August 2, 2010

Movie Review – Dumbo

Filed under: Classic Film Review,Movie Review,Walt Disney Collection — Rodney @ 12:01 am

- Summary -

Director : Ben Sharpsteen
Year Of Release : 1941
Principal Cast : Voices of Sterling Holloway, Edward Brophy, Verna Felton, Cliff Edwards, Herman Bing
Awards :  Academy Awards: Best Original Score, Nominated for Best Original Song (Baby Mine).  Cannes Film Festival: Best Animation Design.
Approx Running Time : 64 Minutes
Aspect Ratio : 1.33:1
Synopsis: A young elephant born with enormous ears is ostracised by his circus family, before discovering a unique ability which will make him famous.
What we think : Terrific cinematic triumph, a story of being outcast and non-conformity: Dumbo is both morally true and gorgeous entertainment. Modern audiences may baulk at the somewhat historic style of animation, but those with an eye for true art will certainly want to recapture the magic of the time they first saw Dumbo take flight.
Our Rating : 10/10

**********************

One of Disney’s shortest animated features, featuring a lead character who doesn’t speak through the entire film, is still as appealing now as it was at the time of release, way back in 1941. This fact is a testament to the creative quality that makes Dumbo such a genuine family classic. It’s a simple tale, gorgeously animated and well performed, featuring some truly jaw-dropping ideas and imagery, which allows the audience to become drawn into the more “human” elements of the film. Considering the main cast are all animals, that’s no small feat.

Continue our exploration of Dumbo here…

June 28, 2010

Movie Review – Apocalypse Now: Redux

Filed under: Classic Film Review,Movie Review — Rodney @ 12:01 am

- Summary -

Director : Francis Ford Coppola

Year Of Release: (Original) 1979, Redux Version (2001)

Cast : Martin Sheen, Laurence Fishburne (credited as “Larry Fishburne”), Marlon Brando, Robert Duvall, Frederic Forrest, Dennis Hopper, Harrison Ford, Albert Hall, Sam Bottoms.
Censorship Rating : MA15+
Awards: Palm d’Or (Cannes), Golden Globe (Best Director, Score and Supporting Actor-Robert Duvall), Academy Awards (Sound & Cinematography)
Length : 202 Minutes (Redux Version)
Synopsis: Colonel Ben Willard is sent by his superiors to locate, and kill, a potential rogue officer living far up the Nung River during the Vietnam conflict. Along the journey, he encounters all kinds of bizarre situations and characters, adding to his own tortured psyche, until the final confrontation between him and his assignment threatens to send him over the edge himself.
What We Think : Stunning depiction of the madness of war, in this instance Vietnam, and one man’s personal descent into hell. The extended Redux Version is by far the definitive version to see if you’re going for the complete experience. There are so many exceptional scenes in this film you can forgive the occasional lapse in pacing, and although often a muddle of concepts and analogous themes, the film still resonates with modern audiences, even if the idea of the film has outgrown the popularity of the film itself. In what I consider to be a tour de force of film-making, Apocalypse Now represents epic, intimate, bizarre storytelling of the most human scale.
Our Rating : 9/10

******************

There are two moments in Apocalypse Now that have entered the pop-culture zeitgeist, moments that are spoofed, parodied and played upon whenever somebody wants a historical touchstone for war, or the madness of it. Robert Duvall’s oft-quoted line about loving the smell of napalm, and the epic helicopter attack utilising the score for Wagner’s Ride Of The Valkyries. However, ask anybody under the age of around 25 what films they come from, or indeed anything else about that film, and you’ll probably receive a blank look. Which is a shame, because Apocalypse Now is a film worthy of inclusion into whatever pantheon of Great War Films you seek to fill. Director Francis Ford Coppola suffered a nervous breakdown whilst filming this monster, star Martin Sheen had a heart attack, and Marlon Brando…. well, behaved exactly like Marlon Brando would; yet for all its famed production troubles (and I use the term “troubles” in the lightest sense, because this was an apocryphal film to make) Apocalypse Now remains an enduring icon in Hollywood’s history. Today, we take a look back at the film itself, look beyond the anecdotes and myths, to see if it really does hold up after all these years.

Delve deeper into the redux, here!!!

June 22, 2010

Movie Review – Aliens (Directors Cut)

Filed under: Aliens Franchise,Classic Film Review,Movie Review — Rodney @ 12:01 am

- Summary -

Director : James Cameron
Year Of Release : 1985
Principal Cast : Sigourney Weaver, Michael Biehn, Lance Henricksen, Bill Paxton, Carrie Henn, Paul Reiser, William Hope, Al Matthews, Mark Rolston, Jenette Goldstein
Awards : Academy Awards – Best Sound Effects Editing, Best Visual Effects, BAFTA’s – Best Visual Effects, Saturn Awards – Best Sci-Fi Film, Best Actress-Sigourney Weaver, Best Supporting Actor-Bill Paxton, Best Supporting Actress-Jenette Goldstein, Best Performance by A Young Actor-Carrie Henn, Best Director-James Cameron, Best Writing, Best Special Effects.
Approx Running Time : 155 Minutes
Aspect Ratio : 1.85:1
Synopsis: When she’s seconded to return to the planet original encountered in Alien, as a consultant to a group of Marines, Ripley is again embroiled in a battle for survival with the deadly alien creatures unleashed upon them.
What we think : Amped up sequel to Alien, James Cameron’s defining blockbuster opus still holds up as a modern masterpiece in science fiction terror. With a careful build-up and a slow burn tension permeating the film’s opening act, once the aliens attack and the action starts, it never lets up. Bold, astoundingly well made, and utterly compelling, Aliens will probably remain the best of Cameron’s early works.
Our Rating : 10/10

**********************

This review is based on the extended Director’s Cut version of Aliens, long thought by fans to be the definitive version of the film. Key story elements removed for the theatrical version, such as setting up the LV426 colony at the opening of the film, additional character development for Ripley during the opening act and various other narrative enhancers throughout which add to the story.

If it was possible to exceed what Ridley Scott did with Alien, then James Cameron did so with Aliens. In what can only be described as a tour de force of science fiction, James Cameron cemented his place as a genuine A-list director, following his breakout mainstream debut with Terminator, with the follow-up to Alien. Set some time after the events in Alien, with Ellen Ripley being found drifting in the remains of the Nostromo’s escape pod, some 52 years after she blew the Alien Queen out the door, Aliens manages to return our heroine to the planet she never wanted to return to. Aliens is not your typical action-sci-fi fare, however, in that it takes its time setting up the scenario, the characters, and the plot. Avoiding Ridley Scott’s original noir-ish tone from film 1, Cameron eschews the more traditional scary movie feel for a gung-ho, testosterone injected thrill ride, balancing both character development and hard-core thrills in equal measure. To say Aliens is a masterpiece is an understatement of an order of magnitude. What Cameron achieved set the benchmark for science fiction (and the Alien franchise) film and, until he revised that benchmark again in Terminator 2, would never be bettered.

Flick it of safety and come for a ride with us! Click here to ready the rest of this article!!!

June 18, 2010

Movie Review – Alien

Filed under: Aliens Franchise,Classic Film Review,Movie Review — Rodney @ 12:01 am

- Summary -

Director : Ridley Scott
Year Of Release : 1979
Principal Cast : Tom Skerrit, Ian Holm, Sigourney Weaver, John Hurt, Yaphet Kotto, Veronica Cartright, Harry Dean Stanton.
Awards : Academy Award (Best Visual Effects), Saturn Awards (Best Film, Best Director, Best Supporting Actress-Veronica Cartright)
Approx Running Time : 119 Minutes
Aspect Ratio : 2.40:1
Synopsis: After landing on an alien world to answer a distress call, the crew of the mining vessel Nostromo discover they’ve accidentally brought a new life-form on board that threatens their very existence.
What we think : Seminal sci-fi picture from director Ridley Scott, Alien remains one of the most frightening, enduring and magnificent entires into the genres long history. Well shot, beautifully crafted for maximum impact, there’s very few films today that can outmatch Alien for sheer heart-pounding terror. Except perhaps its sequel.
Our Rating : 9/10

**********************

If you were to count down the most influential science fictions films made over the last half century, somewhere towards the top of that list would be a couple of  Ridley Scott films, namely Blade Runner and Alien. Scott almost single-handedly revolutionised hard sci-fi during the period between 1979 and 85, kicking things off with the noirish, gritty space thriller, Alien. Little did he realise at the time just what he was unleashing upon cinema audiences, with the Alien saga ballooning into a major franchise for 20th Century Fox. The edgy, non-politically correct nature of Alien, with it’s realistic narrative and believable look into future tech, caused a minor sensation with audiences upon its release to audiences in 1979. Sparing use of the film’s main villain, coupled with a brooding, atmospheric tone, and believable characters, gave audiences a real jolt of adrenaline, effectively introducing one of cinema’s greatest screen villains. It also introduced one of cinema’s great female screen icons, Ellen Ripley; a character which would even have Sigourney Weaver nominated for an Oscar in the role in the mega-sequel, Aliens.

Scare yourself silly by reading the rest of this review!!! Click here to enter the Nostromo and be chased by an alien!!

May 31, 2010

Movie Review – The Wizard Of Oz (1939)

Filed under: Classic Film Review,DVD/BluRay Review,Movie Review — Rodney @ 12:01 am

- Summary -

Director : Victor Fleming
Cast : Judy Garland, Frank Morgan, Jack Haley, Bert Lahr, Ray Bolger, Margaret Hamilton, Billie Burke, Terry The Dog.
Censorship Rating : G
Target Audience : The young, and the young at heart.
Length : 95 Minutes
Synopsis: A young girl is blown to the magical land of Oz during a tornado, and to return, she must make a perilous journey to see the Wizard, who lives in the Emerald City. Along the way, she meets a Scarecrow in search of a brain, a Tin Man in search of a heart, and a Lion in search of courage.
Review : Unassailable classic of cinema, The Wizard Of Oz remains one of Hollywood’s most enduring icons, alongside Gone With The Wind, The Godfather, and Citizen Kane, as a moment of bottled magic. While many films made early last century have now dated and become relics of their era, Wizard remains as fresh now as it did the day it premiered in 1939. If you have never seen this version of the story (and let’s be honest, a lot of younger folk won’t have!) then can I beseech you to do so?
Our Rating : 10/10

********************

There are classic films. And then, there are classic films. The truly classic film defy both time and tide, surmount the detrimental jibes of critics, and remain an enduring legacy of a time when the world was innocent, and film-making accordingly thus. The Wizard of Oz, recently released on remastered BluRay disc, is one of those rare films that transcends both time and place, remaining in the firmament of genuinely classic films, and will remain so as long as humans stride the surface of this planet. The back-story of The Wizard of Oz is as enthralling a saga as the film itself, filled with the intrigue of actors ending up in hospital and receiving second degree burns. Troubles behind the scenes, however, hardly seem to touch this timeless classic, and it’s a testament to director Victor Fleming that the whole thing comes together as it does.

To follow the Yellow Brick Road and read more of our thoughts on the Wizards world, click here!!!

April 30, 2010

Movie Review – The Dark Crystal

Filed under: Classic Film Review,Movie Review — Rodney @ 12:01 am

- Summary -

Director : Jim Henson
Cast : The Skeksis, The Mystics, Jen and Kira
Censorship Rating : PG13
Target Audience : Puppets and fantasy.
Length : 90 Minutes
Synopsis: A young gelfling embarks on a quest to return a shard of a crystal to it’s rightful position, thereby bringing an ancient prophesy to fulfilment. The evil Skeksis seek to stop him, for if he succeeds, their reign of terror will be over.
Review : Dark and foreboding, almost a nightmarish tone of evil permeating every frame of this fantasy from Muppet creator Jim Henson, The Dark Crystal is a divisive and polarising cinematic effort. On a purely cinematic level, it’s an outstanding achievement in film, however, there will always be those who can’t get past its depressing nature, the dark, shadowy overtones that threaten to obliterate any emotion from the narrative.
Our Rating : 7/10

******************

Okay, so we’ve already reviewed perennial favourite The Neverending Story here at the site, and we felt it was about damn time we turned our attention to the other of the Holy Family Puppet Films, those films that twinkle in our childhood and make us sigh with remembrance at being such innocents. Like The Neverending Story and Labyrinth, which used both humans and puppets (courtesy of Jim Henson and others), The Dark Crystal also uses puppets to tell its story. But unlike that great film, it uses them exclusively. Jim Hensons dark fable is both desperately melancholy, and brilliantly stylish, for those able to overcome the somewhat clunky direction.

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April 26, 2010

Movie Review – Jurassic Park

Filed under: Classic Film Review,Movie Review — Rodney @ 12:01 am

Jurassic-Park-Review-Logo

- Summary -

Director : Steven Spielberg
Cast : Sam Niell, Laura Dern, Jeff Goldblum, Richard Attenborough, Wayne Knight, Bob Peck, Samuel L Jackson, Arianna Richards, Joseph Mazello.
Censorship Rating : PG
Target Audience : Action, adventure.
Length : 90 minutes
Synopsis: When scientists develop a way of cloning dinosaurs from DNA left over from the Jurassic period, they set up a theme park with the thought of making millions. But when a series of events leaves the enclosed dinosaurs free to roam the park and chase people, including the very people brought to the island to vet the idea as sound and safe, things take a dramatic turn for the worst, and our small group of survivors must use their ingenuity to escape certain death.
Review : Critic-proof concept based upon Michael Crighton’s novel, Spielberg ratchets up the terror and tension using state of the art digital animation effects, and wiley film-making techniques, to ensure Jurassic Park became one of the highest grossing films of all time. Astounding effects (for their time) still hold up, even though by today’s standards they are few and far between; it’s the imaginative use of them that really heightens the terror you feel while watching this film.
Our Rating : 8/10

********************

Stunning, frightening, spectacular film success from legendary director Steven Spielberg, unleashing realistic digital dinosaurs upon the cinema-going public in Jurassic Park. Released in 1993, Spielberg effectively launched the field of digital animation in motion pictures with this single film, a film which still holds up under scrutiny today as a roller-coaster ride of thrills, spills, and amazing action as only Spielberg can provide. Today, we take a look back fondly at a time when digital animation was in it’s infancy, an expensive, prohibitive way to to bring fantastical elements of a story to life. Jurassic Park spawned two sequels, The Lost World, and Jurassic Park III, which all added to the franchise set in motion with this one, pivotal film. Jurassic Park also gave us our first theatrical taste of the new sound system known as dts, or Digital Theatre Systems, a competitor to Dolby’s own 5.1 discrete channel soundtrack format, which itself premiered theatrically a year earlier with Batman Returns. Yes, 1993 was a big year for Spielberg: that same year he also gave us Schindler’s List, the Oscar winning Holocaust film which finally gave the master director a golden statuette to take home.

Don’t get eaten by dinosaurs!! Click here to read on!!

September 26, 2009

Movie Review – Peter Pan

Filed under: Classic Film Review,Movie Review,Walt Disney Collection — Rodney @ 12:01 am

Peter-Pan-Review-Logo

- Summary -

Director : Clyde Geronomi, Wilfred Jackson, Hamilton Luske
Cast : Bobby Driscoll, Kathryn Beaumont, Hans Conried, Bill Thompson
Censorship Rating : G
Target Audience : Animation, kids.
Length : 90 Minutes
Synopsis: Wendy, John and Michael are whisked from the home in London to Neverland, a place where children never grow up, by Peter Pan. There they fight pirates, meet Indians, mermaids and discover that family is the most important gift of all.
Review : Superlative, exceptionally well animated film, Peter Pan still remains one of the most enduring successes of Disney’s early films, the animation and vocal performances ensuring the quality of this film is unsurpassed even fifty years later.
Our Rating : 10/10 A must-see.

********************

Walt Disney was an undisputed genius. That much is certain. His ability to take famous (and semi-famous) European fairy tales and morality stories and turn them into feature films of animation so beautiful is renowned, his early works considered to this date classic masterpieces of the artform. Rightfully so, too. Who am I to try and knock the great man (after all, he’s dead, and can’t respond!), so I can really only give you my thoughts on what is one of the studios most beautifully rendered films.

Peter Pan was conceived by Scottish-born playwright John M Barrie, and his first appearance was in a published version of The Little White Bird in 1902; his leading role status wouldn’t be seen until 1904, when Pan was written into a play featuring the now famous characters we all know and love, including Wendy, John and Michael Darling. Peter Pan appeared in numerous stories, in much the same way a serialised character like Sherlock Holmes would, in which the same character would get into various serialised adventures that ended up becoming the basis for the more modern take on the character. Part of the legend of the character was held that the part of Peter himself, when performed on stage, was played by a girl, rather than a boy, to try and keep the mischievous ambiguity of the character alive and well.

Pan creator, JM Barrie circa 1910

Pan creator, JM Barrie circa 1910

Peter Pan, along with the Lost Boys, Captain Hook, Smee, Tinkerbell and Tigerlilly, and finally the Darling children, became part of modern English folklore, a sort of mythology of childhood fantasy so eloquently expanded a few decades later by Tolkein and CS Lewis, among others. However, the underlying themes of Barrie’s stories were a little darker than the version we see today. More on this later.

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September 17, 2009

Movie Review – The Jungle Book

Filed under: Classic Film Review,Movie Review,Walt Disney Collection — Rodney @ 12:01 am

The-Jungle-Book-Logo

- Summary -

Director : Wolfgang Reitherman
Cast : Phil Harris, Sebastian Sabot, Bruce Reitherman, Sterling Holloway, George Sanders
Censorship Rating : G
Target Audience : Animated adventure.
Length : 90 Minutes
Synopsis: A young human child is raised in the deepest jungles of India by animals, and when his safety is threatened, a bear, a panther and some songs must accompany the boy back to human civilisation. Various misadventures occur throughout.
Review :Disappointing swansong from Walt Disney’s hand as producer, The Jungle Book has only the barest storyline going for it (a grossly underwhelming mistake from Walt) and has some sort of problem deciding on a tone and angle for it’s style: the animation and the music never quite match, although the casting is pretty much spot on. Hard to imagine that after this, the quality of Disney feature animation went even further downhill.
Our Rating : 4/10

*********************

With the release of The Jungle Book in 1967, the end of an era was achieved. In a sad coda to the films production, Walt Disney, the man responsible for creating the Disney brand, died before the film was completed, from lung cancer. As the 19th official animated film in the Disney canon, The Jungle Book is a dramatic misfire of gargantuan proportions, lacking the subtlety and magic that had inhabited almost all of the previous Walt-produced features since Snow White. Lacking real narrative substance, substituting it for character instead, was a risk Walt wanted to take with this, his swansong as producer. It ultimately didn’t pay off, although only time has revealed this in the years between original release and today.

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September 8, 2009

Movie Review – The Shawshank Redemption & The Green Mile

Filed under: Classic Film Review,Movie Review — Rodney @ 12:01 am

GreenMileShawshank-Logo

Prison movies have a long and proud history in Hollywood. Films such as Cool Hand Luke and Stallones Lock-Up have all, at one point, kept us in rapt attention to the plight of the modern-day inmate. While Hollywoods idealised prisoner is traditionally the wrongly accused, or the murderer with a heart of gold, there are some films so perfectly realised by a filmmaker that they transcend the genre and become classics in their own right. The Shawshank Redemption, based on a Steven King short story (entitled Rita Hayworth & The Shawshank Redemption, published in Kings’ Different Seasons in 1982) appeared out of nowhere in 1994, and was given a generally lukewarm response by moviegoers around the world. Upon it’s release on home video and DVD, however, audiences warmed to the wonderful story of a man, accused of murdering his wife and her lover, who is thrown into prison, and the friendships he strikes up with fellow inmates. A few years later, the very same director gave another King work a shot at cinematic glory, with The Green Mile, a story set in a prison’s death row, and the men who guard those who have been sentenced to death. But the question remains, which of these two cinematic classics is the better prison film? Which would survive in solitary confinement? Which film deserves our critical version of a lethal injection? Strap on the handcuffs, jot down your last meal, and get set to find out!!

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August 17, 2009

Movie Review – Second Chorus

Filed under: Classic Film Review,Movie Review — Rodney @ 12:01 am

Second-Chorus-Logo

- Summary -

Director : HC Potter
Cast : Fred Astaire, Burgess Meredith, Paulette Goddard, Charles Butterworth, Artie Shaw
Censorship Rating : G
Target Audience : Comedy, Musical
Length : 80 Minutes
Synopsis: Two trumpeters vie for the attention of an attractive young lady by attempting to upstage each other at every opportunity. When she becomes the secretary for Artie Shaw, famed band leader of the era, they must fight even harder.
Review : Mediocre scripting cannot hamper the magic every time Fred Astaire arrives on screen. The camera just loves everything he does (even if the man himself once said Second Chorus was the worst film he’s ever done… I’d say that sentiment could go to Towering Inferno!) and he’s ably backed up by Burgess Meredith in fine comedic form. Paulette Goddard is solid as the female love interest, although this role isn’t meaty enough for her to get her comedy teeth into. Nope, it’s Astaires show pretty much, and if you throw in some awesomely cool talent behind the camera in the musical department, as well as a solid sense of direction from HC Potter, and Second Chorus is a sentimentally second-tier comedy film with a vibrant cast giving this story much needed chutzpah.

Our Rating : 7/10 Simple and amusing trifle.

*********************

God bless the ABC. For ages now they’ve been running classic movies on their second digital channel here in Australia, and it’s a great chance to be exposed to films that you might not ordinarily see. Recently they screened this pearler of a film from Paramount, starring a very young Fred Astaire and Burgess Meredith, entitled Second Chorus, a comedic musical co-starring Paulette Goddard and big-band superstar Artie Shaw. Filmed in 1940, Second Chorus tells of two misfit college band trumpeters, Danny O’Neill (Astaire) and Hank Taylor (Meredith), who try to win over the affections of Ellen Miller (Goddard) when they spot her at one of their performances. Ellen, who is employed by a debt collection agency, uses her feminine charms to serve a summons notice to Danny about some costs for an encyclopedia he once purchased and never paid for. Both Danny and Hank arrive at the collection agency and swindle Ellen out of her job and into their employ, as their band secretary, a job that sees Ellen soon become defacto band manager.

Goddard, Astaire & Meredith in Second Chorus.

Goddard, Astaire & Meredith in Second Chorus.

Danny and Hank both try to further their employment with legendary band-leader Artie Shaw (who, funnily, plays himself throughout the film, a nice touch!), but end up themselves being swindled out of a secretary by the famed musician. With Ellen now effectively out of reach, both Danny and Hank come up with various plans to try and win her back, although throughout the film, it’s fairly obvious which of our leading men she’s going to end up with. Throw in the plot device of a Shaw-led concert, a doddery bottle-cap manufacturer (a wonderfully deadpan Charles Butterworth) bankrolling the show and a whole slew of wonderful cinematic treats for the interested viewer. The key musical motif, the song Love Of My life, was nominated for an Oscar for Best Song, and is a delightfully fitting (if somewhat belaboured) theme for the film’s sense of fun. Astaire gets to do his thing, dancing up a storm during a few genuinely entertaining musical numbers, especially the grand finale, where he tap-dance-conducts Artie Shaw’s orchestra, winning the heart of his girl. Did I give away the ending? Yep, but you all knew that anyway, didn’t you. After all, this is Hollywood.

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August 3, 2009

Movie Review – Dirty Harry

Filed under: Classic Film Review,Clint Eastwood Collection,Movie Review — Rodney @ 12:01 am

Dirty-Harry-Review-Logo

- Summary -

Director : Don Siegel.
Cast : Clint Eastwood, Andy Robinson, Harry Guardino, Reni Santoni.
Censorship Rating : R
Target Audience : Crime, action, drama.
Length : 2 Hours.

Synopsis: When a sniper holds the city of San Fransisco hostage by threatening to kill people unless he is given money, Detective “Dirty” Harry Callahan and his new partner are given the task of tracking him down and stopping him.  Callaghan’s methods bring him into the firing line of his superior officers, and he must run the risk of being expelled from the force to bring this madman to justice.

Review : The blueprint for every “rough justice” cop movie filmed since, and spawning four sequels itself, this gritty, rough-diamond crime flick brought star Eastwood in from the Westerns and onto the streets, a modern cop with a violent, angry way of getting the job done. Dirty Harry became synonomous with the hard-bitten, violent, anti-social crime films that came since, and remains one of the defining moments of the genre. Still potent even today, Dirty Harry played to Eastwoods strengths: his leading man status is again proven right.

Our Rating : 8/10.   Do you feel lucky?

**************

Ahh yes, the original. Caught a showing of this film a while back on local TV here in Australia, and thought it might be good to give you my opinion on it. For those unaware, Dirty Harry was the first in a series of five films depicting the escapades of Harry Callahan, a San Fransisco cop whose methods are unusually…. brutal. The Harry films embedded Clint Eastwood into the pop-culture conciousness, spawned a stream of now classic quotes, and gave us the anti-authority police officer archetype, the kind who “don’t take no crap from nobody” and who will bust your ass if you get in his way, in much the same way that he became the definitive cowboy figure from his pulp westerns under the guidance of Sergio Leoni.

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April 9, 2009

Movie Review – Pinocchio (1940)

Filed under: Classic Film Review,Movie Review,Walt Disney Collection — Rodney @ 12:01 am

pinocchio-review-logo

- Summary -

Director : Ben Sharpsteen, Hamilton Luske, Norman Ferguson, T. Hee, Wilfred Jackson, Jack Kinney, Bill Roberts.
Cast :
Voices of Cliff Edwards, Dickie Jones, Christian Rub, Evelyn Venable.
Censorship Rating : G

Target Audience : Animated, kids, adventure.
Length :
88 Minutes
Synopsis:
When a wooden marionette is transformed into a living entity by the Blue Fairy after a lonely toymaker makes a wish, to prove himself worthy of becoming a real boy, he must prove himself brave, truthful and unselfish: which is harder than it seems with so much temptation around him.

Review : Pure, cinematic gold. While many people will probably skip this film in favour of the latest CGI mush from Dreamworks, Pinocchio deserves to be seen large and proud here in a digital format, full colour and larger than life. After all, the popular character from Shrek cannot be the only way kids today know of the famous marionette. Surely. Pinocchio is an animated masterpiece, and should not be missed.

Our Rating : 10/10.   A must see.

**********************

This film is a magnificent cinematic achievement. And that’s putting it lightly. Disney’s Pinocchio is a devastatingly lavish, luscious and delightful animated feast for the senses, both artistically and musically. Barely a frame of this film is anything less than perfection. It’s golden, a warm, frightening, often poetically made film filled with lovely characters and a sense of the sublime. This, quite simply, is Walt Disney at his absolute finest. As each of these classic films are released on DVD and BluRay as part of the Platinum Series, I keep being blown away with just how… well, awesome each of these early films actually are. A lot of people give the Disney Corporation a bit of grief these days about their overt commercialisation, and their somewhat cavalier attitude towards their inherited legacy of animation. And to some extent, perhaps that rightly so. After all, Disney have successfully whored their product out in a variety of ways that has effectively distilled their wares into nothing more than soft-core family-oriented slop: direct-to-video sequels of their most enduring and popular characters, for example, is only one instance that I can cite where they’ve tarnished their massive history.

PInocchio dances for Figaro... Thanks to Geppetto.

Pinocchio dances for Figaro... Thanks to Geppetto.

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March 2, 2009

Movie Review – A Tale Of Two Titanics

Filed under: Classic Film Review,Movie Review — Doug Shearer @ 12:01 am

The title of this article is wrong. I got to thinking about the Titanics I had seen on film, and I realized there were at least four of them that have featured in semi- (or pseudo-) historical cinematic retellings of the tragic events of April 14-15, 1912. (This is not counting Titanic cameos: Time Bandits, Raise the Titanic!, and recent goings-on on Doctor Who.) So the awful pun that popped into my mind when said mind contained but two Titanics (James Cameron’s and the Titanic lionized in today’s rant, the Titanic of A Night to Remember: Hello, Bi-tanic!) morphed into Tri-tanic when I recalled Germany’s early Nazi-era go at the story (S.O.S. Titanic, essentially a diatribe against the shortcomings of capitalism: a very odd film, to say the least), and finally hit the shoals of nonsense and sank when I remembered the Titanic of 1953, starring Barbara Stanwyck, as a four-way Titanic pileup, or, of course Quar-tanic.

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Boo! I found you!

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February 2, 2009

Movie Review – The Quiet Hero: Humphrey Bogart in Key Largo

Filed under: Classic Film Review,Movie Review — Doug Shearer @ 12:01 am

There’s a moment at the beginning of the second act of Key Largo (the film was adapted from a play by Maxwell Anderson, and certain theatrical conventions– the sense of an act-break, the semi-proscenium blocking of some of the scenes– remain) where young widow Nora Temple (Lauren Bacall), having fallen asleep during the film’s centerpiece hurricane near Frank McCloud (Humphrey Bogart), seated watchfully next to her on the floor of the lobby of the Largo Hotel, wakes, raises her head, and looks up into his eyes, and he looks back at her. That’s all. In a moment, the gangster dramatics of the film will resume, as Johnny Rocco (Edward G. Robinson) and his men plot how they will get themselves and their counterfeiting money to Cuba now that the hurricane has passed, but for now we can enjoy simply being privy to a key to Bogart’s success: the fact that Hollywood’s most legendary tough guy knew the absolute importance of tenderness.

Key Largo was Bogart and Bacall’s fourth, and final, film together. (A year earlier, in 1947, their third co-billing, Dark Passage, played to less-than-enthusiastic reviews: the film, about a wrongly accused, escaped con [Bogart] who has plastic surgery in order to elude recapture, is fascinating and nightmarish; we follow Bogart’s character up and down the impossible hills of San Francisco via first-person point-of-view until it’s revealed midway through the film that the surgery has “given” him Bogart’s face. Not having Bogart actually present on-screen for half the film’s running time, as well as the script’s weak ending [Bogart finds the real killer, but she commits suicide before he can bring her to the police], stifled Dark Passage at the box office.) In real life, despite a twenty-year age difference, they’d been happily married for several years, and to critics it showed: they were too comfortable with one another onscreen. The sexual spark they’d displayed in To Have and Have Not and The Big Sleep was gone.

To which I respond: Stifle it, naysayers. Key Largo is an entirely different type of animal.

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