Life And Debt

Starring:Belinda Becker, Buju Banton, Horst KÃ¶hler, Michael Manley (II), Stanley Fischer, Michael Witter, David Coore, Bill Clinton, Jean-Bertrand Aristide, Yami Bolo, Jamaica Kincaid, Jerry J. Rawlings, Kathy Owen
Director: Stephanie Black (II)
Studio: New Yorker Video
Product Type: DVD

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:

Sweet Movie Based on a True Story
29th Sreet
This movie is a classic
Some real New Yorkers in Carolina
Great Movie ... They're Right - Goodfellas and It's a Wonderful Life.

29th Street
Starring: Danny Aiello , Anthony LaPaglia , Lainie Kazan , Frank Pesce , and Robert Forster
Director: George Gallo
Manufacturer: Starz / Anchor Bay
ProductGroup: DVD
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ASIN: B00076ONV4
Release Date: 2005-03-22

Description

Anthony LaPaglia of WITHOUT A TRACE stars as Frank Pesce, the $6.2 million winner of the first New York State Lottery. Unfortunately, Frank is also a full-time dreamer cursed with a lifetime of great luck, a bickering Italian-American family, and a love-hate relationship with his loser gambler father, Frank Sr. (Oscar® nominee Danny Aiello of DO THE RIGHT THING and MOONSTRUCK). But when Frank Jr. makes a deal with local mobsters, will his lottery prize be his unluckiest break ever? Fuhgeddaboutit! The biggest jackpot of all may be waiting for Frank and his father among the good guys, bad guys and wiseguys of 29th STREET. Lainie Kazan (MY BIG FAT GREEK WEDDING), Oscar® nominee Robert Forster (JACKIE BROWN), Tony Sirico (Paulie Walnuts of THE SOPRANOS) and Frank Pesce himself co-star in this acclaimed comedy written and directed by George Gallo, the screenwriter of MIDNIGHT RUN.

Customer Reviews:

Sweet Movie Based on a True Story .......2007-01-14

29th Street is a sweet movie that is great to watch during the holidays since so much of it is set at Christmas time and it has a nice message. If it wasn't for the very raw language this could almost be a family film but then if the language was cleaned up it would not be a realistic story of this man and his life. This is one of the handful of movies where the real life hero plays a smaller part in the film (in this case Frank plays his policeman brother). The characters argue, curse and shout but their love for each other shines through painting an endearing picture of blue collar New Yorkers in the 1970's. A film that deserves to be more well known than it is.

29th Sreet.......2006-12-22

Watched this movie last night and loved it. Great movie about a down to earth Italian family living in New York. laughed all the way through it. Does have a little "swear words" in it but comparied to TV nowdays It's nothing, besides you are laughing so much you hardly notice. Rent or buy. great movie.

This movie is a classic.......2006-07-18

This movie is your classic comedy / drama about the old time Italian families. Lots of yelling, laughing and arguing. The story is great and the casting is perfect. I just can't believe it took this long for this movie to come out on DVD. I'll actually be buying another copy in December to give as a gift.

Some real New Yorkers in Carolina.......2006-07-04

I'm from Queens, New York too, as well as Brooklyn, and I really enjoyed this movie. I grew up near 21st Street, but never went to 29th Street, so I don't recognize any of the buildings. I wouldn't anyway, considering that the movie was shot in North Carolina.

One of the things I like best about this movie is the way the New York family relates to each other, the way they argue. It had me rolling. It reminded me of the way my wife got along with her father when he was alive. They were at each other constantly but they still loved each other.

You couldn't say anything to my father in law without getting into an argument. If you said the weather was hot, he'd jump at you "You're always complaining about the weather". If you said you just had a nice day he'd jump at you with "You never do anything". He was just like the family in this movie. He didn't mean any harm, but he just jumped all over everyone. The only thing it was safe to say to him was "How are you feeling?" Just say that, and shut up. You'll be fine.

This movie reminds me a bit of O. Henry. People make sacrifices for each other.

The one complaint I have is that it is absurd to offer only $10,000 for a lottery ticket that is a "finalist", with a 1 in 50 chance of earning six million dollars. Just do a little math. Divide six million dollars by 50 to see what the ticket is worth before the drawing. That's over $100,000. How can anyone have the nerve to just offer one tenth of what it's worth? And how can anyone be dumb enough to accept such a ripoff? Then again, maybe the six million is paid over a lifetime, and the present lump sum value would be a lot less. But still, $10,000 is chickenfeed when compared to a life-changing number like six million.

I wonder what in this movie is true and what is fiction.

Great Movie ... They're Right - Goodfellas and It's a Wonderful Life........2006-06-30

Great Movie ... Especially if you are Italian, A New Yorker, A Gambler, A Dreamer and you Love Life.

I've had the VHS version since 1992, Full Screen - Closed Caption.
I just purchased the DVD, Wide Screen - Closed Caption BUT
I can't seen to get the captions to display.

I've tried 3 different players and TV's.
Yes, I have everything turned on, other DVDs work fine.

Could I just have a bad DVD or are others having the same problem?

Average customer rating:

a powerful prerequisite for anyone planning a trip to Jamaica (or anyone else, for that matter!)
Another Shame of the American Power Structure
great documentry
Worth seeing but...
Very well done.

Life And Debt
Starring: Belinda Becker , Buju Banton , Horst Köhler , Michael Manley (II) , and Stanley Fischer
Director: Stephanie Black (II)
Manufacturer: New Yorker Video
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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ASIN: B00008NNPK
Release Date: 2003-06-24

Amazon.com

Set to a beguiling reggae beat, Life and Debt takes as its subject Jamaica's economic decline in the 20th century. The story has reverberations in the plight of other third-world nations blindsided by globalization, like Ghana and Haiti. After England granted Jamaica independence in 1962, the World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF) stepped in with a series of loans. These loans came with strings attached--the kind that would eventually plunge the country $7 billion into debt, stranded without the resources to dig themselves out. Although IMF officials get the chance to have their say, it's clear where filmmaker Stephanie Black's sympathies lie--with the country's underemployed farmers and sweatshop workers. Jamaica Kinkaid (A Small Place) penned the narration, while the soundtrack features some of the "imports" with which this island nation remains mostly closely associated: Bob Marley, Peter Tosh, and Mutabaruka, who performs the title track. --Kathleen C. Fennessy

Customer Reviews:

a powerful prerequisite for anyone planning a trip to Jamaica (or anyone else, for that matter!).......2007-05-29

LIFE & DEBT, a brilliant documentary by Stephanie Black, takes a cautionary look at the bleak state of the small island nation of Jamaica. Based on a piece written by Antigua-bred writer, Jamaica Kincaid, this film is beautifully narrated by Belinda Becker. What's more, it is greatly benefited by an evocative musical score that includes such musicians as Ziggy Marley, along with an original score by Mutabaruka. The story juxtaposes news reels, candid interview with farmers, former Jamaican Prime Minister Michael Manley, Deputy Director of the IMF Stanley Fisher, and President of Haiti Jean-Bertrand Aristide (among others), as well as very graphic and honest footage of Jamaican slum life. You can almost smell the rot coming from the garbage dumps children and families must live close to, on a daily basis, because they simply have no other choice.

LIFE & DEBT takes a very sobering look at the effect of twenty-five years of assistance from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), what resulted from this relationship (including the increasing weakening of Jamaican currency, in favor of the American dollar and an increasing struggle for local farmers, as more and more imported produce found its way onto the shelves and into the bellies of Jamaicans and tourists to Jamaica). Throughout the story, we hear "If you come to Jamaica as a tourist, this is what you will see..." LIFE & DEBT makes an especially strong appeal to anyone who arrives in the island nation, and the way in which people tend to appropriate the beauty of a culture (beaches, corn-rowed hairstyles and local food), while turning a blind eye to the stark reality of those who must survive from day to day. The narrator paints the picture of a "typical" tourist. This person is a wealthy American who has the means to come and go from Jamaica, sees the rolling beaches, delicious local cuisine and warm weather. They also see the Jamaican natives, and imagine their life to be quite laid back and worry free. However, the reality is quite the opposite, since most of the poor subsist on less than the equivalent of one American dollar (once numerous taxes take a considerable bite out of their paycheck).

This film is beautiful, on so many levels. Stephanie Black made a bold and beautiful choice in the direction she took with her cinematography. The combination of beautiful and colorful footage of sunsets, and gorgeous flora and fauna, along with black and white montages (to depict the colonialized "past" in contrast with present day Jamaica) was really powerful. What's more, this is the first time I have seen someone respectfully acknowledging the great detrimental effect the WTO (World Trade Organization) and IMF (International Monetary Fund) has had on smaller, greatly disadvantaged nations that have been wrongfully exploited. I commend Stephanie Black for having the guts to bring LIFE & DEBT to the screen. It is as powerful today as it was when it was originally released in 2001.

Another Shame of the American Power Structure.......2007-05-13

Basically, "Life and Debt" concerns the World Bank's, International Monetary Fund's, and other entities' involvement in the economics of Jamaica's and other former colonial nations' ecenomics. Whatever side of the fence you're on concerning America's meddling and stranglehold on other nations, this film is worth watching. It is truly an eye-opener and will hopefully allow you to form an informed opinion.

great documentry.......2007-03-09

i watched this documentry in my urban sociology class. at the end of the semester what my professor said was to go out in the real world and let people know what i have learned. it was pretty inspiring. i bought this movie and showed it to my friends and family. it is extremely realistic and depicts what happened to this beautiful caribbean country. thanks to usa. everyone should watch it especially if you are an american or you live in america. guess american have something to be really proud of. and by the way my professor is an american, a white male.

Worth seeing but..........2007-02-25

In watching this one sided documentary you can't help but be impressed with the excellent quality of the cinematography, the sound track and the touching way individuals speak about the effect that the governments policies have had on their lives. By constantly editing back and forth from local poverty and riots to white tourists enjoying the natural splendor of Jamaica with all the comforts of home, the director establishes a powerful separation of wealth and class. It makes you feel that these tourists are part of the problem and how dare they enjoy their vacation while there are social injustices and poverty that needs to be dealt with in Jamaica. Although a very effective editing tool, it is an unfair use of tourism as tourism is one of the bright lights of the Jamaican economy and is responsible for an ever increasing percentage of the total economy.

The film further goes on to blame the plight of impoverished Jamaicans on the International Monetary Fund, the USA and on big business through the use of interviews with local farmers and factory workers that have been dramatically impacted by the policies that the Jamaican government imposed to get IMF help and foreign investment. The clear message of the film is that the IMF and large corporations are at fault for destroying paradise in the name of greed and globalization, however, I can't help but feel that this would be a more convincing film if they had explored the role of the Jamaican government and the policies that led up to the need for outside investment and loans. Ultimately the Jamaican government made the decision to get in bed with the IMF and this film leaves me with the one question of why?

Very well done........2007-02-06

If you want to see what the powers that be can do to even the most beautiful "laid back" countries around the world then watch this movie. While this is all about Jamaica, something tells me that these same sort of practices are carried out through out the world. The folks behind this film do a very good job at showing the normal tourist what things are really like in Jamaica and how they came to be that way.

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
Starring: James Stewart , Donna Reed , Lionel Barrymore , Thomas Mitchell , and Henry Travers
Director: Frank Capra
Manufacturer: Republic Pictures
ProductGroup: DVD
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ASIN: B00062J00S
Release Date: 1995-09-19

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Customer Reviews:

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

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

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

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

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

Average customer rating:

Go ahead, throw some stones!
Two Very Nice Performances
So botched.
Set-up to be a great thriller but eventually loses steam...
Tedious and improbable

The Glass House
Starring: Leelee Sobieski , Diane Lane , Stellan Skarsgård , Bruce Dern , and Kathy Baker
Director: Daniel Sackheim
Manufacturer: Sony Pictures
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Release Date: 2002-01-02

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Domestic tensions turn intimately sinister in this pulpy potboiler, which develops a steely sense of menace. The trouble begins when Mr. and Mrs. Glass (Stellan Skarsgård, Diane Lane) are appointed legal guardianship of 16-year-old Ruby (Leelee Sobieski) and her 11-year-old brother (Trevor Morgan) after their parents are killed in a car accident. As trusted former neighbors, the Glasses welcome the orphans into their luxurious Malibu home, but the all-glass structure turns into a gilded cage when Mr. Glass's motivations are revealed to be anything but friendly. With plot-thickening roles for Bruce Dern and Kathy Baker, the film builds considerable suspense before tailspinning into absurdity, and veteran TV director Daniel Sackheim takes full advantage of his prismatic setting and Sobieski's burgeoning sex appeal. The rickety script by Wesley Strick (echoing his rehash of Cape Fear) eventually veers toward self-parody, at which point The Glass House qualifies as a high-gloss slasher pic. --Jeff Shannon

Customer Reviews:

Go ahead, throw some stones!.......2007-06-24

Being a fan of both Leelee Sobieski and Diane Lane; I figured I had to see ths movie. that and I do enjoy the predictable B-movie from time to time!

That being said, that is exactly what this movie is, a predictable (but funny) B-movie. In all honesty, the script isn't half bad, and the acting is one thing that svaes this movie as a whole. the one draw back is the fact that it is so predictable. As someone has mentioned it seems to be more like a made-for-tv movie instead of a big-budget suspenseful thriller.

The acting as I mentioned is one thing that isn't half bad in this movie. Diane Lane as always puts on her best performance even with a lackluster script. Leelee Sobieski, who seems to always come under fire from both fans and critics alike, also puts on a super performance and shows she can hold her own alongside an actress like Diane Lane.

So yes, while the movie is predictable, and it has scenes that even may be highly unbelievable; it is a good movie to just sit and enjoy. You can even get involved yourself; yelling at the screen and asking why certain charcters are dumb enough to do certain things!

I do recommend this movie for a good time, and when it comes to Leelee Sobieski you can't go wrong.

Two Very Nice Performances.......2007-06-19

"The Glass House" (2001) is one of those films that you enjoy during the viewing thanks to good directing, good technical film-making (production design-nicely staged action sequences-odd camera angles), and convincing dialogue; but look back at feeling generally dissatisfied. In part this is due to the moronic final ten minutes but then you realize that the premise itself is the real problem. You don't mind suspending disbelief during the viewing but afterward you resent the fact that a less elaborate script would have made your efforts unnecessary.

The film is yet another example of Hollywood's ability, given a relatively large budget $20-30 Million, to put together a good-looking and visually believable suspense movie. It brings skilled technique to a plot that's a foregone conclusion, so the viewer must wait patiently for the characters to catch up.

For film buffs (those who like to read a film) there is a fairly ambitious subtext inside "The Glass House"; working on both conscious and sub-conscious levels. Warm (orange tones) lighting for the safe/secure scenes and cold (blue tones) lighting for the places where things are off-kilter. The Glasses (Diane Lane and Stellan Skarsgard) literally live in a "glass" house above the Malibu beach. The theme, that nothing is what it appears to be, is supported by a production design of reflective surfaces; mirrors, glass, and water (its always raining) that distort the images. Mrs. Glass is a physician in a pain center who is secretly addicted to her own medications. Mr. Glass runs a seemingly thriving limo service transporting famous clients behind smoked glass windows.

There are several references to "Hamlet" with Ruby Baker (Leelee Sobieski) essentially in the role of the Melancholy Dane. The writer must have had this linked together much better in the screenplay but apparently several key elements of this dynamic never made it into production. This story is told entirely from Hamlet's point of view, a Hamlet who is frustratingly slow on the uptake and unable to make up her mind. And the viewer is supposed to be wondering what is real, what is wrongly perceived, and what is paranoid illusion. They even try to fool you with a dream sequence involving the return of Ruby's mother. Fortunately Sobieski (who looks like a young Helen Hunt) is an excellent actress and up to the challenge. Her performance (she is in every scene) keeps you focused on her story. The many scenes between her and Skarsgard are the film's real strength; they must carry the film since no one else in the cast is much of a factor.

The film opens with a "film within a film" device, which turns out to be a horror film, late- night viewing for Ruby and her rave-loving high school friends. This is an early clue to the "nothing is what it seems to be" theme. It turns out that Ruby is quite a party animal and has been successfully deceiving her parents about her nocturnal activities. This night she returns home to find police cars parked outside her house. Believing herself finally busted she enters the house only to be told that her parent's were both killed in a car accident earlier that evening. This sets the stage for life with the Glass family, a childless couple who were friends with her parents. You instantly know that they are odd because the director works so hard to make them appear normal.

Ruby and her little brother Rhett (Trevor Morgan) leave the San Fernando Valley to live with the Glass's in their expensive hilltop house. Can you say: "Hansel and Gretel in a Gingerbread cottage"? Things are weird from the start as the two children must share a room. Whatever the original rationale for this idea might have been got lost in the deleted scenes of the screenplay and it just seems silly and illogical (given the Glasses long-term plans). I assume that it was originally included to reinforce the idea that living in a glass house offers no privacy but who knows.

From this point a lot of stuff happens which can be taken in several different ways with the director constantly laying misdirection. Wesley Strick's screenplay gets way too elaborate and cute with this stuff and the film must rely on many convenient coincidences to advance the storyline. But since this starts at about the midway point its too late to stop viewing now. Listening to the Strick's commentary track on the DVD it is clear that there was considerable meddling with the original story by producers, dumbing down the more intellectually compelling elements.

Still little would have been lost and the overall credulity would have benefited by a less ambitious conspiracy, there was no reason for the parent's deaths to have been anything but an accident; it would have raised the film's IQ if the Glasses had been opportunists rather than conspirators. And the attempt at irony with the brake fluid would have worked better if Mr. Glass had been knocked out and put in his car; only to wake up as it is speeding down the road.

Then again, what do I know? I'm only a child.

So botched........2006-12-14

The Glass House (Daniel Sackheim, 2001)

There's a scene about two thirds of the way through The Glass House that pretty much sums up every way in which this movie went wrong. It's hard to set the scene without spoilers, but I'll attempt to do it anyway: a character has died. We know from various things, mostly a makeup job that would look appropriate in a microbudget horror film rather than a big Hollywood release, that said character has been dead for some time. Said character is found by another character. And, you know, just as character B finds character A-- who was previously quite banged around postmortem-- something character A was clutching in his/her hand is released and falls to the floor.

Little stupid things like that can ruin a whole movie for me, because they tell me that the director is willing to go for the cheap shot rather than trying to keep some semblance of reality in the film. That's exactly what happens here (you see the ending coming a while before the characters do, to be sure), and it's a shame, because it turns what might have been a fun, serviceable little thriller into a waste of some incredible talent.

Ruby (Joan of Arc's Leelee Sobieski) and Rhett (The Prize Winner of Defiance, Ohio's Trevor Morgan) have recently been orphaned. The estate's executor, Begleiter (the mighty Bruce Dern) has decided to allow the petition of family friends Terry (Insomnia's Stellan Skarsgard) and Erin (Unfaithful's Diane Lane) Glass to take the kids in, over the objections of their Uncle Jack (Law and Order's Chris Noth). All seems to be going well, but Ruby gets a weird vibe from Terry on a pretty regular basis, and begins to think that there might be some ulterior motive to the Glass' offer to take them in.

This is a great cast. A great cast. Skarsgard and Lane have been among the highlights of the acting world for a lot of years between them, and Sobieski is a fast-rising star (or would be, if she'd keep her participation in such dogs as Eyes Wide Shut to a minimum). And, of course, there's Bruce Dern, whose very name inspires some film critics to cower in their respective corners, gibbering. So how did Sackheim, a very capable TV director who's worked on some of the best series on television (House, The X-Files, Millennium, Law and Order, et al.), and screenwriter Wesley Strick (True Believer, the 1991 adaptation of Cape Fear, et al.) manage to bungle this as badly as they did?

I tend to lay the blame on Sackheim. Tricks like the hand thing in the first paragraph of this review play a lot better on the small screen than they do on the large screen; that's the sort of controlled cheesiness that made The X-Files so much fun to watch over the years. But then you look at Strick's fantastic track record before this movie, and you look afterwards and see Doom . What went wrong?

Whichever way you look at it, though, there's wasted talent to go around here. There is some fantastic set design; one wishes as much attention to detail had been paid to letting some fine actors do their thing in front of it. **

Set-up to be a great thriller but eventually loses steam..........2006-11-07

*MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS* The general concept of this film sounds great. Two orphaned teenagers parents are tragically killed in an automobile accident, and so they go to live with old friends of their parents. This was the first mistake. What would have been better is if they would have gone to live with a couple that were completely unrelated or unknown to them. Both the teeangers have trust funds or something of that nature set up for them however they cannot claim it until they are adults. Ultimately, the plan of the foster parents is to kill them so they can get the money that was left to them. Apparently, the foster parents (the Glass's) have a lot of debts. Mrs. Glass has a drug addiction while Mr. Glass owes a lot of money to some seedy loan sharks. That was the second mistake of this film because it led to a very dismal ending. Their purpose for trying to kill the children should not have been to pay off debts or something idiotic like that. How about they are just trying to kill the children because they are selfishly greedy and want a lot more money than they already have and that's it? That would have made the characters a lot more sinister and creepy making for a more effective thriller. The ending, if you haven't read already, is pretty ridiculous and unbelievable. The first two-thirds of the film are pretty decent, but the last third of the movie is a big let-down. This could have been much better had minor changes been made and the ending totally revamped into something more satisfying. 3 stars at best.

Tedious and improbable.......2006-08-07

What begins as an intriguing thriller quickly turns into a major disappointment. The teen heroine is intelligent and quick-witted, but held back by an inept script that never has her do the obvious: call her uncle, call the police, tell more trustworthy adults. Throw in a completely unbelievable and improbable ending - the final 15 minutes utterly laughable - and, voila! You have wasted two hours of your life.

Can't recommend this one.

Average customer rating:

"Star" with Julie Andrews review
Like sitting through a three hour fashion show with a bunch of old ladies
WONDERFUL
FAST FORWARD IN HAND...
Andrews valiantly attempts Gertie Lawrence

Star!
Starring: Julie Andrews , Richard Crenna , Michael Craig , Daniel Massey , and Robert Reed
Director: Robert Wise
Manufacturer: 20th Century Fox
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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Victor/Victoria

ASIN: B0001FR54I
Release Date: 2004-04-20

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For Julie Andrews fans, Star! will be something more than just a legendary albatross around Old Hollywood's neck--after all, Julie is onscreen virtually every minute of this film, singing and dancing and flouncing around in an endless parade of over-the-top costumes. Seeing her tackle a variety of Noel Coward tunes and a nicely understated "Someone to Watch Over Me" is pleasant, but it's easy to see why this three-hour musical failed to click with 1968 audiences. A biopic of the celebrated stage star Gertrude Lawrence (puckish Daniel Massey plays Coward, Lawrence's childhood chum), the movie staggers around between the big production numbers. Its social message--independent Lawrence just needed a man to boss her around--was just as grating in the age of The Graduate as it is now. "Isn't this kind of thing a little out of date?" someone asks the aging Lawrence; Star! provides its own answer. --Robert Horton

Description

Julie Andrews stars as British stage legend Gertrude Lawrence, a glamorous, flamboyant and charismatic personality - A woman who is both "maddening and infuriating" and "probably the most beautiful and entrancing creature ever to walk onto a stage." Robert Wise's lavish musical recalls the golden era of musical theatre, from 1912 to 1940. Lawrence rise from irrepressible chorus girl in English music halls to become the toast of two continents. Her lifelong friend Noel Coward (Daniel Massey) provides witty commentary as Gertie finds company in a number of suitors, in search of a love to equal that of an audience.

Customer Reviews:

"Star" with Julie Andrews review.......2007-02-11

I think this, along with "Victor. Victoria" are her best movies - both having shown her amazing versatility and personality. Terrific musical, songs, lots of wonderful dancing and a thoroughly enjoyanble film. It's a real treat.

Like sitting through a three hour fashion show with a bunch of old ladies.......2006-10-06

I was 15 when Star! was released and was keen to see it. I saw it on a dreary grey day during Christmas vacation. A friend of mine and I actually saw "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang" first (!) and then ran across the street to see "Star!" So there we were, two 15 year old boys surrounded by about fifty old ladies in an enormous movie palace. I felt impending doom. I didn't know who Gertrude Lawrence was and I didn't when it was over, either. I still don't. And isn't so much that Julie is miscast, but that so little information is actually imparted aside from telling us she rather charmingly spent too much money and occasionally was a bit charmingly impatient with some people. That's really about it. You won't see her friend Beatrice Lillie, whom in her original review Pauline Kael said that Julie Andrews might have been able to play the life story of instead. I'm not so sure about that either, but it would have been a lot more fun.

I still to this day wonder what on earth they were thinking when they decided to make a movie about Gertrude Lawrence in the first place. Frankly, a movie about Fanny Brice was pushing it, because by 1968 who past the age of radio knew who she was either, but "Funny Girl" rode a very rocky road on the way to Broadway but by the time it was made into a film, it was, by and large, pretty good. But "Star!" didn't have that luxury, and it bore down like a ton of bricks on Julie Andrews to create a character virtually out of thin air. It tries to suggest a documentary that is being made while she is still alive (so she doesn't die during the run of The King and I and make for a sad ending -- though at least it would have had an ending, because as it is, it doesn't, not really). But the movie is not a documentary, and it isn't a drama, and it isn't a comedy, and it isn't a book musical. It's none of the above and yet it still manages to be conventional. There's lots and lots of music, recorded as if to be played by a rather nice Victrola. I never liked the brassy, abrasive arrangements. It doesn't sound much better on your DVD than the old Fox LP. And Julie is at times not in her best voice, but try listening to Gertrude sometime sing the same things. She must have been electrifying in person because her voice is high, very, very high, yet not hitting those notes dead center by any means.

She's best with Daniel Massey as Noel Coward but those scenes are pretty much the same, over and over. Noel, who you'd think would be fun, comes off as a scolding auntie. And he hated the movie, by the way.

And yet the film looks like a lot of money was spent. It is up on the screen. The clothes are beautiful, the sets are at times very impressive. The mural in her apartment when she is talking on the phone is much more interesting than the scene itself.

Thinking I had judged it unkindly at 15, about 18 years later I saw Saul Chaplin host the screening of the film at the long-closed Vagabond Theatre in Los Angeles (a dump). This was before it was even issued on VHS, and showed up on late night movies in its very truncated Those Were the Happy Times version (don't ask). So if you want to complain about incomplete, for probably 20 years or more, this is all we had of "Star!" Mr. Chaplin still championed the film as a masterpiece and said in 1968 the ungrateful masses wanted to see movies like Bonnie and Clyde and The Graduate instead. Well, yes, they did and they still do. I ended up being just as frustrated with the film at 33 as I was when I was 15.

Then around the year 2000, I met Robert Wise. What a warm and kind person he was. He still loved Star!, calling it "A marvelous film. I never understood why it had so little success." He was still disappointed, 32 years later. I must say, I am fascinated by the film, as I am fascinated by "Cleopatra," which no one liked but unlike "Star!", lots of people did go to see what all the fuss was about. But there wasn't much fuss over "Star!"

Now, when I do watch parts of it (which is about all I can manage) I am always transported back to that gloomy 1968 winter day. As my friend and I left the dusty old United Artists Theatre, exhausted and hungry, I said "I feel like I just sat through a three hour fashion show with a bunch of old ladies." I still hold to that sentiment.

WONDERFUL.......2006-06-24

I DON'T CARE WHAT ANYONE SAYS THIS MOVIE IS A HIT. WITH A STRUGLING WOMAN(JULIE ANDREWS) TRING TO UNDERSTAND THAT SHE DOES NOT HAVE TO BE THE BEST TO BE THE BEST. ILL ADMIT SOME TIMES IN THE MOVIE YOU MIGHT FEEL SAD BHUT THAT ONLY LASTS A SEC. I LOVE TO WATCH ALL THE SOMGS OVER AND OVER AGAIN! I LOVE THESE SONGS THE MOST: PICADILLY, PHISITION, THE SAGA OF JENNY, AND BURLINGTON BURTIE. BUT JULIE SINGS MANY OTHER SONGS WHICH I JUST ADORE. JULIE WEARS OVER 200 OUTFITS ON THE MOVIVE AND EVERYONE IS MAGNIFICENT. JUKLIE IS WONDERFUL!

FAST FORWARD IN HAND..........2005-12-03

On the tails of Streisand's "Funny Girl" came Julie Andrews' STAR, the so-calld "biopic" musical of English songstress and stage star Gertrude Lawrence. A dismal box-office failure, the story line is just plain boring, but the musical numbers with Andrews at her multi-octave finest holds up well some 35 or so years later. The costumes are glorious, the sets dazzle and the entire film is worth sitting through if only for Andrew's rendition of Lawrence's rousing "Saga of Jenny". Zip through the dialogue and go right to the production numbers. You'll be glad you did.

Andrews valiantly attempts Gertie Lawrence.......2005-10-01

STAR! remains Julie Andrews' most ambitious movie, and one which displays her versatility as an actress as well as her musicality as a performer. Directed by Robert Wise, this 3-hour epic was tipped as Julie's greatest film. Instead it became a huge bomb which (coupled with DARLING LILI) set in motion Andrews' box-office decline.

However harsh the criticism, STAR! remains an enjoyable film experience and has a very large and devoted legion of fans. The movie recounts the life of legendary British stage star Gertrude Lawrence. As the movie opens, Gertie is viewing a documentary of her life, and begins to reminisce about her sucesses in the theatre, her romances and failures.

From the tenemants of Clapham to the footlights of London's Charlot Revue and her career-making Broadway debut, STAR! explores it all. Julie Andrews looks stunning in a cavalcade of Donald Brooks costumes. Choreographer Michael Kidd recreates several elaborate musical numbers that the real Lawrence was famous for (including "The Physician" from NYMPH ERRANT, "The Saga of Jenny" from LADY IN THE DARK and "Limehouse Blues" from the Charlot Revue). There are also fine re-creations from prime Lawrence vehicles OH KAY! and PRIVATE LIVES.

If Andrews isn't well-suited to Gertie Lawrence, she gives the audience a good time anyway (at this point in her career, Andrews wasn't yet fully-equipped as an actress to deliver all that Lawrence was). In reality Gertie Lawrence was a paradox of conflicting emotions, capable of the extremes of love and hate. Richard Aldrich's book "Life as Mrs A." (published after her death) paints a sickly-sweet portrait of a woman who was renowned as being a very self-centered and egocentric person. After the book was published, most of Gertie's friends admitted that Aldrich must have written the book while wearing rose-coloured glasses. Lawrence was an incantory presence on stage but her private life was never anything but a shambles.

Surrounding Andrews is a solid cast including Daniel Massey as Gertie's beloved best friend Noel Coward (Massey was Coward's Godson in real life), Michael Craig plays Sir Anthony Spencer (an amalgam of several men in Gertie's life). Richard Crenna plays Richard Aldrich. The film also features prime turns from Beryl Reid, Robert Reed, Bruce Forsyth, Alan Oppenheimer, Elizabeth St. Clair, Garrett Lewis, Don Crichton and Jenny Agutter.

The DVD presents the film in pleasing 16:9 anamorphic (including the Overture). The dual-layer double-sided disc includes an audio commentary by Robert Wise with select cast and crew, various trailers, Julie Andrews/Daniel Massey screentests and a reunion featurette.

A classic gem worthy of rediscovery.

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

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ASIN: B00005QCVY
Release Date: 2001-08-14

Product Description

Excellent condition, includes the original DVD, case, and paperwork, fast shipped, ask me for my DVD List! :)

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Customer Reviews:

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

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

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

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