Men and Woman

Starring:Men & Women
Studio: Water Bearer Films, Inc
Product Type: DVD

Children of Men (Combo HD DVD and Standard DVD)

Average customer rating:

Overrated
I hated this movie
A Classic
Self-important
Moving story and great HD

Children of Men (Combo HD DVD and Standard DVD)
Starring: Clive Owen , Julianne Moore , and Michael Caine
Manufacturer: Universal Studios
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: HD DVD

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ASIN: B000N6TX22
Release Date: 2007-03-27

Amazon.com

Presenting a bleak, harrowing, and yet ultimately hopeful vision of humankind's not-too-distant future, Children of Men is a riveting cautionary tale of potential things to come. Set in the crisis-ravaged future of 2027, and based on the atypical 1993 novel by British mystery writer P.D. James, the anxiety-inducing, action-packed story is set in a dystopian England where humanity has become infertile (the last baby was born in 2009), immigration is a crime, refugees (or "fugees") are caged like animals, and the world has been torn apart by nuclear fallout, rampant terrorism, and political rebellion. In this seemingly hopeless landscape of hardscrabble survival, a jaded bureaucrat named Theo (Clive Owen) is drawn into a desperate struggle to deliver Kee (Clare-Hope Ashitey), the world's only pregnant woman, to a secret group called the Human Project that hopes to discover a cure for global infertility. As they carefully navigate between the battling forces of military police and a pro-immigration insurgency, Theo, Kee, and their secretive allies endure a death-defying ordeal of urban warfare, and director Alfonso Cuaron (with cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki) capture the action with you-are-there intensity. There's just enough humor to balance the film's darker content (much of it coming from Michael Caine, as Theo's aging hippie cohort), and although Children of Men glosses over many of the specifics about its sociopolitical worst-case scenario (which includes Julianne Moore in a brief but pivotal role), it's still an immensely satisfying, pulse-pounding vision of a future that represents a frightening extrapolation of early 21st-century history. --Jeff Shannon

Customer Reviews:

Overrated .......2007-07-03

Interesting film but wildly overrated by the critics. Confusing and ambiguous story line trips up a pretty good cast and produces a mediocre science fiction film. I am afraid that all this film really foreshadows is more bad movies to come. This film does not, by any stretch of the imagination, compare to Sci-Fi classics like Blade Runner. Save your money and watch it on cable.

I hated this movie.......2007-07-03

Bleak, weak story line..everyone is always running. very confusing and depressing and I thought it made NO sense even though I understood what was trying to be said. The ending was a joke. Don't waste your money or time! I didn't even want to give it one star! One of the worse movies I ever saw!

A Classic.......2007-07-03

I really enjoyed this movie and the sci fi element was great.
A defintie keeper to the collection.

Self-important.......2007-07-02

It's a political thriller filled with horrifying implications about our future, implications we'd really rather not face. It's timely, it's hard-hitting, and all that. So naturally I was curious and wanted to see this film that wise critics told me was foretelling our possible fate. And so I rented Black Sunday recently.

And 30 years later, the film doesn't show its age very well. It's very rooted in the 70s. It is filled with more "movie moments" than genuine truths, though those moments are well-disguised.

And that about sums up Children of Men, too. It's trying so hard to be Important. It's obviously a protest against the current war on terror and all the infighting it has generated. But it's based on a red herring--or a gimmick, to put it less charitably--and it's about as subtle as a boulder falling off a thousand foot cliff.

Folks, the issue we'll be facing in the near future won't be wars stemming from underpopulation (why terrorists are at war on this is never really explained), it will be on *over*population. More specifically, overpopulation with dwindling natural resources, and electorates everywhere who have done nothing past lip service because they're busy stuffing their pockets with donations from those who control the existing natural resources. *That's* a topic I'd like to see a grim movie like this tackle. But it just might make theater-goers a little uncomfortable as they climb into their Hemi pickups and SUVs afterwards.

So instead we get this self-important movie that either the NY or LA Times (I forget which) says frightens us because we know, deep down, this could be our future. I'd say it's watchable and enjoyable because deep down we know this isn't our future. Is there really an infertility epidemic going on that I'm unaware of? There are grave problems threatening us today, and not one of them is in this film. There's not much in this film, really. It's a cleverly-disguised action thriller, Mad Max meets Brazil (both better movies, btw).

In addition to the red herring of infertility (which is never explained, by the way...Nor do we have any reason to believe the child at the end will survive any better than anyone else, especially since she's a preemie, so the whole ending felt pointless to me), there's the infighting. Here the message is obvious, driven home by power tools, and in case you're out getting popcorn during this bit the director constantly has huge overbearing signs in all the locations with messages like "Report Suspicious Activity." Yes, I know there are really such signs nowadays. Yes, I get the indictment of what's going with British and American governments currently. Anyone who hasn't been lobotomized gets it. But after beating us up with it, the filmmakers don't develop it, doesn't make a point past the obvious one. By contrast, look at the odyssey the central character in Brazil undergoes, and how it affects both him and the people he loves and looks out for.

What stymied me after watching Children of Men was that such a one-dimensional movie impressed all the high-brow critics. Then I went back and reread the 1970s reviews for Black Sunday and understood. So often films that seem so foretelling look naive a couple decades later. It's hard to predict the weight of your warning when you are so close to it--and this film is very emotionally-close to its subject. I make the prediction right here and now that this film will play very different on our consciousness 30 years from now, as environmental warnings from the 70s about an impending ice age do today.

And this wasn't particularly groundbreaking filmmaking either. We have a standard stock of characters here: the reluctant hero who rediscovers his idealism after a great personal loss, the old flame who reunites him with his past ways (and geeze, Julianne Moore has one of the most heavy-handed, literally un-believable entrances in screen history here), the sacrificing fatherly figure (did anyone not know how that part was going to end?), the shining young woman who represents Hope, and so on.

Children of Men is the latest in a line of Syrianna/Constant Gardener/Traffic-type films, with sprawling plots, timely messages, a documentary look, lots of violence, a backdrop of decaying society, large cast of characters, etc. Except the other films had valid conceits. That's the difference.

The disc looks great, however, and there's plenty of bangy-boomy sound to give your subwoofers a workout. There are several small featurettes about the making of the film, including a nifty pieces demonstrating worldlessly how they created the CGI baby. No trailer, oddly. But after you, not believing my review, rent this anyway, go see Brazil, a far deeper film that has turned out to be eerily accurate about how things are shaping up (terrorist wars that drag on and bankrupt governments, governments that are pennywise and pound foolish, drone workers whose only escape is disembodied fantasy, trying to achieve immortality through plastic surgery, wrapped presents that are destroyed at checkpoints, consumerism run rampant and in the guise of patriotism or religious fervor). That's the difference between a pseudo-intellectual movie and a film that really makes you think.

Moving story and great HD.......2007-06-28

Children of Men stands out as one of the better movies recently released on HD DVD for two reasons: the film itself tells an engaging story and the HD presentation is one of the best so far released.

Firstly, the story. The film starts out with a bang and uses this to keep the viewer on the edge of their seat as the story unfolds. Children of Men tells a dark tale of a future which has a dead end due to the sudden infertility of the human race and the subsequent xenophobia on a large scale. It is one of the most emotionally engaging dramas that I have seen in a very long time.

Then there is the HD presentation. This is without a doubt, one of the best HD transfers that I have seen to date. The cinematography, palette and sound all contribute to this experience. If you are just getting into HD this should be high on your first purchase list.

Average customer rating:

Brilliance
A simple plot with sublime execution
Overlooked Martin
Steve Martin acts with some of the best movie stars of the 1940s
Still Uproarious Film Noir Pastiche Thanks to Clever Editing

Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid
Starring: Brad Baird , Jean Beaudine , Eugene Brezany , Dieter Curt , and Kent Deigaard
Manufacturer: Universal Studios
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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The Cheap Detective

ASIN: 0783232063
Release Date: 1999-03-16

Amazon.com essential video

This is one of the best parodies of the '40s hardboiled detective genre, with a very clever conceit: weaving the plot and production design around memorable movie clips (The Killers, The Big Sleep, Double Indemnity, The Lost Weekend, White Heat, This Gun for Hire, Sorry, Wrong Number, Notorious). Steve Martin plays the cool Rigby Reardon, who tries solving an incomprehensible mystery with the assistance of Humphrey Bogart, James Cagney, Burt Lancaster, Fred MacMurray, Ingrid Bergman, and Ray Milland, among others. It's all silly hokum with Rachel Ward as the pretty moll and director-cowriter Carl Reiner as the nefarious villain. Miklos Rozsa takes us back to yesteryear with his lush score, and, fittingly, Edith Head handles the period costumes in her final production. --Bill Desowitz

Customer Reviews:

Brilliance.......2007-06-14

Steve Martin and Carl Reiner sat through hundreds of hours of classic films to find the footage they needed to splice in to "their" movie. The results were pure genius.

The editing and set designs were so flawless that it actually appears as though Steve Martin was starring in a film with the likes of Alan Ladd, Humphrey Bogart, Vincent Price, James Cagney, Veronica Lake, Joan Crawford, the list goes on and on.

The premise and plot are wacky, but it doesn't matter. This movie is so refreshing that you are able to overlook the rediculous plan of the major villain and the outlandishness of the situations that Martin constantly finds himself in (in one scene, he pours coffee grinds into a pot for two minutes and eight seconds!).

Martin geniously portrays a street-savvy, deadpan, hard-boiled private eye and still manages to make you laugh hysterically while maintaiing his straight-line, tough-guy persona . How he didn't crack himself up while filming these scenes is beyond me.

The film itself is very enjoyable, but it's also fun to try and pick out the scenes from the "classic" films and try to idenify who the actors are and what films the scenes were taken from.

If you don't want to buy the DVD, please, by all means, RENT it! This movie will please comedy fans, Steve Martin fans, and real movie buffs.

Steve Martin (in voice-over): "The one thing I liked about Jimmie-Sue was the fact that the words 'I can't' weren't in her vocabulary. (to Veronica Lake) Hi, Jimmie-Sue. I need you to do something for me.

Veronica Lake: "I can't."

Steve Martin (in voice-over): "Well, I guess she'd added them since the last time I'd seen her."

A simple plot with sublime execution.......2007-05-19

Steve Martin stars in this satire of 1940's film noir detective stories. The plot is simple, but the execution is sublime. Steve Martin's character is hired by a beautiful and mysterious woman who thinks that the death of her famous scientist father was no accident, despite what the police and newspapers are reporting. The movie is filmed in black & white and employs creative editing to splice in scenes of the great actors of the Golden Age: James Cagney, Veronica Lake, Burt Lancaster, Humphrey Bogart, Charles Laughton, Joan Crawford, Lana Turner, Barbara Stanwyck, Betty Davis and more.

The action teeters between melodramatic and pure slapstick, with sharp dialog. The photography is stunning, and I remember being amazed at the glow in the actors eyes', even with black & white film. Costuming was done by Edith Head, the winner of more Oscars than any other woman. Head was the perfect choice to match the modern actors costumes to those in the classic film footage.

Overlooked Martin.......2007-04-28

Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid (DMDWP) is probably Steve Martin's most overlooked film. Coming at the time when Steve was still "Wild & Crazy", many were turned off by this movie. But this is actually one of his best. The seemless interplay between Martin and the great actors/actresses from the 30's and 40's is genius. Filmed in black & white, Martin plays a gumshoe detective. Rachel Ward plays the love interest. Filmed before computers allowed you to insert anything into a scene, the editing must have been a nightmare. But the end result is worth it. The comedy is dark and satirical. It is Martin's tribute to the great detective and murder mystery films of Hollywood's golden years. Best way to view this film; Wait till it's nighttime, stormy and have a large popcorn. This film is simply great entertainment.

Steve Martin acts with some of the best movie stars of the 1940s.......2007-02-07

+++++

QUESTION: What do the following legendary movie stars from the 1940s have in common? Humphrey Bogart, James Cagney, Cary Grant, Barbara Stanwyck, Bette Davis, Joan Crawford, Kirk Douglas, Burt Lancaster, Ingrid Bergman, and Vincent Price.

ANSWER: They all appear in this private eye movie set in the 1940s with the hilarious Steve Martin.

Martin plays gumshoe Rigby Reardon who has a sensitivity to the words "cleaning women" and is hired by Juliet "Doll Face" Forrest (Rachel Ward) to investigate her father's (a scientist and cheese maker) mysterious death. Reardon smells a rat and follows a large maze of clues that turns this case into the "The Carlotta Mystery."

As Reardon attempts to crack this mystery, he encounters the legendary stars mentioned above (and many others) with some being friends, some being foes, or some being just important leads.

The ingenious, creative gimmick of this movie is that you have clips of legendary movie stars being intercut with the action so as to create a mystery. This gimmick works quite well.

Martin (who co-wrote this movie) plays his role as shamus Rigby Reardon with lots of funny one-liners and sight gags. Ward, who looks stunning in this movie, is a perfect "straight man" to Martin's humor.

Be aware that this is not a "laugh-out-loud" kind of movie but one that makes you chuckle a lot.

The background music of this movie is quite good as are the costumes. It was filmed in black and white.

There are two major problems I had. First, this movie tends to drag in places becoming, at times, tedious to watch. Second, all the legendary movie stars were difficult for me to identify (even though I did recognize the majority of them). Thus, this movie may be of interest only to those who are familiar with older movies.

Finally, the DVD itself (the one released in 1999) is perfect in picture and sound quality. It has minimal extras.

In conclusion, this is a gem of a movie, being one of Steve Martin's hilarious early comedies!!

(1982; 1 hr, 30 min; black and white; wide screen; 18 scenes)

+++++

Still Uproarious Film Noir Pastiche Thanks to Clever Editing.......2007-01-21

Carl Reiner's 1982 pastiche on 1940's film noir has never received its due as a genuinely clever, often hilarious salute to a genre that is ripe for satirical treatment. Filmed in a rich black-and-white by Michael Chapman, the film unique intercuts footage from actual films of the period to make it seem like the then-current actors are interacting with the stars of those movies. Consequently, Steve Martin looks convincingly like he's talking to the likes of Humphrey Bogart in "The Big Sleep", James Cagney in "White Heat", Ingrid Bergman in "Notorious", Alan Ladd in "This Gun for Hire", Burt Lancaster in "The Killers", Kirk Douglas in "I Walk Alone", Fred MacMurray in "Double Indemnity", and several others. The result means there are some contrived plot turns and certainly variations in the graininess of the film stock (since 1982 was still well before the enhanced computer graphics we see today), but the film is still quite a kick after a quarter-century.

The basic plot is straightforward. Rigby Reardon is a classic, world-weary gumshoe in the Philip Marlowe mold, who is hired by the beautiful and mysterious Juliet Forrest to find out who killed her father, a renowned cheese scientist. The story gets complicated because a number of random characters are introduced through the creative editing of the classic film clips. Reardon meets up with some familiar faces, and just to watch their non-reaction to Reardon's antics is worthwhile in itself. Credit needs to go to the smart screenplay co-written by Reiner, Martin and George Gipe. Most of the scenes, originally intended as straight melodrama in their original context, have been turned into uproarious slapstick comedy routines (including Martin in drag as Barbara Stanwyck's blonde femme fatale from "Double Indemnity"), wicked double-entendres and shrewdly off-kilter dialogue scenes.

The film's climax lifts a long dramatic sequence from 1949's "The Bribe" in which Ava Gardner, Charles Laughton and Vincent Price actually appear to be playing more substantial roles in this movie. In what is probably my favorite of his early screen performances, Martin has a good time as Bogie wannabe Reardon, gratefully harnessing the manic energy he displayed in his previous collaboration with Reiner, "The Jerk". Just before she broke out big in "The Thorn Birds", the stunning Rachel Ward lends a hint of welcome sarcasm to the sexy, Bacall-like languor she provides as Juliet, tapping into a genuine comedy talent rarely used since. Reni Santoni has the only other role of significance as the grinning Captain Rodriguez, who gets entirely too preoccupied with Reardon's pajamas. Legendary costume designer Edith Head did her final work on this film, which is fitting since she did many of the costumes on the earlier films. The 1999 DVD unfortunately has no extras.

Average customer rating:

Certainly no "Farewell My Concubine"

Men and Woman
Starring: Yang Qing , Yu Bo , Zhang Kang , Yu Mengjie , and Wei Jiangang
Director: Liu Bingjian
Manufacturer: Water Bearer Films, Inc
ProductGroup: DVD
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ASIN: B0001O3YQW
Release Date: 2004-04-20

Customer Reviews:

Certainly no "Farewell My Concubine".......2005-08-02

This movie moves incredibly slow. For example, instead of showing one second of pool and then going into dialogue between the pool players, they show a whole game of pool with no dialogue besides "Good move!" At one point, they film the outside of a bathroom for an entire minute: no dialogue, no actors, nothing. The thing to which Western gay male and lesbian viewers may relate is the heterosexism and compulsory heterosexuality. Straight characters frequently ask the gay main character if he has a girlfriend without once thinking that maybe he doesn't want one. They try to matchmake him with women, as if all men are attracted to women. I just cannot imagine anybody besides Sinologists enjoying this film.

Average customer rating:

Very Boring
Why was this movie made?
Understated, complex filmmaking
Understated, complex filmmaking
Understated, complex filmmaking

A Woman, Her Men, and Her Futon
Starring: Jennifer Rubin , Lance Edwards , Grant Show , Michael Cerveris , and Robert Lipton
Director: Michael Sibay
Manufacturer: Image Entertainment
ProductGroup: DVD
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ASIN: B00005ABVP
Release Date: 2001-04-10

Description

She's got all the right stuff, but all the wrong men. Jennifer Rubin (The Doors) delivers a provocative performance in her first leading role as Helen, a recent divorcee and aspiring filmmaker trying to find her identity in all the wrong places and all the wrong men. In this erotic tale of a woman's struggle for independence, Helen finds herself on the verge of a professional, emotional and sexual odyssey that will change her life once and for all.

Customer Reviews:

Very Boring.......2001-12-26

A WOMAN, HER MEN, & HER FUTON is about a very attractive woman being involved in some really empty relationships that she uses her experiences in her screenplay. Then she gets involved with an aspiring filmaker & now she doesn't know how she feels for him.

In my opinion, this movie was very boring. The characters are very shallow & empty. The lead actress (Jennifer Rubin) acts as if she is very bored in the movie. The sex scenes were not steamy enough to even tittilate, not even in the slightest degree. The movie was slow-paced. I kept hoping that the movie would end already.

If one wants to cure insomnia, then I would recommend this movie.

Why was this movie made?.......2001-05-19

I'd like to know who made this movie, and why? I haven't seen it yet, but I think I might know a thing or two that happens in it...

ciao

Understated, complex filmmaking.......2000-02-21

"A WOMAN, HER MEN, AND HER FUTON" is one of the most accomplished films one can find about sexual politics. Although it suffers occasionally from actress Jennifer Rubin's comatose performance, the film honestly and intelligently depicts characters we know. Its style and content are reminiscent of the French film maker Eric Rohmer's, with the same kind of deceptive simplicity and a similar emphasis on the ambiguity of psycho-sexual interaction. Director Sibay is highly skilled when it comes to actors and as a writer his dialogue is often compelling. If the subject matter is your cup of tea I highly recommend it.

Understated, complex filmmaking.......2000-02-21

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