The Killers - Criterion Collection

Starring:Claude Akins, Hall Brock, John Cassavetes, Virginia Christine, John Copage, Angie Dickinson, Norman Fell, Clu Gulager, Don Haggerty, Peter Hobbs, Ted Jacques, Jimmy Joyce, Lee Marvin, Irvin Mosley, Burt Mustin, Kathleen O'Malley, Robert Phillips, Ronald Reagan, Davis Roberts
Studio: Criterion
Product Type: DVD

Editorial Review:
Amazon.com
The Killers (1946)
This 1946 adaptation of Ernest Hemingway's short story adds well over an hour of new material to the original tale. The reason is, while director Robert Siodmak, star Burt Lancaster, and an outstanding supporting cast are faithful to Hemingway's work, his story only takes up about 15 minutes of screen time. Burt Lancaster plays the doomed man sought by hired guns in a small town. Hemingway's bruisingly concise dialogue makes an early sequence set in a diner quite unnerving, but after the killers dispense with their prey, Siodmak turns to an insurance investigator (Edmond O'Brien) who looks into the reasons behind the murder. An exemplary film noir (complete with a fickle femme fatale played by Ava Gardner), The Killers is all mood and fatalism.

Amazon.com

Alain Delon is the coolest killer to hit the screen, a film noir loner for the modern era, in Jean-Pierre Melville's austere 1967 French crime classic. Delon's impassive hit man, Jef Costello, is the ultimate professional in an alienated world of glass and metal. On his latest contract, however, he lets a witness live--a charming jazz pianist, Valerie (Cathy Rosier), who neglects to identify him in the police lineup. When Costello survives an assassination attempt by his employers, he carefully plots his next moves as cops and criminals close in and he prepares for one last job. Melville meticulously details every move by Costello and the police in fascinating wordless sequences, from Costello's preparations for his first hit to the cops' exhaustive efforts to tail Jef as he lines up his last; and his measured pace creates an otherworldly ambiance, an uneasy calm on the verge of shattering. Costello remains a cipher, a zen killer whose façade begins to crack as the world seems to be collapsing in on him, exposing the wound-up psyche hidden behind his blank face. Melville rethinks film noir in modern terms, as an existential crime drama in soft, somber color and sleek images (courtesy of cinematographer extraordinaire Henri Decaë). Le Samouraï inspired two pseudo-remakes, Walter Hill's Driver and John Woo's Killer, but neither film comes close to the compelling austerity and meticulous detail of Melville's cult masterpiece. --Sean Axmaker

Description

In a career-defining performance, Alain Delon plays blue-eyed Jef Costello, a fedora- and trench-coat-wearing contract killer with samurai instincts

Customer Reviews:

Le Samourai.......2007-06-27

Seminal gangster movie homage combines elements of Kurosawa and American film noir to create a spare film strikingly short on dialogue. Delon is ideal for the role of Jef, as his surface male beauty amplifies the character's underlying moral and emotional vacuum. Behind those icy, classic features, you glimpse nothing but oblivion. (Note: Delon's wife Nathalie plays Jane, who furnishes Jef's alibi).

The epitome of 'Cool'.......2007-05-29

Delon at his coolest and best. The clothes, the hat, the cars. All scream '60's COOL'. This update(from the Japanese) of the lonely hitman, the outsider with few friends, has been a long time coming to DVD. Any fan of the French new wave, who has never caught this film, should see it immediately. There are many themes and influences that are later repeated in the American crime films of the 70's. The only reason that it does drop a star, is that is was a film very much of its time and place. As such, it should be viewed historically, and may disappoint fans of later, more violent, US and Japanese films in the same genre. Delon steals every scene by doing almost nothing. A masterclass in mimalism, and a good example for the later much wordier, and more character-driven pieces we are more used to. For the more mature movie buff, it's a must!

pretty noir but also very very pretentiously made.......2007-05-10

cat and mouse, hide and seek, the game was on but circled around and finished up with a no-way-out ending. the screenplay sometimes gave you a false hope that the whole thing might have turned out differently, but the french screenplay writers usually knew how to start a story with great scenario and plot, but they also got a problem: they never quite got the grip how to finish a story in the end. alain delon in this movie looked too stereotyped noir, very pretentiously cool with hat and windbreaker. you didn't feel any empathy or compassion about how he survived or not, because the movie itself was too 1 dimensional simple, lack of a strong dose of mystery. the hired assassin/hitman he played was just a too simple-minded gofer with a gun for hire. very appropriate title: 'the samurai', a servant (usually no brain needed) blindly serves to the rich and the powerful, no question asked, just like what the samurai did in ancient japan.

Le Boring.......2007-04-03

I think there was packaging or a sticker that compared this film to Pulp Fiction. As if. Beyond minor superficial similarities - I dont see it.

Le Samurai is one of the most boring films Ive watched recently without turning it off. In retrospect I wish I had turned it off or never wasted my time since the ending is so dull.

Imagine if breathless had a slightly more complicated plot, but the main character had no charisma. Or if Alphaville (the film not the treatment) was more 100 times more boring. Le Samurai makes Tokyo Drifter seem like a thrill ride. I was not impressed by this film on any level.

If you are into being bored. Or if your so freaking smart you can watch paint drying and fill it with significance, this is the film for you.

Full of Air.......2007-03-14

From the beginning the viewer expects a great film; the blank face of the main character, his silence, and his solitude prelude what seems is going to be a lot of excitement. We witness the daily chores of this seemingly cool (but liable to absurd) hired killer, we share his vital space, we follow him. He speaks hardly any word, he has no facial expression whatsoever... how cool. What kind of a man is this? Very interesting, you may think. Well, think not, because whatever he is underneath that handsome face is not the point of this film. The point is the facade itself. A big balloon filled with nothing but air and liable to explode any moment.

How the critics fell for this one does not amaze any more. They took the gag seriously! Check out the other reviews. The funny trick is, I believe, that Melville didn't pretend to do anything else but a mock of all the cliches of the genre. He meant it for a mock. Therefore all the iconography of film noir: the raincoat, tha hat, the jazz, the cigarette, the beautiful girl, the gun fight, the blank face, the bluffing detective... at least it must provoke some smile. How about the artificial style of the police station, or the night club? All these elements are chosen intentionally to produce this effect, not to be taken serious. This is the product of an onanist's dream. An interesting, though not fulfilling, film.

Average customer rating:

A first-rate crime noir from 1946; a flawed and dated crime story from 1964
Film Noir "The Killers" reviewed by Chroesus
THE KILLERS(1946) CLASSIC NOIR
Why can't all DVDs be like this?
Marvin the Hit. Man, O Man.

The Killers - Criterion Collection
Starring: Claude Akins , Hall Brock , John Cassavetes , Virginia Christine , and John Copage
Manufacturer: Criterion
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Binding: DVD

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ASIN: B00007ELDG
Release Date: 2003-02-18

Amazon.com

The Killers (1946)
This 1946 adaptation of Ernest Hemingway's short story adds well over an hour of new material to the original tale. The reason is, while director Robert Siodmak, star Burt Lancaster, and an outstanding supporting cast are faithful to Hemingway's work, his story only takes up about 15 minutes of screen time. Burt Lancaster plays the doomed man sought by hired guns in a small town. Hemingway's bruisingly concise dialogue makes an early sequence set in a diner quite unnerving, but after the killers dispense with their prey, Siodmak turns to an insurance investigator (Edmond O'Brien) who looks into the reasons behind the murder. An exemplary film noir (complete with a fickle femme fatale played by Ava Gardner), The Killers is all mood and fatalism.

The Killers (1964)
The 1964 remake (of sorts) by Don Siegel builds another whole world around Hemingway's narrow, if intense, premise. The two assassins of Siegel's film (Clu Gulager, Lee Marvin) go in search of their intended victim--a teacher (John Cassavetes) at a school for the blind--and find that he not only recognizes his fate when they show up, but seems entirely resigned to it. Curiosity leads the killers to seek out the party who hired them and discover why Cassavetes's character didn't run or fight. Soon the facts tumble into place--the dead man had once been a top-drawer racer who fell for a glamorous woman (Angie Dickinson), the latter gradually pulling him into the orbit of a criminal villain (a convincingly evil Ronald Reagan)--and the film becomes increasingly dark and dangerous. Originally shot for television but rejected for its violence, Siegel's film is a blistering experience of swimming against the currents of fate for one's survival--and losing. --Tom Keogh

Customer Reviews:

A first-rate crime noir from 1946; a flawed and dated crime story from 1964.......2006-12-17

The Killers (1946) - How do you make an interesting movie when the character the movie ostensibly is all about is just a dumb lug, as interesting as a boiled potato? The Swede stumbles into one situation after another, willing to believe in true love or lies. For me, director Robert Siodmak and screenwriters Anthony Veiller, Richard Brooks and John Huston (the last two uncredited) solve this problem three ways.

First, there is the great look and style of the movie. I think it's impossible to say one movie looks better than all others, especially when it comes to noirs, but The Killers nails as well as any the dark, foreboding feel of cheap hotel rooms, shadowy streets and close-ups of white, worried faces. Second, all the flashbacks in this movie create the sense of a complex jigsaw puzzle slowly being solved. The story not only becomes complicated and interesting, it's great fun to see what the next piece in the puzzle is going to show us. And what helps make all those puzzle pieces interesting is the cast of characters who take turns in the flashback spotlights. There's not a dud actor in the lot. And third, for me, is the sourness of the ending. No, not the last scene of a smiling Edmond O'Brien jauntily leaving his boss's office. It's the revelation of what a nasty piece of work Kitty Collins really was and how far out of her league was the Swede. He was just a big, thick-eared guy who, in other circumstances, might have gone straight, but he didn't have a chance when he saw Kitty that first time at the party sitting next to the piano player. I don't think this was what Rodgers and Hammerstein had in mind when they wrote about seeing a stranger across a crowded room.

Besides, "I did something wrong once" is a great line to power a crime movie with.

What also struck me is the simplicity of the logic behind Jim Colfax' decision to unleash the two hit men onto the Swede. At first, it seemed so much smarter just to let things coast by. But Colfax's reasoning holds up if you think about it, and that logic powers the action of the movie. What doesn't hold up is the motivation of the two hit men's behavior in the diner. How much easier it would have been to walk in, sit down and order a couple of cups of coffee. Then mention they were in town to pay back some money to the Swede but they don't have his address. Anybody know where he lives? Someone would have said, "Why, sure. He lives at Ma's boarding house just a couple of blocks from here." I know, this more practical approach would have gutted the foreboding and nervousness of the movie. I'm not advocating this, just suggesting that it's a little bothersome when a great plot device has a flaw.

The Killers (1964) - You know there's a problem when the extras on the DVD disc are more interesting than the movie itself. The excerpts from the memos written by whoever worked at Hollywood's Department to Avoid Naughty Situations are great fun. What is sadder are the memos and notes from director Don Siegel pointing out the weaknesses in the 1946 version and how they needed to be avoided...then seeing how he managed to turn out a movie considerably less interesting than the original.

Siegel was making a TV movie, then saw it released on the big screen when the violence seemed to be too extreme for home viewing. The movie has that flat, clear look that says "television." The back-screen projections are even worse than Hitchcock's. The racing sequences seem to go and on, looking both artificial and silly...actors who wear racing goggles end up looking as out of place as politicians who let themselves be photographed wearing helmets. The Sixties look has dated the movie mightily. When I saw the two bad guys, Lee Marvin and Clu Gulager walking around with their sunglasses on, I thought I was watching an Ackroyd/Belushi skit. (Marvin quickly set me straight on that.)

On the plus side, depending on how much you respond to vicious bullies, Lee Marvin does a fine job. The last third of the film, starting when the robbery takes place and then into the last two flashbacks and the conclusion, picks up a nice head of double-crossing steam. The last fifteen minutes or so, starting when Marvin and Gulager show up in Ronald Reagan's office, are so good I wished the whole film had reached that level. I suspect that without this movie sharing the same title as the 1946 film, and without Criterion resurrecting it to accompany the 1946 film, Siegel's version would be forgotten.

The Killers (1946) is a first-rate movie. The Killers (1964) is not. It's amusing to be able to see them side-by-side. Both have first-rate film transfers and a multitude of extras. Thanks, Criterion.

Film Noir "The Killers" reviewed by Chroesus.......2006-10-16

I could not wait to view this set of DVD's. I found both versions to be
well acted divergent takes on a classic noir theme. The one bad step that
leads to more mis-steps and a long dark spiral with plenty of crime drama
and action to boot.
The sixties era version took a bad rap in many of the reviews I read but
I found the Lee Marvin performance action packed and entertaining all the
way thru. It lacked the noir atmosphere but managed to preserve almost all
of the mystery and depth of charactor the original had.
The original movie is a classic noir, told partly in flashback, a boxer
struggles against fate. A bad break ends his career early. His own flawed
character leads him to a femme fatelle and a decent into darkness.
Without giving too much away for those who have never seen it, an inves
-tigater is intrigued and follows his footsteps into the dark underworld
of crime, deceit and fate.
The extras are pretty good too. They give the viewer a look into two in-
triging eras of film making in distinctly divergent styles...well worth the price.

THE KILLERS(1946) CLASSIC NOIR.......2006-07-16

Burt Lancaster made his motion picture debut in the Mark Hellinger Produced and Robert Siodmak Directed classic noir "The Killers",from a short story by Ernest Hemingway.Screenplay by Anthony Veiller and uncredited John Huston.
Lancaster plays "the Swede",an ex-boxer,now working as a gas station attendant.One envening two toughs(Charles McGraw and William Conrad,also his film debut) arrive in town and terrorize a local,Brentwood(N.J.) greasy spoon,and then proceed to find Lancaster and kill him,because he, "did something wrong,once"!Insurance Inspector Riordan,played by Edmund O'Brien,Lancaster's life was insured by O'Brien's company, is intrigued,about the murder."Why would two profesional killers kill a nobody",O'Brien asks his boss(Donald MacBride)?
After convincing his boss he needs more time to look into the Swede's death,Riordan comes across Sam Levine,a Philly police detective,and long-time friend of "Ole"(Lancaster) and Levine wife and ex-Ole girlfriend played by Virginia Christine.From here much of the story is told mainly in flashbacks(common for noirs),where we meet Albert Dekker,Jeff Corey,John Miljan,Jack Lambert,Vince Barnett,as various baddies,and as the femme fatale(a noir staple) Ava Gardner(Kitty Collins).This 1946 version is great,and ALL noir buffs should see it.In includes a very good audio commetary!

This is a two-disc collection and the second disc includes the 1964 remake starring Angie Dickinson,Ronnie Reagan(as a baddie),Lee Marvin,Clu Gulager,Claude Akins,and John Cassavettes and directed by Don Siegel.Originally scheduled as a made-for-TV film it was moved to movie theatre's because it was deemed too violent for the small screne.The story is told from "the killers"(Marvin-Gulager)point of view.I DON'T care for this film.The audio commetary compares the two films and gives the re-make a higher grade than I do!
This version: * star The original: ***** stars
"Criss Cross,a similiar(and too me a superior noir,by just a nose) reteams the Lancaster-Siomak duo,with the sultry Yvonne DeCarlo(as a knock-out femme fatale)and the slimy Dan Duryea.Please see my review which is included on this web-site!

Why can't all DVDs be like this?.......2005-10-14

A wonderful, intelligent, grown up package which is almost worth the price for the extras alone.

Marvin the Hit. Man, O Man........2005-08-18

One of the best things about this dvd (I'm reviewing the second version of the Hemingway base story) is the interview with Clu Gulager. This was quite a surprise. It is a really outstanding commentary on what makes this film something special, and after watching it I am left with a respect for Gulager's brains and judgement which I didn't have, and had no reason to have, before. Gulager is careful not to denigrate any of his co-stars, or the director, or anyone involved in the movie. But somehow he lets it be known that, fundamentally, it would be virtually nothing without the towering presence of Lee Marvin. Play it a couple of times and you realize that the scenes which don't have Marvin in them are, let's be honest, fairly ordinary and even downright dull. Reagan is merely coasting along. Cassavetes and Dickinson are just not that charismatic, either together or alone: although Angie does seem to rise above herself in the final scene, just before Marvin plugs her. The story seems to drag, and there's too much padding. But, as Gulager stresses, Marvin's performance is stratospheric. Like the man says, every moment he's on screen, every movement he makes, every word he utters, is humming with pure mastery of the cinematic actor's art. He is colossal. That is why the film is so memorable, so unforgettable, even after 40 years.

Branded to Kill - Koroshi No Rakuin - Criterion Collection

Average customer rating:

A monochrome dream
A Suzuki Masterpiece!
an odd crime film
great movie
NON STOP ACTION

Branded to Kill - Koroshi No Rakuin - Criterion Collection
Starring: Jo Shishido , Mariko Ogawa , Annu Mari , Koji Nambara , and Isao Tamagawa
Director: Seijun Suzuki
Manufacturer: Criterion
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ASIN: 078002205X
Release Date: 1999-02-23

Amazon.com

Seijun Suzuki's absolutely mad yakuza movie bends the hit-man genre so out of shape it more resembles a Luis Bunuel take on Martin Scorsese. Number three killer Goro Hanada (Jo Shishido) is a hired killer who loves his work, but when he misses a target after a mere butterfly sets his carefully balanced aim astray, he becomes the next target of the mob. Goro is no pushover and easily dispatches the first comers, leaving them splayed in death contortions that could qualify for an Olympic event, but the rat-a-tat violence gives way to a surreal, sadistic game of cat and mouse. The legendary Number One mercilessly taunts his target before moving in with him in a macho, testosterone-laden Odd Couple truce that ends up with them handcuffed together. Kinky? Not compared to earlier scenes. The smell of boiling rice sets Goro's libido for his mistress so aflame that Suzuki censors the gymnastic sex with animated black bars that come to life in an animated cha-cha. Because Suzuki pushed his yakuza parodies and cinematic surrealism too far, his studio, Nikkatsu, finally called in their own metaphoric hit and fired the director with such force that he was effectively blackballed from the industry for a decade. It took about that long for audiences to embrace his audacious genre bending--Suzuki's pop-art sensibilities were just a bit ahead of their time. --Sean Axmaker

Description

Branded to Kill, the wildly perverse story of the yakuza's rice-sniffing "No. 3 Killer," is Seijun Suzuki at his delirious best. From a cookie-cutter studio script, Suzuki delivered this brutal, hilarious, and visually inspired masterpiece-and was promptly fired. Criterion presents the DVD premiere of Branded to Kill in a pristine transfer from the original Nikkatsu-scope master.

Customer Reviews:

A monochrome dream.......2006-10-18

Japanese novelist Yukio Mishima cranked up the concept of reality T.V a few notches in 1970 when he invited a few of his media pals along to a hijacking of a government building where he then performed seppuku (Ritual self disembowelling) as a protest against the erosion of traditional Japanese values. Japan in the late 60's saw an upsurge of such demonstrations against western influence - an uprising which had seen riots outside the Budokan Sports Arena a few years previously when the Beatles appeared there. Somewhere during this volatile chapter of cultural osmosis director Seijun Suzuki got fired by the Nikkitsu film company for making his masterpiece BRANDED TO KILL.

This maverick film maker was already on thin ice with his fiercely conservative paymasters when his 1966 film TOKYO DRIFTER took the Yakuza (Japanese gangster) genre into new (and thus feared) directions but BRANDED TO KILL was the one that finally broke the chopstick - Rendering the director unemployable for a decade.

BRANDED TO KILL charts the fall and fall of No3 Killer, (Jo Shishido) a down at heel hitman, who bodges an assignment when a butterfly lands on the end of his rifle just at the crucial moment. For this gaff he is now subject to the murderous attentions of the mythical No1 Killer.

Looking like a giant Gopher in a mohair suit and Raybans, No3 Killer finds himself in a bizarre vortex of shadows and monochrome as he attempts to save his girlfriend from being incinerated, get the better of superior Killer No1 and to survive to become No1 himself. His bizarre quirk of using boiled rice as a form of Viagra does nothing to make his journey anymore straightforward.

Surely one of the most beautiful black and white films ever, BRANDED TO KILL is a collision of American `Noir' and giddy Japanese oddness. A genuine cinematic experience - everything within the frame appears to be sculptured from mercury.

Cultural Osmosis is rarely an easy thing, but when it works, the result is often something like the offbeat gorgeousness of BRANDED TO KILL.

A Suzuki Masterpiece!.......2005-04-10

This movie was my first introduction to the films of Seijun Suzuki and man, what a ride! On first glance this movie appears to be just another gangster movie relegated to late, late night television. Tough talking gangsters, intrigue, action, etc., etc. However, watching for more than 5 to 10 minutes highlight the ultra-bizarre characters, very substantial level of brutality, and the uniquely perverse (and amusing) sense of humor that really set this movie apart from other "stock" gangster films. I have all four of Suzuki's films that have been released through Criterion up to this point (Branded to Kill, Tokyo Drifter, Youth of the Beast, and Fighting Elegy) and I feel that this one is the best of the four. The major drawback is that the bonus features and booklet that come with the DVD are still a little skimpy by Criterion Collection standards. However, the exclusive interview with director Seijun Suzuki is excellent. This one is definitely worth renting and if you are a fan of Japanese cinema do yourself a favor and pick this one up.

an odd crime film.......2004-04-13

This review is for the Criterion Collection DVD edition of the film.

This move is one of the most odd gangster films I have seen.

The film follows a gangster [who] is known as the "number 3" killer and is epeatedly threatened by the "number 1" killer.

This film contains nudity to a degree of which I am surprised was legal in Japan at the time the movie was filmed. The film has several clever tricks by the characters to avoid being shot and there is some witty humor in the film also.

The director of this film was fired by the studio after aming this film and was blacklisted for 10 years.

The Criterion Collection DVD has 2 special features on it. There is an 11 minute interview with the director Seijun Suzuki, and a slide show of Japanese movie posters and lobby cards from the collection of John Zorn, who also wrote the liner ntes thant come with the DVD.

great movie.......2004-02-03

I really can't understand how people see this movie as being "incoherent" or "boring". Maybe I've seen too many mst3k movies...now those, THOSE movies that are riffed are incoherent! Plain and simple it's a yakuza movie, there, was that so incoherent? I just saw it on IFC and I loved it. I personally enjoyed Tokyo Drifter more, I really dug the groovy music. And artsy...you haven't seen artsy until you've seen the skateboard video memory screen. They take artsy over the top; of the 44 minutes about 5 minutes is actual skateboarding the rest is weird random images but still good. And boring...at least to me it was boring is Gerry -- it's just walking in the desert. Maybe not boring to others but it was just too much for me. Anyways Branded To Kill and Tokyo Drifter are great movies and not at all boring.

NON STOP ACTION.......2003-09-14

Here it is: BRANDED TO KILL is director, Seijun Suzuki's best movie. Japanese film lovers will tell you that Seijun is one of Japan's greatest filmmakers. A different style than Kurosawa. If you like action, then prepare yourself for a real treat. You will not regret owning this film.
Forget that this film is Japanese, has subtitles, and was released in 1967. This film is a classic masterpiece. Heck, even the director got fired after its release. The film is fast paced and beautifully shot. The musical score is so smooth and keep in mind, we're talking no special effects. There is a scene where a man is literally on fire for over 20 seconds.
All in all, the story is straightforward. A Yakuza gangster is hired to kill 4 people. He learns that he is the Yakuza's third best killer. He does not know who the #1 killer is but he wants his spot. The women in this film are beautiful and the action is intense. Take a chance and see why this film has inspired so many over the years.

The Honeymoon Killers - Criterion Collection

Average customer rating:

Really unexpected
Sleazy but captivating
What a good thing for low budget
A fellinian nightmare!
disturbing, but very impressive

The Honeymoon Killers - Criterion Collection
Starring: Shirley Stoler , Tony Lo Bianco , Mary Jane Higby , Doris Roberts , and Kip McArdle
Director: Leonard Kastle , and Donald Volkman
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ASIN: B00009MEA3
Release Date: 2003-07-22

Amazon.com

There's Bonnie and Clyde--then there's Martha and Ray. One-shot writer-director Leonard Kastle set out to make a film about lover-murderers that was everything Arthur Penn's movie was not. He succeeded. Consequently, The Honeymoon Killers, based on the Lonely Hearts Killers case of 1949, may be too lurid for some. But there's a heart beating inside its (tawdry) chest and Kastle clearly cared about these two crazy, mixed-up kids who should never have met. But met Martha (Shirley Stoler) and Ray (Tony LoBianco) did and proceeded to fleece several widows before doing them in. The film isn't graphic in its violence, but each murder is increasingly disturbing. Dramatic lighting and dark passages from Mahler keep the mood close and clammy throughout. Keep an eye out for Everybody Loves Raymond's Doris Roberts in a sharp cameo--and for shots directed by original helmer Martin Scorsese (fired for working too slowly). --Kathleen C. Fennessy

Description

Martha Beck (Shirley Stoler) is sullen, overweight and heartbreakingly alone. Desperate for affection, she joins Aunt Carrie's Friendship Club and strikes up a correspondence with Ray Fernandez (Tony Lo Bianco), a suave, charismatic smooth talker who could be the man of her dreams—or a wicked con artist bound for trouble. Based on a true story and filmed in documentary-style black and white, The Honeymoon Killers is a stark portrayal of the desperate lengths a lonely heart will go to find true love, from brutally immoral killings to a passion that transcends all bounds.

Customer Reviews:

Really unexpected.......2006-10-05

I picked this up thinking - I'm not sure what I was thinking, actually. I guess I thought noir-ish crime drama. French film makers, apparently, really like this, and it's easy to see why. It's stark, honest and miles away from American studio formula. Much more like a European or Japanese film. Very strange at first (I can see why an earlier reviewer though 'John Waters'), this is an involving, compelling film made for almost nothing. If you like "Indie" films, foreign films or the documentary look of films like "In Cold Blood," grab this offbeat winner.

Sleazy but captivating.......2006-05-28

It seems nobody told the two leading actors (Shirley Stoler and Tony Lo Bianco) in this crime drama that it was a low-budget affair, because they act as strongly as if they were in a major blockbuster. Stoller plays an obese nurse from Alabama looking for love; what she finds through a lonelyhearts correspondence club (today it would be Myspace) is Lo Bianco, a Spanish immigrant in NYC. They write to each other, and then he comes to visit her. He steals her money - that's his racket - but she sticks by him anyway, and they team up to bilk other desperate women in the same way. It gets pretty gruesome after that, with Stoler turning into a jealous murderer after Lo Bianco marries Marilyn Chris. The atmosphere throughout the picture is frighteningly claustrophobic, and, again, Stoler and Lo Bianco give all they've got in their roles. The Mahler score also fits in well with the action. Thematically it's fairly low-brow, but the acting and gritty photography make up for that.

What a good thing for low budget.......2005-07-03

it helps this film's seedy atmosphere. It does remind one of John Water's early films in the acting department, but it is a truly engrossing film.This film takes a trip into the minds of 2 truly ill individuals. At one point, directly after the first murder, Ray Says to Martha "I want to make love to you"But Martha soon turns the tables on Ray when she discovers a lie....Avery good low budget film that works effectively

A fellinian nightmare!.......2005-01-16

The painful loneliness of a nurse who suffers a little problem of overweight (two hundred pounds) , lives with her senile mother . Martha decides to join a correspondence friendship club . She will receive torrid and voluptuous letters love from a Spanish born immigrant .He will visit her in Alabama and he will be back to NYC. They will rejoin very soon in New York and Ray confess her he is just a gigolo . But as you know sometimes the love is blind and she doesn't matter at all his venerable profession.

In this particular and light and shadow state of things , Ray will start to compose a real horror symphony . Betrayal , suspicion , infidelity , black humor, greed , and sinister fatality will be their fellow partners journey .

But as you know in love the domain relapses in those who love less . Ray hardly will change his previous costumes and Martha will act in consequence .

Those early seventies were impregnated of a gloomy poetry . The collective needed evasion . Those were the first films where the sci fi renewed with new proposals , the racism films , the first denounces about Vietnam War , The French May . In this sense you may remember that filthy cult movie for a great audience - Pink Flamingos - the most famous work of John Waters , Antonioni `s Zabrizskie Point , Kubrick ` s A clockwork orange , Michael Anerson 's If , Perry Henzel `s The harder they come , Dennis Hopper 's Easy Rider , Richard Rush's Hell' s Angels , Strawberry statement or Billy Jack to name the most representative items in this category of outlaw movies , made usually with a low budget but filled with a brutal denounce load and no satisfaction , not only by the teenagers but also the thirties generation who were the first generation post Beatles and Elvis Presley who decided to swim against the current making films which walked in the knife edge .

Curiously all those films were not authentically originals but were born from the French New Wave with two notable films : Breathless and Jules and Jim . In fact you can note a
little homage to Jules and Jim when the camera remains stationary in Ctaherinep's living room .

These characters are based in real events . The real Ray and Martha , the far descendents of Bonnie and Clyde and Gun Crazy were executed in Sing Sing on March 7 1951 .

disturbing, but very impressive.......2004-12-03

This review is for the Criterion Collection DVD of the film.

Honeymoon Killers is a film based on the true story of Martha Beck, a nurse who meets an older man, Ray Fernandez, through a matchmating service and when she discovers that he is a swindler, she is upset but he explains that he really does love her. She then starts to help him swindle women out of their money and poses as his sister. Eventually, they start killing and Martha turns themselves in to the police when she feels remorseful.

The source material for the film included newspaper articles, court documents and other credible material.

The film has some nice acting and good cast choices for the time, but Shirley Stoler, who played the role of nurse Martha Beck, has a very striking resemblence to Louise Fletcher in this film! Some can't help but laugh because of this. It is a very sad story and the violence in the film was very intense for the time. It was made in 1970 and got an R rating, but today it would certainly get a PG-13 rating or maybe even PG.

The Criterion Collection placed some excellent special features on the DVD.

There in an interview with screenrriter and director Leonard Kastle, a theatrical trailer, and a slide show of information about the true story that inspired the film. It includes courtroom pictutes, newspaper articles, crime scene photos, and material about the Sing Sing prison where they were executed. It even shows the couple's last meal requests.

This film should not be missed.

Average customer rating:

I Believe In Justice
One of the greatest of the genre
RE-ISSUE!!!!!
What a movie
The Killer AMAZING

The Killer - Criterion Collection
Starring: Yun-Fat Chow , Danny Lee , Sally Yeh , Kong Chu , and Kenneth Tsang
Director: John Woo
Manufacturer: Criterion
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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Hard Boiled - Criterion Collection
A Better Tomorrow/A Better Tomorrow II
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Infernal Affairs (Wu jian dao)

ASIN: 155940860X
Release Date: 1998-04-01

Amazon.com essential video

This 1989 rouser is apocalyptic pulp--the bloodiest, showiest, most shamelessly sentimental specimen of Hong Kong's gangster melodramas. A torch singer named Jennie (Sally Yeh) is accidentally blinded during a slaying in a night club, and Chow Yun-fat's sad-eyed Jeff, a self-lacerating assassin, drags himself out of retirement to take on one last job--rubbing out a major mobster for major bucks--so he can pay for the singer's cornea transplant operation. But Jeff pauses to ferry a wounded child to the hospital during this final outing, and because of this a cop finally gets a good look at him: "He was seen on the job," snarls a saturnine Mr. Big, "and I want him wasted." Armies of thugs converge on the saintly slayer. Some of writer-director John Woo's flourishes are kitsch classics (doves flying upward in a candlelit church), while the action sequences are rapturous. "Life's cheap," a character opines. "It only takes one bullet," but in this case it actually takes about a dozen spewing bullet hits to kill anyone, as soulful triads in mirror shades and duster overcoats blaze away with high-tech weaponry. (A favorite trick involves grasping an enemy by the lapels, pulling him into a waltz embrace, and pumping several slugs into his duodenum.) Danny Lee, Chow's costar in City on Fire, is the intense, young officer who fixates on the killer's contradictory personality. --David Chute

Description

Hong Kong's preeminent director John Woo transforms genres from both the East and the West to create this explosive and masterful action film. Featuring Hong Kong's greatest star, Chow Yun-fat, as a killer with a conscience, the film is an exquisite dissection of morals in a corrupt society, highlighted with slow-motion sequences of brilliantly choreographed gun battles on the streets of Hong Kong.

Customer Reviews:

I Believe In Justice.......2007-06-17

John Woo:you either love him or hate him but there is no way of looking at him except as a force of nature. The Killer was one of Woo's greatest Hong Kong features; long before he came to America and made films such as Face/Off and Mission Impossible 2.

Made on a small budget this film is an homage to the classic action directors of Hollywood. There are shades of Peckenpah and of Scorsese. The films grainy look makes it almost perfect for this genre.

The story of a killer with a penchant for justice and loyalty has been done many times before but Chow Yun Fat and Danny Lee make it their own as the killer and the renegade cop who follows him.

Many have complained about the violence in this film. The film is extremely violent but the violence comes off as campy rather than as serious. When you have two men fighting hundreds it is hard to take anything too seriously.

The disc that I reviewed was the Criterion Collection edition. This edition gives a pristine transfer of the film and has a decently subtitled audio. Beware of editions that have any English dubbing since these editions tend to heighten the camp elements of the story rather than give a true translation of the dialogue. Also note that the Criterion Edition is expensive but you get what you pay for. Some of the lower priced editions of this film are known bootlegs that should be avoided.

The disc contains a commentary track by Woo and producer Terrance Chang and five deleted scenes.

If you can find or afford it this is essential viewing for action genre fans and for fans of purist Hong Kong cinema.

One of the greatest of the genre.......2007-06-14

I first got interested in Woo's work after seeing "Broken Arrow" in 1996. I was able to get my hands on a VHS copy of The Kiiler and watched it thinking it would be at least as food as Broken Arrow.

It wasn't.

It was ten times better.

The plot is similar to the Rock Hudson film Magnificent Obsession (although Rock is not an assassin). Chow-Yun Fat is an amazing actor who portrays the title character with great depth and believability.

But let's get down to why everyone REALLY likes this film: The action scenes are AMAZING. When the shooting starts, all hell breaks loose and you'll probably have to watch the scenes in slo-mo or rewind and watch them again. There is so much going on that it's hard to beleive that anyone would be able to choreograph and film such stylistic and hectic battle scenes, but John Woo does just that.

My biggest question is, why aren't Woo's Hollywood films just as wild and stylish. Woo's Hollywood work is very good, but why are his Hong Kong features so much better? They seem to be gritty and real whereas his Hollywood features seem to be glossy and watered down.

No matter. If you like action films, this is one of the best, but be warned. This film is VIOLENT and much of the violence is very graphic, so it's not for everyone.

Also, sometimes the dialogue seems a bit hammy, but I feel that it may be because of the loss of translation when the film was dubbed in English. If you're able to, watch the original Chinese version with English subtitles. I know it's heard to read while your trying to watch the action, so watch the dubbed version a couple of time to where you pretty much know what's happening and then watch it with the subtitles. The original actors' voices convey much more emotion and intensity.

RE-ISSUE!!!!!.......2007-06-09

I don't know much about the secondary "market" for DVD's, but when I look to buy a copy of "The Killer" on amazon, I am filled with disgust. $300.00 for a copy of a !@&%$*@ DVD? It's time that whoever owns the distribution rights to re-issue this film and take control of this situation back from these scalpers.

This comment refers to the "Criterion Collection" version.

What a movie.......2007-03-28

More hong kong action from the greats. You really should see this movie if you're into hong kong action. The shoot outs are great, and the action is incredible. I also really love the story. Also, you can really see alot of John Woo's tradmarks appear in this movie, like the use of dove's and religion. A great movie.

The Killer AMAZING.......2007-02-21

This is the best one of John Woo's movies and has to be seen in widescreen format for the ultimate thrill.

Chow Yun Fat blinds a woman by accident during a shootout and he feels he has to atone which makes this more than just another violent action movie. John Woo gives the movie a psychological side that you don't see too often in this genre.

The action sequences needless to say are some of the best out there.

This is an essential DVD for action lovers.

The criterion version is excellent too.

Silence of the Lambs (Criterion Collection)

Average customer rating:

Silence of the Lambs (Criterion Collection)

ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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ASIN: B000GQKL9I

Product Description

From Thomas Harris novel, director Jonathan Demme explodes and reconstructs a classic genre, laying a foundation of emotional and political commitment beneath a perfectly constructed psychological thriller. Fourteen years after her controversial role in Taxi Driver, Jodie Foster finally makes the transformation from helpless victim to rescuing hero in this dark, gender-bending fairy tale of an American obsession: serial murder. As Hannibal the Cannibal Lecter, Anthony Hopkins is the archetypal antiherocultured, quick-witted, uncontainablea portrait of all the sharpest human faculties gone diabolically wrong. Winner of five Academy Awards®, including Best Picture and Best Screenplay Adaptation for Ted Tally.

Criterion Crime Wave 6-Pack (High & Low/Tokyo Drifter/The Honeymoon Killers/Branded to Kill/Alphaville/Man Bites Dog) - Amazon.com exclusive

Average customer rating:

Criterion Crime Wave / IFC crossover promotion
Great movies, strange price
Great movies, silly collection

Criterion Crime Wave 6-Pack (High & Low/Tokyo Drifter/The Honeymoon Killers/Branded to Kill/Alphaville/Man Bites Dog) - Amazon.com exclusive
Starring: Valérie Boisgel , Jean-Louis Comolli , Eddie Constantine , Michel Delahaye , and Jean-André Fieschi
Director: Jean-Luc Godard
Manufacturer: Criterion Collection
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

( C ) | Titles | Features | DVD | Video
ASIN: B00015WMP0
Release Date: 2004-01-11

Amazon.com

The six films in the Criterion Crime Wave 6-Pack were shown together on on the International Film Channel in January 2004.

Although best known for his samurai classics, Japanese master filmmaker Akira Kurosawa proved himself equally adept at contemporary dramas and thrillers, and 1962's High and Low offers a powerful showcase for Kurosawa's versatile skill. The great Toshiro Mifune stars as a wealthy industrialist who receives a phone call informing him that his son has been kidnapped, and by unfortunate coincidence the ransom demand is nearly equivalent to the amount Mifune has raised for a corporate coup. What follows is both a tense detective thriller, as the police attempt to track down the kidnapper, and a compelling illustration of class division in Japan--the "high and low" of the title. Far be it from Kurosawa to make a mere thriller, however; this loose adaptation of the Ed McBain novel King's Ransom provides the director with ample opportunity to develop a visual strategy that perfectly enhances the story's sociological themes. --Jeff Shannon

In Toyko Drifter, Seijun Suzuki transforms the yakuza genre into a pop-art James Bond cartoon as directed by Jean-Luc Godard. The twisting narrative takes hitman "Phoenix" Tetsu (Tetsuya Watari) from deliriously gaudy nightclubs, where killers hide behind every pillar, to the beautiful snowy plains of Northern Japan and back again, leaving a trail of corpses in his wake. Suzuki's extreme stylization, jarring narrative leaps, and wild plot devices combine to create a pulp fiction on acid, equal parts gangster parody and post-modern deconstruction. --Sean Axmaker

Seijun Suzuki's absolutely mad yakuza movie Branded to Kill bends the hit-man genre so out of shape it more resembles a Luis Bunuel take on Martin Scorsese. Number three killer Goro Hanada (Jo Shishido) is a hired killer who loves his work, but when he misses a target, he becomes the next target of the mob. Goro is no pushover and easily dispatches the first comers, but the rat-a-tat violence gives way to a surreal, sadistic game of cat and mouse. The legendary Number One mercilessly taunts his target before moving in with him in a macho, testosterone-laden Odd Couple truce that ends up with them handcuffed together. Kinky? Not compared to earlier scenes. The smell of boiling rice sets Goro's libido for his mistress so aflame that Suzuki censors the gymnastic sex with animated black bars that come to life in an animated cha-cha. --Sean Axmaker

1965's Alphaville is a perfect example of Jean-Luc Godard's willingness to disrupt expectation, combine genres, and comment on movies while making sociopolitical statements that inspired doctoral theses and left a majority of viewers mystified. Part science fiction and part hard-boiled detective yarn, Alphaville presents a futuristic scenario using the most modern and impersonal architecture that Godard could find in mid-'60s Paris. A haggard private eye (Eddie Constantine) is sent to an ultramodern city run by a master computer, where his mission is to locate and rescue a scientist who is trapped there. As the story unfolds, the movie tackles a variety of topics such as the dehumanizing effect of technology, willful suppression of personality, saturation of commercial products, and, of course, the constant recollection of previous films through Godard's carefully chosen images. --Jeff Shannon

The Belgian satire Man Bites Dog is dark, dark, dark--but also right on the money in its sly sendup of the media's fascination with violence and its complicity therein. This mock documentary has a trio of filmmakers shooting a cinéma vérité feature about a garrulous serial killer who lets the film crew follow him around as he selects victims and then dispatches them. But at what point does filmmaking become participation? These hapless documentarians soon find out as their subject eventually pulls them into his world, including a gun battle with a rival film crew and their own criminal star. Gruesomely hilarious, with a deadpan wit that's hard to resist. --Marshall Fine

Customer Reviews:

Criterion Crime Wave / IFC crossover promotion.......2004-01-20

From the other persons reviewing this 6 DVD bundle there seems to come confusion as to why Amazon would group said discs. The reason is for cross promotion with The Independent Film Channel (IFC) who will show all six movies on January 30th and 31st of 2004. Of course, all are Criterion titles as well, and the budding collector may feel compulsion to buy all of these at once to achieve a discount (an extra 5% PER title above individual prices here at Amazon) and saving on S&H. Aside from the tie-in to IFC, Amazon is supporting a contest with prizes to be given away and you can register here at this site.

All that being said, there is no other reason these titles would form a cohesive box set, but then again, it is not being sold as such. Unlike other Criterion box sets (which to this point have always showcased a single director), this is working off of a theme and not someone's body of work. There is no mention of a "box" to house all these DVDs, but instead are just bundled together in a group. Each of these films though are solid titles, with Man Bites Dog being far and away my favorite and the two Suzuki films probably being the least appealing (though, still good films).

If your first introduction to the Criterion Collection is from watching these films on IFC at the end of the month, you will come to find the company to be the Rolls Royce of DVDs. From film restoration to bonuses to retrieval of obscure cellulite, Criterion is unparalleled in the retail field and is a must for any serious film students or lovers of great cinema.

Great movies, strange price.......2004-01-17

This is a great collection of classic films. I have all
but one on DVD or Laserdisc.

I am confused on the pricing. ..

Great movies, silly collection.......2003-12-16

Each and every one of these films are fantastic...from the police procedural of Kurosawa's High & Low to the cinema verite nastiness of Man Bites Dog to the goofiness of Suzuki's Tokyo Drifter and Branded to Kill. That being said, they are all different one from the other and have little in common (with the exception of Tokyo Drifter and Branded to Kill...both by Suzuki), and other than an at times tangential relationship to the crime genre (Godard's Alphaville is "crime" film only to the extent that a private investigator is used as a plot device), it's strange why in the world these films are grouped together. Well, all of them are issued by the Criterion Collection...but even Criterion Collection boxed sets have a stronger kinship, as in the Hitchcock and Kurosawa boxes.

Truly a mystery why these are being marketed this way.

DVD:

DVD

DVD

DVD

National Treasure (Full Screen Edition)

Jimmy Eat World

Devil's Advocate [WS] [1998] (REGION 1) (NTSC)

DVD: A Tribute to Bruce Lee

Albino Alligator