Russell in unforgettable roles) and their rocky readjustment to civilian life in their Midwestern town of Boone City. Capturing the contradictory moods of America in the mid to late 1940s, this three-hour drama spans a complex range of honest emotions, from joyous celebration and happy reunion to deep-rooted ambivalence and reassessment of personal priorities. A movie milestone when released in 1946, The Best Years of Our Lives still packs a punch with powerful, timeless themes. --Jeff Shannon

Description

It's the hope that sustains the spirit of every GI: the dream of the day when he will finally return home. For three WWII veterans, the day has arrived. But for each man, the dream is about to becomea nightmare. Captain Fred Derry (Dana Andrews) is returning to a loveless marriage; Sergeant Al Stephenson (Fredric March) is a stranger to a family that's grown up without him; and young sailor Homer Parrish (Harold Russell) is tormented by the loss of his hands. Can these three men find the courage to rebuild their world? Or are the best years of their lives a thing of the past? Featuring a brilliant cast that includes Myrna Loy and Virginia Mayo, this postwar classic garnered* seven OscarsÂ(r), including Best Picture. Heart-wrenching, touching and "filled with emotional dynamite" (The Hollywood Reporter), it remains "one of the best films about war veterans ever made" (American Movie Classics). *1946: Director, Actor, Supporting Actor, Writing/Screenplay, Film Editing, Music/Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture

Customer Reviews:

These were the Best Years of Our Lives.......2007-06-09

What a great movie. The scenes between Fredick March, Myna Loy and Theresa Wright where Theresa told them that they alway had the perfect life and marriage and Myna looks at Fred and say "how many time have I told you that I hated you and meant it?" Then he looks at her and say "how many times did we have to fall in love all over again?" Its so gooood...Harold Russell great actors and deserves the TWO Oscars. Anyone that hasn't seen it really needs to check this one out..

Thoughtful, touching film.......2007-05-07

I love this movie. Though all the actors were excellent, Harold Russell is the reason to watch this movie. He deserved every ounce of his two - yes two - Oscars that he received for this role. He is amazing to watch. Though disabled, it was hard to consider him handicapped. I once used this film in my sunday school class. The lesson was on overcoming adversity and I showed the scene where Russell plays a piano duet with Hoagy Carmichael. The girls in my class were amazed. Then I shared with them some of the other things Russell had accomplished in his life - like being a founder of AMVETS. Russell's off screen story is a story in itself and should be made into a movie. Unfortunately, no actor could convincingly play him. That's the key to the impact he had on the screen - he wasn't an actor - he was a real, disabled person. Watch this movie - you'll be amazed too.

Classic Black & White War Movie.......2007-05-07

This was my father's all time favorite movie, which may be one reason I love it so much....then again, it's a damn good movie that still holds up! It is the story of three soldiers return to civilian life after World War II, with an outstanding cast and a great 40's style.

Shame on the Film Makers.......2007-04-08

I don't see how self-respecting African-Americans can watch this film without gritting their teeth. Black people are shuffled off to the sidelines with stereotypical, non-speaking parts: They lug baggage at the airport. They work behind the drugstore soda counter. They don't say anything, they don't go anywhere important, they don't even exist in the poor part of town where one of the featured white characters lives.

The movie is racist. It ignores what the Black experience was like for soldiers in WWII and for the folks at home who put up with the enduring racism.

And the flick got a zillion Oscars. Hollywood felt good about itself. Hooray. Figures.

The effects of war.......2007-03-31

This story of three men who return to small town America after fighting in the second world war, each man wounded in his own private way by the horrors he's faced, is filled with so many small heartbreaks. I very rarely get choked up watching movies (especially ones made in Hollywood) but this one gets me. Yet somehow it manages to be incredibly hopeful. Gregg Toland's amazing deep focus cinematography fills each frame with visually interesting compositions that demand to be seen more than once to take in everything that's being shown. The performances are uniformly outstanding, keeping the movie from ever straying into sentimentality. With a running time of almost 3 hours, it never drags. Every scene feels essential.

A great film.

Average customer rating:

Great
Is Great!
The first one is much better...
Narrow View of Normal
Didn't Think It Could Get Any Better!

Father of the Bride 2
Starring: Steve Martin , Diane Keaton , Martin Short , Kimberly Williams , and George Newbern
Director: Charles Shyer
Manufacturer: Buena Vista Home Entertainment
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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Father of the Bride (15th Anniversary Edition)
Three Men and a Baby
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Baby Boom
Father of the Bride (Snap case)

ASIN: 6305803781
Release Date: 2000-05-09

Amazon.com

Everybody important from the first film, including the writing-directing team of Charles Shyer and Nancy Meyers, regroups for this sequel involving a pair of pregnancies. Steve Martin's patriarch has a crisis when his married daughter (Kimberly Williams) is with child, and an even bigger one when his middle-aged wife (Diane Keaton) announces that another bambino is on the way. Martin Short is more effectively used this time around (he played the wedding coordinator in the first film), and while this movie's inevitable climax has both women giving birth on the same chaotic night, the overall effect of the film is less contrived than its predecessor. --Tom Keogh

Description

Expect crowd-pleasing entertainment when Steve Martin (PARENTHOOD), Diane Keaton (LOOK WHO'S TALKING NOW), and Martin Short (CAPTAIN RON) return in this hilarious sequel to the comedy smash FATHER OF THE BRIDE. Having just married off his cherished daughter (Kimberly Williams -- FATHER OF THE BRIDE), George Banks (Martin) is ready to get footloose and fancy free! So when his daughter and his wife Nina (Keaton) both announce they are pregnant, George finds himself in one outrageous situation after another, desperately trying to recapture the wild and crazy days of his youth! You'll love every star-filled minute of FATHER OF THE BRIDE, PART II -- the riotous comedy hit that delivers double the fun and twice the laughs!

Customer Reviews:

Great.......2007-06-10

This is one of the best sequels I have ever seen. It is funny and at the same time very sweet and touching. Steve Martin is great as the unwilling soon-to-be-father/grandfather. The rest of the cast is as good as they were in the first part. Definitely worth a watch by all daughters who have a very loving and protective father!

Is Great!.......2007-04-10

I really like the 2 won better but the other one you need to see first!

The first one is much better..........2006-10-12

I was very disappointed in this movie. As much as I love Steve Martin, this movie just didn't do anything for me. I had to make myself watch it in its entirety. It was too unrealistic; a mother and daughter being pregnant at the same time, giving birth on the same exact day, in the same hospital across the hall from one another. Give me a break. And what are the chances of you buying your house back one day after you sell it by just one stoke of a pen by simply reaching into your pocket and whipping out a $100,000 check? Yeah, I see that happen all the time. And gee whiz, Annie's husband walks into the hospital after a business trip in Tokyo just in the nick of time, how convenient. And is it too much to ask to have just one movie where the pregnant woman gets a normal ride to the hospital? The wild ride to the hospital scene is played (Look Who's Talking?, Nine Months). And just what kind of job did the father of the bride have? A baby suite? How fortunate we all would be if we could toss thousands of dollars on a single room in a house that's only going to be used for a couple of months. Now that's what I call living! And Franck, not only does he coordinate weddings but he throws in baby showers here and there as well. Oh, and he also designs baby suites. Maybe he does barmitzvahs too. This movie would have been a lot better if it only focused on Annie being pregnant. The Banks having 3 children spread out across 3 different generations was a bit much. "Is that your grandbaby?" "No, that's my daughter." "Hey, is that your sister?" "No, that's my aunt." "Hey, it was nice meeting your brother." "Are you kidding me, that's my nephew!" There were no funny moments in this movie and seeing Steve Martin as a brunette, even if it was only briefly, was just painful. His hair has been gray ever since I can remember and he should keep it that way at all times. Do yourself a favor and pass on this movie. The first one is much better. If I could have given it a zero star I would have. Sorry Steve, I still love you but the next time I want to see you in a good movie, I'll just pull out "The Jerk","Parenthood" or "Housesitter". As a matter of fact, I'm planning to take this movie to the Thrift store the next time I donate.

Narrow View of Normal.......2006-09-18

What's wrong with raising a baby in a beach house? Am I the only person who doesn't live in a mansion? Do you have to be rich to be happy?

This movie, and the original remake (since that's what these films are) tell a lot of lies about what people should expect life to be. Therefore, they are not fun. All the humor evaporates when you realize it is attempting to tell you "your life should be this way" or you're wrong if it is not. Unfortunately, not everyone has a picture perfect life.

Didn't Think It Could Get Any Better!.......2006-09-13

I remember watching "Father of the Bride" over and over again growing up...dreaming of my own wedding! It was just one of those movies that you can never really get tired of. I was excited when they made "Father of the Bride 2" , but I really didn't have high hopes for it because I thought there was no way it could compete with the first...boy was I wrong. This movie is just as great as the first. With mother and daughter having a baby at the same time and all the same great characters back from the first movie...there was never a dull moment! If you liked the first you should love this movie!

Average customer rating:

Hear Ye Hear Ye
Only difference is the case

The Goonies
Starring: Jeb Stuart Adams , Steve Antin , Sean Astin , Bill Bradley , and Josh Brolin
Director: Richard Donner
Manufacturer: Warner Home Video
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

Crime | Action & Adventure | Genres | DVD | Video

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Beetlejuice
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The Monster Squad (Two-Disc 20th Anniversary Edition)

ASIN: B000P0J09W
Release Date: 2007-05-15

Description

Following a mysterious treasure map into a spectacular underground realm of twisting passages, outrageous booby-traps and a long-lost pirate ship full of golden dubloons, the kids race to stay one step ahead of a family of bumbling bad guys... and a mild-mannered monster with a face only a mother could love.

Customer Reviews:

Hear Ye Hear Ye.......2007-05-23

Oh, what an amazing movie...if you have not seen this flic, go get it! It is one of the best movies of all time and the clown below me does not know what he is talking about. Four stars please...some people just need to go away.

5 stars...baby!

Only difference is the case.......2007-05-10

This is not a new edition of the movie, the only difference is the case is a standard DVD case instead of the cardboard snap kind.

Average customer rating:

Rovcky for adolescent
Great movie
Great memories
put him in a body bag johnny!
The Karate Kid

The Karate Kid (Special Edition)
Starring: Ralph Macchio , Pat Morita , Elisabeth Shue , Martin Kove , and Randee Heller
Director: John G. Avildsen
Manufacturer: Sony Pictures
ProductGroup: DVD
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ASIN: B0008JIJ2E
Release Date: 2005-06-07

Amazon.com

John G. Avildsen not only directed Rocky, he tried remaking it over the years in a dozen different ways. One of them was this popular 1984 drama about a new kid (Ralph Macchio) in town targeted by karate-wielding bullies until he gets a new mentor: the handyman (Pat Morita) from his apartment building, who teaches him self-confidence and fighting skills. The screen partnership of Macchio's motor-mouth character and Morita's reserved father figure works well, and the script allows for the younger man to develop sympathy for the painful memories of his teacher. But the film's real engine, as with Rocky, is the fighting, and there's plenty of that. Elisabeth Shue is on board as the girl the klutzy Macchio dreams of winning. --Tom Keogh

Description

A fatherless teenager faces his moment of truth in The Karate Kid. Daniel (Ralph Macchio) arrives in Los Angeles from the east coast and faces the difficult task of making new friends. However, he becomes the object of bullying by the Cobras, a menacing gang of karate students, when he strikes up a relationship with Ali (Elisabeth Shue), the Cobra leader's ex-girlfriend. Eager to fight back and impress his new girlfriend but afraid to confront the dangerous gang, Daniel asks his handyman Miyagi (Noriyuki 'Pat' Morita), whom he learns is a master of the martial arts, to teach him karate. Miyagi teaches Daniel that karate is a mastery over the self, mind, and body and that fighting is always the last answer to a problem. Under Miyagi's guidance, Daniel develops not only physical skills but also the faith and self-confidence to compete despite tremendous odds as he encounters the fight of his life in the exciting finale to this entertaining film.

Customer Reviews:

Rovcky for adolescent.......2007-05-21

This was a big hit moviue and went one to make three sequel all of them except the next karate kids have the original boy from the first movie in them. For the most recent movie made in 1994 they replaced the boy with a seventeen year old girls who's parents are killed in a car crash. This movies has phonimal music. A young kid challanges the rival of his ex girl friend to a match after he plays a slight prank on him for beatening him up earlier in the movie. Can Mr. Miga train this boy into a fighting champion of power and honor to victory. Find out in the thrilling conclusion. This movie should be fine for ages 12 and up due to mild violence for its time and and occasional curse wored thrown in. A word of adivce try to by these together if you can. You can get part III and four together by themselves on one dvd without parts I and part II but I recommend you order then one at at time if you don't decide to get the whole collection at once. The reason why I suggest this is because the cheaptest I saw that they had 3 and four together one dvd with out the first two used is somewere inbetween 39 and 45 dollars if they charge you for shipping. Either get these together with the rest of the collection or buy part III and four on seperate dvds.

Great movie.......2007-05-17

My nephew was recently being picked on and we decided to put him and his cousins in Karate classes for self-defense. Soon after, Wal-Mart ran an ad with The Karate Kid DVD in it. Perfect! I loved it as a kid and now the children in the family fell in love with it.
The Karate teacher even uses parts from the movie to make his point about something and the class knows what he means. The movie teaches that Karate is for defense and that it's bad to use it to pick on others. This is definitely a movie worth the purchase.

Great memories.......2007-05-14

I was glad that I bought it. My kids 8 and 5 yrs old love it as well. Now they want to take Karate lessons...

put him in a body bag johnny!.......2007-05-08

I've got one thing to say.....sweep the leg! cobra kai never die! a classic!

The Karate Kid.......2007-01-16

This was a gift for a grandson. He is happy with the movie as I thought he would be. He was told that his grandmother and I had seen the movie on TV and liked the characters, actors and the story.

Average customer rating:

Manhattan
Rhapsody in Grey
Woody Allen is Brilliant
Annie Hall's ugly sibling
Manhattan - a defective DVD

Manhattan
Starring: Karen Allen , Tisa Farrow , Helen Hanft , Mariel Hemingway , and Anne Byrne Hoffman
Director: Woody Allen
Manufacturer: MGM (Video & DVD)
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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Sleeper

ASIN: 0792846109
Release Date: 2000-07-05

Amazon.com essential video

Manhattan, Woody Allen's follow-up to Oscar-winning Annie Hall, is a film of many distinctions: its glorious all-Gershwin score, its breathtakingly elegant black-and-white, widescreen cinematography by Gordon Willis (best-known for shooting the Godfather movies); its deeply shaded performances; its witty screenplay that marked a new level in Allen's artistic maturity; and its catalog of Things that Make Life Worth Living. But Manhattan is also distinguished in the realm of home video as the first motion picture to be released only in a widescreen version. You wouldn't want to see it any other way. Allen's "Rhapsody in Gray" concerns, as his own character puts it, "people in Manhattan who are constantly creating these real, unnecessary, neurotic problems for themselves, because it keeps them from dealing with more unsolvable, terrifying problems about the universe." It's a romantic comedy about infidelity and betrayal, the rules of love and friendship, young girls (a radiant and sweet Mariel Hemingway) and older men (Allen), innocence, and sophistication. (a favorite phrase is used to describe a piece of sculpture at the Guggenheim: "It has a marvelous kind of negative capability.") The movie's themes can be summed up in two key lines: "I can't believe you met somebody you like better than me," and "It's very important to have some kind of personal integrity." OK, so they may not sound like such sparkling snatches of brilliant dialogue, but Manhattan puts those ideas across with such emotion that you feel an ache in your heart. --Jim Emerson

Description

Nominated for two Academy AwardsÂ(r)* in 1979 and considered "one of Allen's most enduring accomplishments" (Boxoffice), Manhattan is a wry, touching and finely rendered portrait of modern relationships against the backdrop of urban alienation. Sumptuously photographed in black and white (Allen's first film in that format) and accompanied by a magnificent Gershwin score, Woody Allen's aesthetic triumph is a "prismatic portrait of a time and a place that may be studied decades hence" (Time). 42-year-old Manhattan native Isaac Davis (Allen) has a job he hates, a seventeen-year-old girlfriend, Tracy (Mariel Hemingway), he doesn't love and a lesbian ex-wife, Jill (Meryl Streep), who's writing a tell-all book about their marriage and whom he'd like to strangle. But when he meets his best friend's sexy intellectual mistress, Mary (Diane Keaton), Isaac falls head over heels in lust! Leaving Tracy, bedding Mary and quitting his job are just the beginning of Isaac's quest for romance and fulfillment in a city where sex is as intimate as a handshakeandthe gateway to true love is a revolving door. *Supporting Actress (Hemingway); Original Screenplay

Customer Reviews:

Manhattan.......2007-07-04

A follow-up to the critically acclaimed "Annie Hall," Woody Allen's "Manhattan" is the writer-director's most overt, visually poetic paean to the city of his birth. While weaving in recurring themes of frustrated love and alienation, what occupies center stage is New York itself, its various images and signposts made indelible by a Gershwin score and Gordon Willis's breathtaking black-and-white cinematography. See this sublime tribute to romance, urban life, and the only place Woody Allen has ever felt at home.

Rhapsody in Grey.......2007-06-23

Manhattan is the quintessential Woody Allen movie. Annie Hall is funnier, but Manhattan is surely the one Allen movie which captures so beautifully the great auteur's concerns: the love/hate relationship with New York, the frustrations and phoniness of urban intellectualism, the all knowingness of modern city types who cannot enjoy pleasure since they are too world wise, the appeal of the innocent beautiful face, roiling and fizzing jazz music, the egotism and narcissism of men and women in contemporary society (this movie was from the 70s, but these themes are well made for Western urban social scenes today).

Manhattan is a movie for modern romance - where passions are washed over as soon as they are arrived at by the next wave of introspection; impulsive decision making; a new face at dinner, or the theatre. Isaac (Allen) is a classic protagonist for Woody Allen's movies - a sexually impulsive man with a razor sharp wit and a sarcastic, nihilistic answer to everything, an egoist who wants to do the right thing but is drowning in a sea of his neurosis. Allen's characters are like the filmic, comic incarnations of the great characters of of masterful novelist Saul Bellow - big hearted people awash in the modern condition, with their minds always on the big picture, the universal scape: hence the famous scene where Isaac meets Mary in the planetarium - the stars look down on their mortal, transient concerns (echoes of the final chapter of the Bellow novel 'The Dean's December'); then again in the school when Isaac confronts his friend Max for taking back Mary, the mistress he had let go - Isaac stands by a skeleton saying 'one day we'll be like this, I hope that when I thin out I'll be looked well on'. (This scene also contains the memorable Allen line - 'you think you're God' - 'well I have to model myself on someone'.)

What is life for? Manhattan poses this question beautifully. Some sort of answer occurs as Isaac makes a list towards the end of the movie whilst lying, psychoanalytical style, on the couch: Groucho Marx, the second movement of the Jupiter Symphony, Louis Armstrong's recording of 'Potato Blues', Swedish movies, L'Education Sentimentale by Flaubert, Frank Sinatra, Marlon Brando, Cezanne's apples, the crab at Sun Wo's (now no longer in existence). A valid Allen list, but slightly disengenuous - for Woody Allen, cultural epiphanies are a diversion. His real life purpose, which he has executed brilliantly over the years, is to fulfil that great mantra of Charlie Chaplin: life may be a tragedy in close up, but in the long shot it's a comedy.

Woody Allen is Brilliant.......2007-06-11

Manhattan, by Woody Allen, is a showcase of the things that make Allen one of the most truly gifted-filmakers ever. Not only does he st