Soylent Green
Director: Richard Fleischer
Average Customer Review:
DVD (26 April, 2005)
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Editorial Review

Charlton Heston seemed fond of starring in apocalyptic science-fiction films in the late 1960s and early '70s. There was Planet of the Apes, of course, and The Omega Man. But there was also 1973's Soylent Green, a strange detective film (based on Harry Harrison's Make Room! Make Room!) set in 2022 and starring Heston as a Manhattan cop trying to solve a murder in the overpopulated, overheated city. His roommate (a necessity in the overcrowded metropolis), played by Edward G. Robinson, tries telling him about a better time on Earth before there were no more resources or room left; but Heston doesn't care. Directed by Richard Fleischer (The Vikings), the film has a curious but largely successful mix of mystery and bleak futuristic vision, somewhat like Blade Runner but without the extraordinary art direction. This was Robinson's last film and he's easily the best thing about it; his final scene seems terribly appropriate in retrospect. Joseph Cotten makes an appearance as the man whose murder results in the revelation of a shocking secret. --Tom Keogh ... Read more

Features

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Reviews (109)

Wonderful Heston SciFi flick
This is the 1973 screen adaptation of Harry Harrison's 'Make Room!".The screenplay has taken great liberties with the original book, but this is nonetheless a very good movie.
The chemistry between Charlton Heston and the venerable Edward G. Robinson is a wonder.When they are dining on the ill-gotten real food that Charlton's character pilfered from a crime scene he was investigating, you could feel the culinary joy.
The movie is a grim interpretation of what our world will be like with unchecked population growth and resource consumption.Without giving away too much...Soylent Green ain't the Soy-Lentil combination of Harrisons' book....
Charlton Heston did some wonderful SciFi flicks in this period.Be sure to check out the more campy 'Omega Man', and of course 'Planet of the Apes'.

One of the Best
I was born in 1982. I wasnt familiar with this film till when Years ago my grandfather was raving about a movie called (Soylent Green). At the time I couldnt find the movie in any of the video stores. I had to wait about a year for it to come out on DVD and to finally see it. I already knew what soylent green was made of due to all the reviews online and some reviwers disclosing the secret. It was well worth it to see it anyway though. Starring Charleton Heston. The film is set in New York, the year 2022. The world is overpopulated, people are scattered in the streets and many survive off (soylent red green and yellow ) which the government is supplying at low costs for nutrition. Only the priveleged or rich can still eat decent meals and either live in tiny apartments like Heston and his friend or In more upscale apartments like the rich. Fruit and vegetables cost 100s of dollars. They have private suicide booths or rooms. Scoopers roll through the streets as a form of riot control. Women are called ( furniture ) and usually come with the apartment the men are rentings or buying.Futuristic and impressive for the movie actually being filmed in the early 70s. Excellent acting by all. This movie is about what could happen to us if the world gets overpopulated or out of control. The things that could happen , what humans are capable of and specifically the government. Only problem i had was with the ending and not knowing what happened after that. Wish they couldve shown more or what became of Heston and the events after the secret was revealed. Other than that- this is a classic! Highly recomended- 4.5 stars.

You got to love it when it all comes together.
Like, when you're showing this movie to your biology class, and it ends right-on-the-dot before dismissal for lunch.

I love this movie.It's dated now, and it's done before modern computers, the web, or cellphones- so their vision of the future isn't entirely accurate.But it's still got a deadly Malthusian accuracy that we can all learn from.A world where there is no more food, no more room, no more compassion- it is a place too close to our own.When there are so many people that we encourage them to die, life itself becomes meaningless- the lives of others, and the life of oneself.And we are close to this.We are on the right path to destroying all life, and quality of life.

Solid acting and directing all around, but especially well written.Especially moving is the montage at the beginning, where we see a world with such hope, promise, and room, slowly degenerating into mere trash.I nearly cried.

Watch this movie and imagine the world fifty years from now, in 2055.I must admit, it took me awhile to realize what that green haze you saw in the air was whenever there was an outside crowd shot.

Writing this review has made me hungry.I'm going to go get a Big n' Tasty. ... Read more

Asin: B00009NHBM
Subjects:  1. Science Fiction   

Planet of the Apes (Widescreen 35th Anniversary Edition)
Director: Franklin J. Schaffner
Average Customer Review:
DVD (03 February, 2004)
list price: $26.98 -- our price: $24.28
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Editorial Review

Many early science fiction films are now, quite inadvertently (and in most cases undeservedly), objects of camp attention: we laugh at the silly makeup, tin-can special effects, and the naive "high-tech" dialogue. Planet of the Apes is no such film. Its intelligent script, frightening costuming, and savagely effective conclusion (which needs no big-budget special effects to augment its impact) remain both potent and relevant. When Colonel George Taylor (the fabulous Charlton Heston) crash lands his spacecraft on what seems to be an unfamiliar planet, he is captured and held prisoner by a dominant race of hyperrational, articulate apes. However, the ape community is riven with internal dissention, centered in no small part on its policy toward humans, who, on this planet, are treated as mindless animals. Befriended and ultimately assisted by the more liberal simians, Taylor escapes--only to find a more terrifying obstacle confronting his return home. Heavy-handed object lessons abound--the ubiquity of generational warfare, the inflexibility of dogma, the cruelty of prejudice--and the didactic fingerprints of Rod Serling are very much in evidence here. But director Franklin Schaffner has a dark, pop-apocalyptic sci-fi vision all his own, and time has not dulled the monumental emotional impact of the film's climactic payoff shot. If you don't know what I'm talking about here, you owe it to yourself to check out this stone classic, and even if you do, see it with fresh eyes; and don't be surprised if you get the chills all over again... and again... and again. --Miles Bethany ... Read more

Features

• Widescreen
• Dolby
• DTS Surround Sound

Reviews (180)

The good actors were the extra apes
When I was a kid, I loved Planet Of The Apes. Now as an adult I was able to re-watch this and I wondered what was I thinking? I honestly don't care for this film. Why? The acting was horrible, the story dragged on, and Charleton Heston's over-confidence made his character unlikeable.The funniest part was when the apes hosed Heston down and he screams "IT"S A MAD HOUSE!!! IT"S A MAD HOUSE!!!" and he's in a cave.There's loads of mistakes, too. For example, in a hearing, Heston's animalskins ar ripped off him and he is naked. They throw him a little piece of skin and he stands holding it in front of his crotch. Later in that same hearing, he is lead outside to identify someone, and ends up in a scuffle---wearing animal skin SHORTS. The camera angle would have shown EVERYTHING had Heston still had the original little piece of animal skin.A real mess of a movie, I say.

Not that great!
This movie was ok. I felt that the content could have been more well-presented. It seemed to drag on in certain parts.

Are We Forgetting Someone?
I am not trying to stand for anybodies rights here but some people are forgetting someone.There were four astronauts on that ship before it shank.I know it was a woman and she had died already but she was there.Imagine, in a 1967 movie they show a woman being sent on this none returning mission with three men.As Charlton Heston character stated: "And she was suppose to be the new Eve, with our hot and eager help of course."

So, try to look closer at the movie the next time and you will see that there was a fourth astronaut. ... Read more

Asin: B0000TPA4C
Subjects:  1. Science Fiction   

Natural Born Killers
Director: Oliver Stone
Average Customer Review:
DVD (25 January, 2000)
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Editorial Review

Oliver Stone would like to have the last word on America's media culture of voyeurism and violence, but whatever he's trying to say in this grisly, unconventional movie comes across terribly garbled. Woody Harrelson and Juliette Lewis play traveling serial killers who become television celebrities when a Geraldo-like personality (Robert Downey Jr.) turns their madness into the biggest story in the country. Stone extensively rewrote an original script by Quentin Tarantino, and he employs a mosaic of different film stocks, video, and pop pastiches to create a sense of blurred lines between visual phenomena. (The background on Lewis's character's life as an abused child, for instance, is presented as a sitcom starring Rodney Dangerfield.) But the result of these experiments is a pompous, even amateurish effort at grasping the reins of a real-life national debate. One almost wants to tell Stone to sit down and raise his hand next time if he thinks he has something to say. The controversial director would like Natural Born Killers to be nothing less than a monumental achievement, but it's one of the emptier entries in his filmography. --Tom Keogh ... Read more

Features

• Color
• Widescreen
• Closed-captioned
• Dolby

Reviews (317)

Unique Depiction of a Culture of Violence
Oliver Stone's version of 'Clockwork Orange' if you will in which he tries to capture various aspects of America's idolization of violence in both its society and entertainment.With somewhat of a non-sequential plot, Stone succeeds rather well at presenting this phenomena with plenty of violence sprinkled with the right dose of action, drama, and satyrical humor.

The film follows the lives of two deranged sociopaths Nicky and Mallory Knox played by Woody Harrelson and Juliette Lewis.Their crimes are gratuituous and despicable but the people love it and their infamy is exploited by Robert Downey Jr. who plays a caricature of Walsh of 'America's Most Wanted.'Apprehended by a sleazy demented cop named Scagnetti, both criminals are taken to prison where they incite a riot and finally escape.

This is an original venture involving the king of pop films Oliver Stone and the king of pulp Quentin Tarantino.Although the plot is rather loose and many of the scenes somewhat cliche, this film is quite original and better, in my opinion, than Kubrick's 'Clockwork Orange.'The film is extremely violent but don't be dissuaded by the negative reviews on this film: take a look for yourself and see if it's in your taste.

like, totally, unsatisfactory piece of film
oliver stone is overrated with every movie he has ever made.this movie is a sugar coated piece of action.. the hype led me to believe this was going to be a great movie that doesn't hold back.and it does hold back, and it comes across as lame.there is no story and bad acting.. ooooo there is a bunch of f bombs..good job oliver stone, go try to ruin the doors' imageagain

Oliver Stone gets high on his own supply
I love Oliver Stone. When he's at the top of his game (Talk Radio, Platoon, JFK), he's an f'ing demigod. Natural Born Killers, while certainly a unique film, is far from his best.

In JFK, Stone used multitextured cinematography and hyperkinetic editing to great effect. NBK takes these techniques to dizzying new heights...and topples right over. The trouble is, there's not a solid story to anchor the visuals. All the frantic cuts and camera moves serve little purpose other than to annoy/disorient the viewer.

That said, there are actually two interesting points in the film. 1) Back in '94, critics called Stone a hypocrite for lambasting the media's portrayals of violence, while fetishizing it himself in this film. I grudgingly have to agree with those critics. The scene where Mickey and Mallory blast their way out of prison is a great action piece, wonderfully shot. And it defeats the purpose of the film. Unless you take into consideration...2) Stone's humorous references to two of his earlier scripts: Scarface and Midnight Express. The Scarface reference is a little more obvious, the Midnight Express one is kind of obscure. Can these references be Stone's way of acknowledging his own role in glamourizing violence?

Sorry, but these paltry philosophical nuggets aren't quite enough to justify all the crash/bam/pow. ... Read more

Asin: B00003BDXG
Subjects:  1. Feature Film-action/Adventure   

Vampire's Kiss
Director: Robert Bierman
Average Customer Review:
DVD (27 August, 2002)
list price: $14.95 -- our price: $13.46
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Editorial Review

Nicolas Cage is perfectly cast in this devious black comedy of a New York literary agent whose latest one-night stand lands him in bed with vampire Jennifer Beals, who takes a big, bloody bite out of his identity. The emotionally unstable executive develops an aversion to sunlight, a fear of crosses, and a sudden appetite for cockroaches (not to mention a sadistic pleasure in tormenting hapless secretary Maria Conchita Alonso), but is it a supernatural curse or schizophrenia? Vampire's Kiss (written by After Hours scribe Joseph Minion) walks a dangerous line between satire and psychosis, which Cage pushes to surreal levels with a manic, unhinged performance. "I'm a vampire!" he howls, shuffling down alleys and snapping his cheap plastic fangs, less a Dracula than a bug-eyed, psychotic Renfield. Both funny and unsettling, this is one of the most demented takes on the genre. --Sean Axmaker ... Read more

Features

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Reviews (22)

"It Never Goes Away"
This is probably one of the most hilarious and satirical black comedies I own. Even though it is from the late eighties, it's a timeless gem, and when I need a good laugh, it's there. Just like New Yorker character yuppie literary genius, Peter says, "It never goes away".
Mind you, this is not a vampire movie, but a satirical view on a lonely young man that has "everything" falling apart. It all begins when he's getting ready to go to work and cuts himself shaving, and somehow he distortedly begins to think sex vixen Jennifer Beals who's supposedly a vampire bit him. From that point on it's a steady downward spiral of peculiar and weird scenarios to come; his personality becomes more erratic and his actions unpredictable and bizarre to say the least. He begins showing up to work in a suit, but no socks, becomes photophobic, and begins picking on his Cuban secretary played by Maria Conchita Alonso.
One of my favorite scenes is when he is at the psychiatrist office and he is standing on the ledge of the high-rise window holding a wooden stick, and he tells her he's going to go out there and find real love. The infamous scene when he eats the cockroach is a little disturbing, but you know they paid him good money to do so, but that's a good one too. I don't want to give the movie away since you must see it.
At times while watching the movie, or at least the first time, you wonder what's real and what isn't, and it's a pit perturbing however at the end you can figure it out.
Vampire's kiss is a satire about psychosis, and as you see, it doesn't care if you have a prestigious job or if you're a genius.
Every time I see a N. Cage movie I think of Peter, because there has to be just a little bit of him in there somewhere.

A let down for a vampire movie
I am a fan of vampire movies and collect them, from humorous to frightening.This movie was a let down.This was exactly what I would expect to find in a bargain bin, but definitely not at the price it is offered here.I am, also, a Nicolas Cage fan.I collect movies he stars in and so far, until this movie arrived, I can't say that I was ever let down by one of them.To say this was a bit bizzare is an understatement.You never really know if he is just crazy and imaging things or if it is really happening to him.It is hokie to the point of not being humorous, just very bad.My daughter loves hokie and even she walked out the room even though I suffered until the end.I bought this based on the fact that it is a vampire movie and Nicolas Cage stars in it.Even the trailer for this movie had to be edited in a way to make it sound interesting.If you watch it, you will notice how scenes were taken out of content to make it look better than it really was.Throughout the movie, Nicholas Cage had an on again off again accent that sounded like it was suppose to be British.Word of advice, don't waste your money.

Not quite what Stoker had in mind
Quirky and original, this flick is a hoot.Imagine if John Waters had written "Dracula" rather than Bram Stoker.It's not so much a vampire movie, as it is the study of a mans descent into madness.Cage's performance is completely unrestrained, so non Cage fans should beware. ... Read more

Asin: B000068IET
Subjects:  1. Feature Film-comedy   

Birdy
Director: Alan Parker
Average Customer Review:
DVD (15 February, 2000)
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Editorial Review

Based on William Wharton's transcendent novel of the same name, this film is about many things: friendship, war, and, of course, birds. The framing device is an effort by a horribly scarred combat soldier (Nicolas Cage) to break through to his best friend, Birdy (Matthew Modine), hospitalized after seemingly being driven mad by fighting in the Vietnam War. Cage then flashes back to their boyhood, where Birdy, a canary aficionado, was considered the school weirdo but managed to be a solid companion nonetheless. Directed by Alan Parker, it works best as a coming-of-age story, but misses the bizarre psychological transferences of the book, in which Birdy imagines himself within the world of canaries he creates in his bedroom at his parents' house. Modine is fine as an out-of-it misfit enraptured by his own little universe. --Marshall Fine ... Read more

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Reviews (24)

Hauntingly and evocative movie of friendship and devotion!
?Birdy? gets my nod as one of the greatest and most compelling movies of all time in so many ways. While it is like many that focus on the effects of the war in Vietnam, this movie is the most unique story of friendship, the effects of military combat, and eccentricity like no other movie of the 1980s or ever for that matter.

Nicholas Cage and Matthew Modine star in ?Birdy? as two lifelong friends from the run-down industrial ghettos of Philadelphia where they have played baseball together and ?Birdy? has had a huge passionate obsession with birds throughout his life and has dreamed of being able to fly like a bird. However, the two friends are recruited into the U.S. Army and are involved in the fighting in Vietnam and when they return, both are horribly scarred. One has suffered physical wounds with face wounds while the other has mental scars (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder) and being driven mad from the horrors of fighting in Vietnam, has almost withdrawn into his own ?birdland? and acting like a bird and not responding to outside social stimuli. As a result, Birdy has been hospitalized in a decrepit mental institution. Now Al Columbato must try to get his friend Birdy to be able to emerge from his catatonic state if he wants to leave the mental hospital and return to a normal life. During all of this, we can be able to see the flashbacks into Birdy and Al?s past and see how ?bird boy?s? obsession with birds grew increasingly strong and started to strain his social life with his friend and others around him but yet see very compelling acts of bonding between the two unlikely friends and how they?ve gone through so much together even before the war.

The characters are among the most compelling I?ve ever seen in a drama movie ever. This might be considered a ?coming of age? movie but it?s so much more than just your average teen angst movie. ?Birdy? delves into some of the strangest and most unique perspectives of obsessive people with their subjects of interests and the things that true friends go through in order to stay bonded forever. The photography is stunningly brilliant and stunning beautiful thanks to ironically, it?s relatively primitive filming technology that was used in filming it. The grittiness of the movie while it may be a bit irritating, gives this movie a strangely opaque feel and some of the scenes which are throughout this film are absolutely moving and will tug at your heartstrings.All of the scenes of the birds flying into the air are perfectly filmed and enhance the movie?s emotional quality even more. While this movie is very heavy in it?s bittersweet plot, there are some really smart and honest comedic elements that are really funny without detracting anything from it?s dramatic tone and the funnier parts make this movie ever more bittersweet. Sometimes I would go far enough to say that this almost has high amounts of both even though there is far, FAR more drama.?Birdy? is bizarre, psychotic, happy, sad, dark, bright, and a whole lot of other positive things.

Director Alan Parker creates one of the most compelling movies of all time. While nothing could ever go wrong with this movie, his directing made it so much more powerful, moving, funny in odd ways, and yet very vivid on such high levels unparalleled. This movie centers on some of the more unattractive areas of Philadelphia (At least at the time, I?m not sure about today) like industrial junkyards, landfills, and run down neighborhoods, but centering on one like these areas makes this movie so much more interesting and from my standpoint, aims to dispel the notion that all poor areas are necessarily dangerous and crime-ridden. While it was centered on Philadelphia, this movie reminds me of what many areas of Chicago looked like during my childhood memories: Weed-ridden, extremely gritty, seedy, and depressed (Many of them have seen serious gentrification in recent years), at least at the time.

Nicholas Cage and Matthew Modine in their earliest days of their acting careers are absolutely amazing as Al and ?birdy?. The interactions between the two characters in the movie are absolutely realistic and really bittersweet. While not throwing a beating by any means at his later movies, I personally think that Nicholas Cage?s acting hasn?t reached the early pinnacle as on ?Birdy? but sometimes there?s the saying that it?s ?Never as Good As The First Time? and it surely applies here. Matthew Modine is the most compelling lead in this movie as his portrayal of Birdy is incredible, vivid, and believable. By the way, he?s the guy on the album cover of the soundtrack by Peter Gabriel which brings to mind the soundtrack.

The music along makes this movie really vividly bittersweet with really powerful background music that perfectly fits with the movie?s really obscure tone with songs like ?Under Lock and Key? and ?Close Up? which is actually expanded from the 50 second version on the CD and includes the chord progression of it?s parent track ?Family Snapshot? and it?s absolutely haunting and thought-provoking. Most of the songs on the soundtrack can be heard in the background if one listens carefully and it?s absolutely haunting and makes the various scenes even more compelling. What?s even more unique is how this movie doesn?t seem to rely on generic orchestra background music for a change. The haunting music at the beginning has the haunting eerie song ?Slow Water? mixed with the song ?Quiet & Alone? and combining the two songs makes it so amazing like no other movie opening theme.

?Birdy? wasn?t a massive hit in the USA due to it?s unconventional nature and lack of a ?formulaic plot? especially when ?Terminator? and ?Temple of Doom? were riding high, but this has become one of my favorite movies of the decade. If you can find this movie on DVD, then you MUST buy this ASAP. It may be a bit slow paced at first but it allows a lot of character development and allows you to know them very well and ?Birdy? will ultimately be one of the most rewarding movies you?ll ever see. It is intense without being violent or bloody, or even immensely depressing.

This is quite simply the most brilliant and evocative masterpieces of the 1980s and one of histories lost treasures. I could go for a very long time with this review but since there is only a limited space for reviews on here, I have no choice but to end it here.

I Believe I Can Fly
This sleeper and not very recent movie should get more recognition than it gets, since it`s a moving, well-crafted piece of film-making above most overhyped flicks around. It focuses the relationship of two friends, one (Nicolas Cage in one of his first roles) that has recently returned from Vietnam and "Birdy" (an excellent Matthew Modine), who is kept in an hospital due to (apparent) psychological disorder.
The pacing is slow (pherhaps a bit too slow during the first half), presenting Cage`s character visit to his friend in order to help him and some flashbacks that showcase their teenage relationship.

As the story unfolds, Birdy`s past is foreshadowed and the viewer comes across his passion, curiosity and obssession with birds, that starts to increase and soon reduces his bonds to other people and experiences.
Birdy has his own little world and soon gets stuck in it, and one of his few contacts with "common reality" is his only friend that struggles to understand his point of view.

Director Alan Parker manages to bring a deep, powerful and subtle movie that expertly deals with isolation, insanity, friendship, freedom, alienation and connection.
The story wisely avoids sappy and easy melodramatic fluff, delivering a strong and honest character study that lies in the range of its two leads. Modine, in particular, is utterly convincing as the fragile, confused and innocent Birdy, providing a compelling portrayal of a youngster that percieves his own peculiar universe.

This picture is also a stunning coming-of-age tale, avoiding predictable and tired cliches and presenting a unique, memmorable and sincere friendship between the two characters.
The slow pacing and the beautiful cinematography help the creation of a captivating, haunting and eerie mood to the movie, becoming weirdly unsettling at times.

"Birdy" has much to recommend and really carries a feel of its own, being a great cinematic experience for those who have ever felt "different", misunderstoodand and seem to be outside.
This is quality cinema. Highly recommended.

Birdy.
Character-driven film which explores the friendship between two young men, one of them relatively normal (Cage) but physically scarred by 'Nam (could have been any war)...and the other (Modine,_Full Metal Jacket_) who more and more sees the world through the beady eyes of birds, with as consequence gradual alienation from his 'fellow men and women'.

There are not many reviews here belonging to Birdy, but it was a hit at Cannes (a while ago) and is generally considered a staple of 'good-film-making'. Anyway, people who come here hoping to learn more about it are likely to be real admirers of fine cinematic art, in my opinion. Possible complaints (NOT mine) would be that Birdy is slow and goes nowhere at all and has a weak ending. To those people, go watch something in which dozens of cars explode for no apparent reason.

Anyway, after the horrors of war (this is not Platoon, however, Birdy is, how to put this nicely, not littered with dead people), Modine ends up hospitalized (I gave nothing away; this is the start of Birdy). Cage tries to pull him back into sanity, and it's through chronological flashbacks (many excellent scenes, by the way) that their friendship is shown.

Fascinating characters, brilliantly written, and great acting. As others pointed out, the soundtrack is indeed memorable.
Unfortunately for me, I realized but late why it was so important that the window should open. Stupid me. I hope you are brighter of mind. ... Read more

Asin: B00003L9CH
Subjects:  1. Feature Film-drama   

Valley Girl
Director: Martha Coolidge
Average Customer Review:
DVD (08 June, 2004)
list price: $14.95 -- our price: $11.96
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Editorial Review

Valley Girl is, like--Omigod!--one of the most "tubular" teen comedies of the early 1980s. This movie launched Nicolas Cage's career, and it's easy to see why: Following his tiny role in Fast Times at Ridgemont High, Cage is perfectly cast as a Hollywood punk who instantly falls for Julie (the irresistible Deborah Foreman), a San Fernando "Valley Girl"--a brighter variant of the stereotype immortalized in Moon Unit Zappa's 1982 novelty song--who must choose between wild-boy Nic and her preening jock boyfriend (Mark Bowen). Fortunately, Julie knows what's right for her (even if her "Val" friends don't), and in refreshing defiance of teen-flick tradition, her post-hippie parents (Frederic Forrest, Colleen Camp) are supportively cool. With sincere humor, a lively soundtrack of '80s hits, and a time-capsule cruise of Hollywood landmarks, Valley Girl is both timeless and nostalgic, owing much of its lasting appeal to Martha Coolidge's sensitive direction. Fer sure, y'know, it definitely won't gag you with a spoon. --Jeff Shannon ... Read more

Features

• Color
• Closed-captioned
• Widescreen
• Dolby

Reviews (73)

Great to see this on DVD
Despite the complaint from another viewer (above) that this DVD falls short of being the luxury edition the film deserves, I was thrilled to come across "Valley Girl" on DVD. I'd previously only seen this movie on an ex-rental VHS tape, circa early 1980s, because "Valley Girl" appears never to have been re-issued on VHS in Australia. As well as being an obvious improvement on the VHS version in technical terms, the DVD has the added attraction of Martha Coolidge's audio commentary.
Her commentary on this DVD is considerably superior to that of Amy Heckerling and Cameron Crowe on the DVD of "Fast Times at Ridgemont High", which I found overly casual and less informative (sorry Amy, I still love your films). Although I'd seen "Valley Girl" many times, Coolidge's commentary gave me a lot more insight into the film. She communicates at a level that the general public can understand, but doesn't neglect to discuss technical and business factors that importantly influenced the end product. Coolidge's commentary on "Valley Girl" is collected, engaging, detailed and very informative. The insight she provides into matters such as the work put into the film's colour scheme, the organisation of the brilliant party scene and the way budgetary constraints determined some aspects of the film is exemplary. Although this film is without doubt an icon of 1980s popular culture, it's also a remarkable accomplishment in filmmaking more generally: a movie that derives its premise from exploitation film but emerges as a more appealing and ideologically sound piece of youth entertainment than anyone expected of teen movies in that era.

Great movie - production quality sucks.
This is def one of the great teen flix of the 80's. So why is it packaged like a cheap second-rate pirate copy? MGM have totally let this gem of a movie down. The disc has no label and there are no leaflets or other material that you'd expect with a DVD entitled SPECIAL EDITION. I thought that would at least warrant a disc label. Pathetic for a major league film studio. Makes me wonder if they're going to replace the MGM lion with a hand puppet.
NEway, the film quality is clear and sharp, the sound OK and the songs are great to hear again. The disco bathroom makeout scene blows the doors off Enrique's Escape Video for sheer steaminess. How is it that low budget indie movies always look that much more credible?
The xtras are good - interviews etc., well worth a look.

If you like this film, get the DVD for posterity.If you're looking for great production and packaging, save your money.

Great 80s nostalgia
When this film debuted in 1983, some viewers were disappointed because the obvious song, Moon Unit Zappa's "Valley Girl" wasn't in it, but it was fun anyway. Teen cultures clash when the punker from Hollywood meets the elegant prom princess from the Valley and the kids fall in love. Nicolas Cage shows his future promise in this early role, and the climactic fight scene, where he whips Julie's boyfriend, hijacks their prom limo and then takes her to the hotel room the boyfriend had reserved is still one of my favorite movie scenes. Recommend for anyone who loved the 80s, and today's teens who want a good date movie. ... Read more

Asin: B00005JLFA
Subjects:  1. Feature Film-comedy   

Leaving Las Vegas
Director: Mike Figgis
Average Customer Review:
DVD (07 September, 2004)
list price: $14.95 -- our price: $11.96
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Editorial Review

One of the most critically acclaimed films of 1995, this wrenchingly sad but extraordinarily moving drama provides an authentic, superbly acted portrait of two people whose lives intersect just as they've reached their lowest depths of despair. Ben (Nicolas Cage, in an Oscar-winning performance) is a former movie executive who's lost his wife and family in a sea of alcoholic self-destruction. He's come to Las Vegas literally to drink himself to death, and that's when he meets Sera (Elisabeth Shue), a prostitute who falls in love with him--and he with her--despite their mutual dead-end existence. They accept each other as they are, with no attempts by one to change the other, and this unconditional love turns Leaving Las Vegas into a somber yet quietly beautiful love story. Earning Oscar nominations for Best Director (Mike Figgis), Best Adapted Screenplay (Figgis, from John O'Brien's novel) and Best Actress (Shue), the film may strike some as relentlessly bleak and glacially paced, but attentive viewers will readily discover the richness of these tragic characters and the exceptional performances that bring them to life. (In a sad echo of his own fiction, novelist John O'Brien committed suicide while this film was in production.) The DVD features uncut, unrated footage that was not included in the film's theatrical release. --Jeff Shannon ... Read more

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Reviews (126)

I'm A Drunk But This Hot Hooker Wants Me!!! (For Free TOO!!)
This would have to be one of the most overrated and overhyped movies ever produced. It concerns a drunken loser by the name of Ben, played by Nicholas Cage who is set on drinking himself to death in Las Vegas. Instead ofbeing totally absorbed in his quest to find his next drink (just like any normal drunk) he finds time to develop a relationship with Sera, a prostitute. I have read that prostitutesHATE DRUNKS for various reasons which I won't go into in this review but this movie does call for an immense "Suspension Of Disbelief " on the part of the viewer like the scene in which Ben wakes up smiling after a hard night of drinking. Somebody should tell the makers of this turkey of a movie that no drunk ever wakes up smiling (and happy , no less!!!) after a drinking binge.I give this movie 5 stars because I kind of like Elisabeth Shue.What I really want to know is that how come every streetwalker portrayed by Hollywood is always good looking whereas in reality they are all Heroin addicts with Hepatitis B which has eroded any good looks they may once have had? Please advise. My Email address is available for all to see!!!

Depressing with no point
This had to be the most depressing movie I ever saw.Yet, at the same time, I did not care about any of the characters (there was no character development) ... there was not much depth to the story line.The characters were flat, boring, dull, and uninteresting; I did not feel for any of them.This was a pointless movie.

SORROWFUL accounts, last rites..a touching film...
This movie will blow you away..but it's the peoples lives who are depicted by Cage and Shue and not explosions and guns that do it.Harrowing accounts of a call girl who is abused, finds love in a man who is determined to drink himself to death...literally...

A romantic triangle of sorts involving prostitute Sera (Elisabeth Shue), failed Hollywood screenwriter Ben (Oscar-winner Nicolas Cage), and the constant flow of booze which he loves more dearly than life itself. Arriving in Las Vegas with the intention of drinking himself to death, Ben meets Sera, and they gradually begin falling for one another.

From the outset, however, Ben warns Sera that no matter what, she can never ask him to quit drinking, a condition to which she grudgingly agrees. A darkly comic tragedy, Leaving Las Vegas charts the brief romantic convergence of two desperately needy people who together find a brief flicker of happiness. ... Read more

Asin: 0792838068
Subjects:  1. Feature Film-drama   

Raising Arizona
Director: Joel Coen, Ethan Coen
Average Customer Review:
DVD (01 February, 2005)
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Editorial Review

Blood Simple made it clear that the cinematically precocious Coen brothers (writer-director Joel and writer-producer Ethan) were gifted filmmakers to watch out for. But it was the outrageously farcical Raising Arizona that announced the Coens' darkly comedic audacity to the world. It wasn't widely seen when released in 1987, but its modest audience was vocally supportive, and this hyperactive comedy has since developed a large and loyal following. It's the story of "Ed" (for Edwina, played by Holly Hunter), a policewoman who falls in love with "Hi" (for H.I. McDonnough, played by Nicolas Cage) while she's taking his mug shots. She's infertile and he's a habitual robber of convenience stores, and their folksy marital bliss depends on settling down with a rug rat. Unable to conceive, they kidnap one of the newsworthy quintuplets born to an unpainted-furniture huckster named Nathan Arizona (Trey Wilson), who quickly hires a Harley-riding mercenary (Randall "Tex" Cobb) to track the baby's whereabouts. What follows is a full-throttle comedy that defies description, fueled by the Coens' lyrical redneck dialogue, the manic camerawork of future director Barry Sonnenfeld, and some of the most inventively comedic chase scenes ever filmed. Some will dismiss the comedy for being recklessly over-the-top; others will love it for its clever mix of slapstick action, surreal fantasy, and homespun family values. One thing's for sure--this is a Coen movie from start to finish, and that makes it undeniably unique.--Jeff Shannon ... Read more

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Reviews (118)

Without my permission they wouldn't ...
...piss with their pants on fire

Convicted armed robber H.I. McDonnough (Cage) and police photographer Edwina (Hunter) marry.Shortly into their marriage they discover they are unable to conceive a child.Desperate for a baby, the pair decides to kidnap one of the quintuplets of unstained furniture tycoon Nathan Arizona. Raising Arizona is about the McDonnough's trying to keep their crime secret despite H.I.'s friends, co-workers, and a professional baby bounty hunter all inquiring or in search of Nathan Arizona Jr.As each group discovers who the baby is, they each develop their own incentives for stealing the baby from the McDonnough's.

Joel Coen (Fargo, The Big Lebowski, The LadyKillers) directs Raising Arizona, a very risky topic.Not too often will you see movies where the good guys, if they can be called that, are individuals who kidnap a child.Nevertheless, the way this movie is filmed, the wide range of topics and characters covered, and the extremely strange situations is definitely something to view.Some people will not find what they do funny; certain aspects are not funny, just bizarre.However you view the situations, it is definitely art, and entertaining.

Raising Arizona has an awesome cast.I utilize the word awesome over all-star.The movie Oceans Eleven or Harlem Nights possesses an all-star cast.Raising Arizona just has a great group of actors that are very well utilized.This group of great actors includes Nicolas Cage, Holly Hunter, John Goodman, and William Forsythe.Even the lesser-known actors deliver great performances.

Growing up I remember watching Raising Arizona quit a few times on HBO.I always liked the film, especially the armed robbery scene where Cage is trying to steal the Huggies.Watching the movie now as an adult, I still appreciate the type of film it is, not a happy cozy ending, probably less realistic then what I thought as a kid, but still a great quality film.If you asked me a week ago about this film I would have said it is great.Watching it again, it is very good, but not great.

Grade: B

Raising Arizona: psycho-social fundamentalists
My favorite Coen Brother film might be Raising Arizona. It is the story of a convenient-store robber named Hi (Nicolas Cage) who falls in love with a police-booking officer named Ed (Holly Hunter). And for love, Hi goes straight until about page ten when Hi and Ed decide that they need a child to complete the "family unit." Unfortunately, Ed is "barren" and Hi is an ex-con, so they are unlikely either to conceive or to adopt. But Nathan and Florence Arizona-owners of the Arizona Unpainted Furniture dynasty-have just had quintuplets, and according to the headlines, it's "more than they can handle." Ed persuades Hi that they should take one, and so they do, stumbling into a story spiral that will never quite let up. They take Nathan Jr. back to their "suburban starter home"--a trailer in a largely empty expanse of desert--where they are visited in turns by Hi's boss, Glen, who brings his wife and frightening tribe of children, by escaped convicts Evelle and Gail Snopes and by a bounty-hunter on a motor cycle. Each proves a threat to the integrity of the newly, if illegally, formed family unit--if only by critiquing their parenting skills. Glen feels Hi needs to lighten up and swap wives. Glen's wife feels a shrieking panic when she learns that Nathan Jr. has yet to have his "Dip-tet." Evelle and Gail think breast-feeding is an absolute must without which the child will end up in prison just as they did. And the bounty--hunter wants the child in order to claim the $25,000 reward though he kindly intends to rough up the kid-nappers for free. In the end, they all recognize Nathan Jr. and want the reward of his love or the reward for his return. And when he is then kid-napped from the kidnappers, it results in a chase that ends in kindness, charity and an explosion--after which the movies' epilogue gently lowers our expectations down onto the sad, sweet melancholy of Hi's last dream.

When you look at the filmography of the Coen Brothers, you may wonder at their variety, at their breadth. They seem to be able to work in any number of genres. But, in truth, they have only ever worked in but one: a zany film noir. And while those who love them, like myself, can provide you with a rather long list of objects, character types and thematic elements that regularly occur in their films--hats, vomiting, kidnapping, howling fat men, dreams--I am rather more interested in their portrayal of a world inhabited by psycho-social fundamentalists, who take everyone at his or her word-literally-and who are incapable of suspicion, of divining ill-intent. They are, more often than not, people who dream of having what is really no more than the ordinary fare of ordinary people; people who dream of living in what other people seek to escape. Hi and Ed are a warm trailer trash version of the farm couple in Grant Wood's American Gothic. And Hi is probably the better example. Is he an innocent or a well-meaning, conscious-less idiot? Terminally straight-faced, he describes his life and story in long, calm periods with dickensian qualification whether he is being fired at by a convenient store clerk with a gun many times bigger than his own; is being chased by police who fire non-stop and indiscriminently down residential streets, into occupied homes and through busy super-markets; or is being beaten senseless by the warthog from hell--none of which, incidentally, is as frightening as Glen's pre-schoolers. When you add the rush and erratic veer of the shaky cam shots and the distance-distorting wide-angle lenses, the result is an overwhelming visual for a life swiftly picking up speed in its downward spiral. But Hi is forever deadpan and earnest with only his hair to signal a kind of frenzied surprise at the unexpected mysteries of just getting through another day.

Son you gotta panty on your head
I have seen this movie more times than I can count. This is one of the funniest quirky flicks that I have ever seen. John Goodman is great as a escaped con. You will love this movie, or my name isn't Nathan Arizona!! ... Read more

Asin: 6305499128
Subjects:  1. Feature Film-comedy   

The Cotton Club
Director: Francis Ford Coppola
Average Customer Review:
DVD (02 April, 2002)
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Editorial Review

The Cotton Club is routinely eclipsed by the controversies that surrounded its tumultuous production, but the film itself offers abundant pleasures that should not be overlooked. If Apocalypse Now represents the triumph of director Francis Coppola's perilous ambition, then The Cotton Club represents the ungainly glory of uncontrolled genius, as brilliant as it is out of its depth. As an upscale homage to classic gangster films it's frequently astonishing, cramming a thick novel's worth of plot and characters into 129 minutes, gloriously serviced by impeccable production design, elegant cinematography, and stylistic flourishes that show Coppola at the top of his game.

What The Cotton Club lacks is cohesion. As written by Coppola and novelist William Kennedy (then enjoying the peak of his critical acclaim), the movie struggles to exceed the narrative scope of The Godfather, but its multiple early-'30s plot lines fail to form any strong connective tissue. It's three (or four) movies in one, with cornet player Dixie Dwyer (Richard Gere, playing his own jazzy solos) drifting from one story to the next--loving a young, ambitious vamp (Diane Lane, with whom Gere shares precious little chemistry), enjoying the success of a hotshot hoofer (Gregory Hines), and protecting his brazen bother (Coppola's then-newcomer nephew, Nicolas Cage) from the deadly temper of mob boss Dutch Schultz (James Remar). Bob Hoskins and Fred Gwynne also score big in grand supporting roles, but The Cotton Club is perhaps best appreciated for its meticulous re-creation of Harlem's Cotton Club heyday, and the brilliant music (Ellington, Calloway, etc.) that brought rhythm to gangland's rat-a-tat-tat. --Jeff Shannon ... Read more

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Reviews (30)

wish i could have been to one of those shows!
za za za zoom!the music, the women and the dancing... gregory hines is absolutely un-hooked in this film. his unbearably cool tap solo centerpiece is filmed so well it is simply stupendous. it is spliced with the gangsters violence and the contrast between the art and stupidity is astounding.
this movie is bliss if you love jazz, dance and great cinematography.
what a superior treat!

Homage to black culture
I say to hell with the critics who slammed this film. What is the movie REALLY about? Its about the superiority of Afro American culture in every aspect - family, dance, music, dress, values and the stupidity and crassness of the so called superior white culture composed of Irish, Jewish, Italian et al which is to say European culture. It is a metaphor for the rise of Africa and the fall of Europe and the battle will be fought and won in the USA. Forget the halting narrative and love interests and focus on the Duke Ellington music - glorious musical wonder of the 20th century - the Nicholas Brothers dance sequences - the dancers, the vocals, the sequence in the hoofers club and all the joy that permeates the film.The dead white dead like faces of many of the characters - Dutch Schultz among them and his no name helpers - symbolise the dead spirit in the bodies they inhabit.Black is truly beautiful in this flawed but ultimately satisfying entetainment.

Busting at the seams with talent and panache
There are not enough superlatives for this movie. It brims with style, class, talent and low-down, no-good scum. There are the heartless ones trying to stay at the top of the dog heap juxtaposed against the ones with heart selling their souls to crawl higher on the heap.

Richard Gere and Diane Lane are young, star-crossed, and multi-talented. Gere does his own cornet solos and Lane sings a gravelly "Ain't I Blue" while carrying a torch for Dixie Dwyer (Gere) right before her mobster boyfriend's deadly jealous eyes. Gere and Lane hate each other for their impossible love: they dance a slapping fight on the dance floor of the club while other dancers imitate their brawl, believing it to be a new dance step. This is among the many classic moments not to be missed.

A sub-theme of segregation is interwoven with stunning tap numbers and loaded songs, showing the irony and snobbery of a famous club that allowed only black people to sing, dance, and hoof it on stage while not allowing them entry via the front door as patrons. (See The Cotton Club's own Website for more history.)

At times, although the rivalry and bloodshed was riveting (I abhor gratuitous violence in movies but this one could not be told without depicting the violence of the era) there were moments when I wished we could just cut to the stage for an entire performance--instead of seeing snatches cut, albeit skillfully, into the mob and romance scenes. The song and dance numbers were sensational; it left me longing to transport myself back to the hey day of The Cotton Club for a year's worth of stellar entertainment.

My one disappointment was Cab Calloway. The actor chosen for the role certainly had the energy and crazy spontaneity of the real Cab, but not near the voice. It was like hearing a lukewarm sound coming out of a powerhouse body.

I spent years not realizing that Richard Gere is a very talented man, not just an actor. After seeing him in Chicago we found him ballroom dancing in Shall We Dance. A chance look at Laurence Fishburne's bio at the end of Tuskegee Airmen led us to The Cotton Club and we pounced when we saw Gere in the cast line-up. I've gone from feeling so-so about Richard Gere to wishing he would make more movies of this ilk.


... Read more

Asin: B00005IA7Y
Subjects:  1. Feature Film-drama   

Moonstruck
Director: Norman Jewison
Average Customer Review:
DVD (13 November, 2001)
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Editorial Review

Remember the outfit Cher wore to the Oscars when she won an Academy Award for her performance in this 1987 film? Ay-yi-yi. The actress' more retiring character in this infectious comedy leaps several psychological hurdles just giving her hair a permanent. But then the original screenplay by John Patrick Shanley (Joe Versus the Volcano) is a wonderful, gently satirical tale of an Italian-American family dealing with repression and dissatisfaction against a backdrop of cultural expectations. Cher is focused and funny as a widow who feels she should marry an older fellow (Danny Aiello), but then falls for his black-sheep brother (Nicolas Cage). Olympia Dukakis and Vincent Gardenia are perfect as her parents, and John Mahoney (of TV's Frasier) has a memorable, small role as a middle-aged man on the make who gets a lecture from Dukakis's character. Shanley's dialogue is comically stylized in a way that makes one appreciate how much words can inform an actor's performance. Taking its cues from him and director Norman Jewison (And Justice for All), the cast immerse themselves in a pool of hilariously operatic emotion. The special-edition DVD release has a full-screen presentation, Dolby sound, commentary by Cher, Jewison, and Shanley, theatrical trailer, closed captioning, booklet, optional French soundtrack, and optional subtitles in English, French, or Spanish. --Tom Keogh ... Read more

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Reviews (131)

A Magnificent Love Story
I have never been a big Cher fan. I never particularly thought she was talented nor did I think she was very pretty. This film changed my mind when I first saw it in the theater years ago. She cleanup up nice.

Nicolas Cage also does an outstanding job as the obsessive man in love with his brother's fiance (Cher) who he first met when she came by to invite him to the wedding. The problem is that she finds that she loves him and not her fiance. Things get even more mixed up when it turns out that her dad is running around and so is her mom.

This is a love story but it is also a comedy. On both levels it succeeds. It is a movie to watch in the arms of someone you love.

It's amore
Kind of an old story: woman meets man who rescues her from marrying the wrong guy by getting her to fall in love with him. Sometimes the roles are reversed, as in "Holiday," for example. Here Loretta (Cher) is engaged to marry stick-in-the-mud Johnny (Danny Aiello) when, by chance, she meets his brother Ronny (Nicholas Cage); they hit it off, fall in love, and decide to get married: Cage's gain and Aiello's loss. It's done from an Italian perspective with billowing emotions and even an opera thrown in, and it's done very well. Highly enjoyable (though "Holiday" was better).

This DVD is not "Pan&Scan", however...
Although the theatrical aspect ratio of this movie was 1.85:1, while the DVD aspect ratio is 4:3, this is not a "Pan&Scan" DVD.In other words, almost none of the original theatrical image has been removed for exhibition on a 4:3 television screen.The film negative aspect ratio was 1.37:1 (almost 4:3), and for theatrical exhibition, the image was "matted" (partially covered from the top down and bottom up) to produce a 1.85:1 image.For exhibition on a 4:3 television screen, the "mattes" have simply been removed.So the DVD exhibition actually shows 31.4 percent more image than the theatrical exhibition.The movie was likely filmed this way so that the theatrical image wouldn't be butchered on television by the "Pan&Scan" process, and because the filmmakers didn't foresee the current state of the home video market, where consumers prefer movies presented in their theatrical aspect ratio, rather than in a ratio in which the image will fill up their 4:3 television screen (if there is a difference).This DVD presents the movie in the aspect ratio in which the filmmakers wanted people to see it on a 4:3 television, but it does not present the movie in the aspect ratio in which the filmmakers wanted people to see it in a movie theater (for that, the DVD would have to present the movie in a "matted widescreen" format).If you're okay with that, enjoy!
... Read more

Asin: 0792838963
Subjects:  1. Feature Film-comedy   

Rumble Fish
Director: Francis Ford Coppola
Average Customer Review:
DVD (27 May, 2003)
list price: $9.99
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Editorial Review

The second of Francis Ford Coppola's films based on the popular juvenile novels of S.E. Hinton (the first being The Outsiders), Rumble Fish split critics into opposite camps: those who admired the film for its heavily stylized indulgence, and those who hated it for the very same reason. Whatever the response, it's clearly the work of a maverick director who isn't afraid to push the limits of his innovative talent. Filmed almost entirely in black and white with an occasional dash of color for symbolic effect, this tale of alienated youth centers on gang leader Rusty James (Matt Dillon) and his band of punk pals. Rusty's got a girlfriend (Diane Lane), an older brother named Motorcycle Boy (Mickey Rourke), and a drunken father (Dennis Hopper) who've all given up trying to straighten him out. He's best at making trouble, and he pursues that skill with an enthusiastic flair that eventually catches up with him. But it's not the whacked-out story here that matters--it's the uninhibited verve of Coppola's visual approach, which includes everything from time-lapse clouds to the kind of smoky streets and alleyways that could only exist in the movies. The supporting cast includes a host of fresh faces who went on to thriving careers, including Nicolas Cage, Christopher Penn, Vincent Spano, Laurence Fishburne, and musician Tom Waits. --Jeff Shannon ... Read more

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Reviews (40)

Urban Trap
I have never experienced a film quite like Rumble Fish. It has blown me away, and continues to do so every time I view it. Let's start with the stunning images that pour out of this film. Coppola didn't just pull the black and white idea out of his ass for artsy fartsy purposes. His intention was to have the audience view the world through Motorcycle Boy(Rourke). Also, almost every scene has a clock either in the foreground or background, reminding us that this film focuses around the essence of time, and how it plays such a huge role with the characters.
The acting in this film is also something to treasure. Rourke, Dillon, and Hopper take the cake for their honest portrayal of SE Hinton's classic characters. Rourke is amazing, and speaks in this confused, monotonous tone. Aside from being an excellent story, the film also creates two brothers who reflect a typical sibling relationship. Rusty James(Dillon) envies his brother... he looks up to him.
Rumble Fish is a timeless masterpiece. I certainly recommend this film to an older audience, but that doesn't mean teens can't find something enjoyable about it... I'm a teen! It's a remarkable story, and to top it off it's got one of the greatest scores ever put to film in my opinion. Please do your country a favor and see this film now!!!!

Rumble Fish: a world without coventional distance
There was a time, before and after the "Godfather" Parts I and II, when Francis Ford Copola was a highly experimental filmmaker who could approach subjects on a smaller, subtler scale that would loom soulfully large in close-up. "Rumblefish", like "The Conversation", is a very good example. It's the story essentially of Rusty James, a 16-year-old living in a tenement in Oklahoma. Despite his youth, he has the vices of a much older man-drinking, smoking, fighting, and womanizing without any interference from what few adults remain in his life. His father is a lawyer, living on welfare, an alcoholic. His mother left when he was too young to remember. And he has only the memory of a legendary brother to give him guidance. Unfortunately Rusty hasn't the reputed intelligence of his mother or father or older brother, and so misunderstands the aura surrounding the legend and the stuff of which it was built. Rusty thinks the great accomplishment of his brother, otherwise known as the "motorcycle boy", was his presiding over a gang at a time when the gangs ran the streets. And he wants desperately to follow in that path. But little by little, his friends, his father, and the returning "motorcycle boy" himself show Rusty that he hasn't the intellect to lead the gang or the soul to be his brother. The "motorcycle boy" is regarded on the streets as royalty in exile. His father sees him as a great miscast figure in a play: as someone able to do anything, but unable to find anything he wants to do. And, in a final dispiriting mission, the "motorcycle boy" tells Rusty that he's wasted his time waiting for his return. He's no one's hero; no one's answer; no one's leader. If you're going to lead a people, you have to have somewhere to go. And it is perhaps at this point that we realize we're not so much watching the story of Rusty James as we are the world of the "motorcycle boy". We're really looking at the world through his eyes and ears, through the eyes and ears of a man who is colorblind and mildly deaf. We're looking at a world shot in black and white, where figures are back-lit to look gunmetal gray against flat backdrops, and move like white clouds racing across the gray sky in sequences shot through time-lapse photography. Shadows appear as thick as the things they skirt, some of which Copola actually had painted on the walls in a kind of distorted monochrome that is reminiscent of early German Expressionist cinema. Angles are drawn sharp and askew, and background action is framed in deep focus--through, beyond, or around a profile, an arm or a broken figure. And all noises--great and small--pull forward, thwarting any sense of conventional distance, time or relative scale of values. We hear water dripping, billiard balls clacking, machinery turning, delivered in the thick half-echo of a mic blues harp, having no greater or lesser value than the dialogue it serves to syncopate. The sense is very strong that we are seeing and hearing things as the "motorcycle boy" sees and hears them: through a broken, but acute sense of perception, as the father in a rare moment of lucidity calls it. There is always a sense that we are seeing and hearing the guts of the city, the innards of the compacted humanity, and all the mitigated impulses that surrender to drink and drugs and sex and violence for want of some bigger, wider, unprecious circumstance, such as the "motorcycle boy" suspects would prevent the Rumblefish, his term for Japanese fighting fish, from killing one another.

Rumble Fish
The book was excellent and so was the movie. I wish I could just watch it over and over again. ... Read more

Asin: 0783228473
Subjects:  1. Feature Film-drama   

Entertainment Weekly
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Reviews (86)

Subscribed for a year...very disappointed
I got a free subscription to ET by using my frequent flier miles.When I read through my first issue, I was more than a little disappointed.The cover stories often dealt with movies that wouldn't open for a year, and were mostly hype to begin with.A few of the cover stories I remember (The Village, Van Helsing) covered two of the worst movies of the year, certainly not worthy of a cover story.The weekly reviews of the movies were pretty good, but the music reviews were terrible.I have quite an extensive music collection and familiarity, however, the albums reviewed were often from artists I'd never heard of while larger, more established artists were completely ignored.This is simply unacceptable.ET should be focused on the mainstream.Let Rolling Stone and other "music" magazines focus on the obscure bands.The articles and interviews in ET are terrible at best.Often, a "feature" interview consists of a celebrity rambling on about something stupid.And the filler material in the first half of the magazine (The Hot List, etc.) isn't fit for tabloids.In the year that I subscribed to the magazine, I can only think of one or two good articles that I read in the magazine. The addition of Stephen King as a columnnist helped, but even his columns seemed off-base most of the time, like he didn't have the guidance of an editor, but was simply given an open forum instead.ET is very disappointing.They simply ride each fad or popular celebrity until it stops moving, and then hop on to the next one.The magazine is hardly journalism.It's more like a high school gossip forum of sorts, where people talk about people rather than ideas and artistic achievements.Sad.

The Best Entertainment Magazine Out There
If you're looking for a magazine that focuses on all aspects of the entertainment industry, look no further than this magazine.

I signed up for Entertainment Weekly as a charter subscriber back in 1990. I was looking for an alternative to Rolling Stone, something that focused exclusively on entertainment, and I found it with this magazine. I was hooked from the first issue and I've been a subscriber ever since.The funny thing is that I tend to keep my past issues. And as you can guess, on a weekly basis, they tend to take up space quickly!But I actually do find myself going back and referring to past issues.

Each issue is broken down into specific sections: Television, DVDs, Movies, Music, Books, etc., with fairly good commentary in each section. They rate the items reviewed on a grading scale of A to F, and often provide excellent, well thought out reviews. Yes, you're going to get latest fads (the Britney's and the Usher's) on the cover - but you'll also see established performers like Harrison Ford, Kenneth Branagh, Thomas Wolfe, and Tom Hanks on the cover as well. They cover the good, the bad, and everything else in between.If it's entertainment oriented, you'll find it here.

I especially like their annual movie and TV perview issues. ou get a great comprehensive overview of the upcoming TV season as well as almost every movie due to hit the screen, month by month.

While I really like the magazine overall, there are a few items I wish would change. The layout has gotten a little sloppy and hard to read over the past two years. Lots of colors mixed with different texts make it hard to focus. Another item is that they occassionally revise their reviews. For instance, Britney Spears's "Crossroads" movie received a B+. Once it came out on DVD, they revised their rating to a C. At least they come clean and state why they changed the rating in the DVD review. The last thing I've noticed is that they've gotten a little soft as far as their reviews go. I think they may have grown to the point where they don't want to offend any celebrities, so their interviews take a softer edge.

With Entertainment Weekly, you get what the magazine's name promises: a quality product covering all media outlets, delivered on a weekly basis.Subscribe to it and you'll be in the know as far as entertainment is concerned.

That's 'Entertainment'
Been a subscriber for well over ten years and this mag is still one of the best out there.There've been format changes and sometimes I wonder where the reviewers are coming from but, hey...it's still the only magazine I read from cover to cover.(Letter column included!)I would be considered by most to be a 'flyover' cuz, heck, I live in the middle of the country and don't have that LA LA chic or NY state of mind or whatever, but this mag keeps me up to date on new releases (Books, Music, Movies, DVD...and heck, once a month, I get a feel for what's what on Broadway--lucky me!!)EW has turned me onto many, many great things-Erik Larson, Buffy, Lemony Snicket, House, Gilmore Girls, Lost...I could go on and on and on.And, I don't always agree with the reviews/grades but they are competent and reasonably critical.(Owen and Lisa aren't afraid to call abad movie exactly that--especially Lisa!)I guess if you're looking for something serious, EW is not for you.If you're looking for some light reading with a bit of snark and humour and insight, this is the magazine for you.I know I look forward to it every week... ... Read more

Asin: B00005UQ61
Sales Rank: 45
Subjects:  1. Literary    2. Entertainment    3. Movies (Movie, Films, Film, Cinema)    4. Music    5. TV (Television)    6. Musicians    7. Actors and actresses   

Premiere
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It may share the same ZIP Code as its Tinseltown cousin Entertainment Weekly, but Premiere is a far different magazine, focusing less on gossip and more on the nuts and bolts that have helped Hollywood become a gigantic industry. Premiere tackles the big picture through articles like "Women in Film," "The Ultimate Summer Movie Guide," and "The Power List" of who's who in Hollywood. Premiere also offers a great variety of profiles, from movie stars to behind-the-scene players like grips and gaffers. Smart, unbiased reviews accompany each month's top movie releases, and the "In the Works" and "Home Guide" sections track films from creation to video release. Libby Gelman-Waxner adds humor with her indelible look at film from the fan's point of view. --Doug Thomas ... Read more

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Reviews (15)

Empire is just so much better
Sorry but I am on issue 190 of Empire magazine and I have used both these magazines quite a bit since the era of the BATMAN premiere when these magazines grabbed bigger audiences, Empire gets the reviews right, the news right, the DVDs right, the interviews are so much closer I often feel downright sterile after reading Premiere, a magazine that seems more about itself than the movies or guests it talks about.

Any issue of Empire beats the pants off Premiere. Trust me. Movie lovers read Empire more than this. Even movie personality peopleread Empire more than Premiere but don't say so because THEY CAN'T. It is obvious that EMPIRE had a major impact on the movie industry as a whole while Premiere never made a dent.

Get Empire.

Diverse but generally only okay
Premiere provides a good blend of reviews, features and previews to cover most of the film/movie business.But i found the delivery of my issues late -- often arriving in the mail AFTER many of the mag's Preview listings... ideally, you want previews BEFORE the release of the movie.Also, the design of the magazine is odd and can be confusing.Nit-picky, i'm sure... but it's enough for me not to renew.

An excellent source for movies
Next to music, movies is a huge passion of mine. I enjoy mostly movies that don't heavily rely on big movie studio promotions, let alone special effects but on the content of its actors, writers, and of course directors. Still I like to indulge myself in a big budgeted film like "Spider-Man 2" from time to time. One of my favorite sources for me to use when I want to read about a particular film and/or actor is "Premier" magazine. The magazine focuses both on big and smaller films. What I really like about the magazine is that it lacks the pretentiousness of film critics like Entertainment Weekly has (i.e Owen Gleiberman and Lisa Schwartzbaum who thinks they are the know all's of cinema history), or the overdraumatic film critics like Rolling Stone magazine (i.e Peter Travers). While Entertainment Weekly and Rolling Stone only covers a small amount on movies, Premier covers it all including the industry itself. I also like reading about the bonus features on dvds and they help me decide if I want to buy the dvd or not (I admit, I like dvd bonus features). Other than the internet, Premier magazine is a good source for this film buff. ... Read more

Asin: B00005N7NT
Subjects:  1. Literary    2. Entertainment    3. Movies (Movie, Films, Film, Cinema)   

Interview
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The brainchild of Andy Warhol back in the heyday of the '70s club culture, Interview magazine has morphed from newsletter and photo essay of the Studio 54 set to the arbiter of what defines cutting edge for the nation (well, at least those in the nation who believe New York to be the center of the universe). It's magazine chic at its highest. When you pick up the magazine, don't look for Julia Roberts; look for the woman who will eclipse Julia in the next five years. The concept of the magazine couldn't be simpler--Q&A format, accompanied by photographs--but the Q is often provided by celebrity interviewers, and the A is usually extremely insightful, intriguing, and candid. And the photographs are the crème de la crème, by A-list lensers like Bruce Weber, Herb Ritts, and Annie Leibovitz (if you don't know them by name, this is definitely not the magazine for you). Nudity and profanity may put off some readers; others will be pleasantly titillated. --Mark Englehart ... Read more

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Terrible Magazine
I bought this magazine as reading material for my flight home from Ruzyne Airport in Prague to NYC. This was the first time I ever purchased this magazine.
Terrible choice. First of all this magazine was not worth the $10+ USD I paid for it. It was way too large to do anything with on the airplane and the content was for the lack of a better word BORING!
Every other page was some chic ad. Who buys this magazine?
Well I will not be buying it again.

Fantastic Magazine
Interview is a small magazine with big ambitions. All the latest news in entertainment, fashion, and politics can be found within it's colorful pages. The photography is amazing, and grand in scale, although the magazine is packed full of ads (which are equally as colorful I might add). This is NOT entertainment weekly- Interview is the indi-film of magazines, and the people and films it covers are not usually those found in typical magazines. Instead of focusing on the actor du jour, Interview covers the up & coming, the soon to be, and the undiscovered. The interview formats are fascenating and unique, as most are done by celebrities, of celebrities. If one is looking for typical hollywood gossip, Warhol's masterpiece is not for them. At such a cheap price, Interview is a gem that is yet undiscovered by many. I highly recommend it!

The In Crowd??
Interview is not the magazine that I thought it was going to be. I was under the impression that it was another periodical covering the world of entertainment. It's not. Sure, Hollywood mags are a dime a dozen, and there are in depth interviews within these pages that spotlight celebs but not many.

The magazine was the idea of the late Andy Worhol, created during the height of the 70's, at a time when everyone wanted to part of the action of the club scene. The magazine is too abstract for me. It also covers many trends in fashion, which quite frankly, I couldn't care any less about about than I already do. Its review section is very limited in the films it covers and there is an over abundance of supersized photos that takes over the mag. When the editors dicide to conduct an actual Interview they do a pretty good job at giving readers a sense of what the star is like and they can be very candid...That's all well and good but two major sitdowns a month doesn't warrant any more of my money...not for me ... Read more

Asin: B00005N7NY
Subjects:  1. Entertainment    2. General    3. Periodicals    4. Movies (Movie, Films, Film, Cinema)   

FILMMAKER: The Magazine Of Independent Film
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The Art of Reviewing Art
I love this magazine!!!As if it isn't hard enough to find anyone out there with a good appreciation of independent film (and by appreciation, I also mean knowledge), but then you have to deal with all these film nerds who think that if it wasn't done on a shoestring budget by a no-name director, it must be bad.
FILMMAKER does an excellent job of giving an overview of the world of independent film, while still providing good discussions of some more mainstream films.It's tough, when reviewing and writing criticism of any art form, to know what to discuss, and I think that FILMMAKER does this. ... Read more

Asin: B000060MI1
Sales Rank: 206
Subjects:  1. Literary    2. Entertainment    3. Movies (Movie, Films, Film, Cinema)   

Fangoria
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The internet will do them in
One of my greatest childhood memories involving horror movies concerns Fangoria magazine. You would think the recollection would have something to do with watching "Friday the 13th" or "Halloween" for the first time, and I do have those memories to keep me warm at night, but my first vivid impression of the shocking power of horror films hit me at the tender age of ten or eleven when I stumbled into the local drugstore and picked up a copy of this magazine. I don't remember what the cover looked like--surely it was one of the grotesque images Fangoria routinely plasters on the front cover that initially caught my eye--but I do recall thumbing through the magazine rather quickly in case the nosy cashier decided a youth of my tender years shouldn't look through such a gruesome publication. Immediately before I sat the magazine back on the rack, my eyes settled on a nauseating color photograph of one of those "axe in the head" effects so common in slasher films of the era. I suspect this still came from footage eventually excised from the theatrical cut, however, because it was far worse than what we usually see. I almost lost my lunch on the spot. Even today, I wish I knew which movie that scene came from.

This walk down memory lane aside, I'm ashamed to admit I never owned a copy of Fangoria until I received the latest issue as a Christmas gift. Issue 239 contains several articles of great interest to the horror fan. An interesting one-page story introduces the reader to Tartan films, a Scottish distribution firm planning on releasing a plethora of recent Asian horror films into the U.S. market. Another article interviews director David S. Goyer, the man behind the third installment of the "Blade" franchise. Following this up is another multi-page account of the latest Michael Keaton vehicle, "White Noise," due in theaters in early January. Lots of articles in this thing called Fangoria. "Alien" creator Dan O'Bannon receives a four-page treatment, primarily providing a short retrospective of his career and an announcement that he's returning to Hollywood. The eagerly awaited French slasher picture "Haute Tension" and the remake of John Carpenter's "Assault on Precinct 13" receive in-depth treatment, as does the latest Godzilla flick and the two low budget films made about the Bell Witch incident in Tennessee. There's even a story about how audiences will likely never see the new reincarnation of "Dark Shadows." All of these articles contain numerous photographs.

Shorter sections of the magazine relate information just as important to the hardcore horror fan as the longer articles. Several discuss recently released and upcoming DVDs, with a feature called "The Video Eye" giving four of these films lengthier reviews. The pick of the month is "Hole," a movie I myself am looking forward to seeing. Their review of another film on my must see list, "Frankenfish," is hilariously sarcastic. Other reviews, such as those found in the "DVD Dungeon," are much shorter. Included here is information on the Indonesian schlockfest "Dangerous Seductress" and Blue Underground's latest release "Mark of the Devil," to cite just two. That the Dungeon named "The Bride of Frank" their pick of the month amused me to no end. If you plan on picking up this shot on video monstrosity, take it from someone who has seen it: don't pop it into the player with family and friends around. Anyone who rates this sludge as a pick of the month is probably someone I'd like to know personally. Anyway, Fangoria does an excellent job of listing most major studio and shot on video DVD releases. They aren't as thorough as the numerous sites on the Internet, though, which is where my critique of the magazine comes in.

I sat down with Fangoria expecting great things and came away with mixed feelings. My biggest problem is with the articles. All of them are well written, carefully structured pieces with much information worth reading about, so that isn't what I'm going to complain about. What I didn't like is how they resemble studio press releases and the stuff you hear on the late night talk shows. Do I really need to pick up this magazine so I can hear the people involved with a film gush about their fellow co-workers? Or constantly state how big a fan of the genre they are? Of course they are going to say these things; they want the movie to do well in the theater by appealing to the fan base. I'd rather see some write ups about special effects work--we all know these guys are the real heroes of horror movies--than listen to some actor go on and on about how dead people might really be trying to contact us through our television sets. One thing I am glad about: I learned the Carpenter remake is a piece of left-wing propaganda I won't be shelling out money to see in the theater. In the fashion of true ideologues, the folks behind the new "Assault" decided to make corrupt cops the enemy storming the police station instead of gang members. Geez, I'm surprised they didn't have the vice-president and president laying down a challenge by throwing a pot of oil on the doorstep.

Fangoria, if this issue is any indication, might be facing serious trouble down the road. I can get all of this information and more from wonderful sites like bloodydisgusting, gorezone, and upcoming horror movies, and I can get it weeks before Fangoria hits the stands. I can even get lots of neat information from Fangoria's website, like their recent series of articles on the AFM event. The magazine is definitely a prime example of the old media we hear so much about lately. The times, they are a changin', as the saying goes. Hopefully, Fangoria will survive.

OVER 20 YEARS AND STILL GOING STRONG
You've got to take your hat off to Fangoria.Whether their style of gory, visceral coverage of the horror genre appeals to you or not you can't deny their success.The fact that they've been doing it for 20 years is really a marvel in the world of magazines, let alone genre magazines.

Fangoria is still tops in terms of their production values and photography although newer mags like Rue Morgue and some of the imports are certainly as good.

Fangoria each month checks in with a very large array of reviews of both current releases and older releases that you may have missed.Since many of these films go direct to video, chances are you probably did miss them.

Besides movies they also cover Horror fiction and non-fiction, TV and even a smattering of music where appropriate.If there's a minor complaint about Fangoria it's that sometimes they come off a bit fannish and perhaps not as critical of movies as they should be.

Honestly I've watched movies they've given favorable reviews to and wondered just what in the heck they were smoking when they watched.The other complaint would be that they devote almost no space to classic horror, but that's just a pet peeve.

best horror magazine ever!
Fangoria always has and always will be the greatest horror magazine around. Terrific on the set previews of the latest films, retrospectives on classic films ,dvd reviews and always dependable for bloody photo's from your favorite movies. ... Read more

Asin: B00006KDVZ
Sales Rank: 1005
Subjects:  1. Entertainment    2. Movies    3. Recreation. Leisure    4. Movies (Movie, Films, Film, Cinema)