DVD Festival-Reviews

[Videoskooter]

Since I'm really starting to hate television, I've begun to watch my large DVD collection:

Over the last days I watched:

- The Aviator: dissapointing. Over-acted (certainly by the dreadful Cate Blanchett) and rather boring. Too bad since I am a Martin Scorsese afficianado.

- Black Hawk Down: I tought this was going to be a typical Bruckheimer vehicle but I was surprised and moved by this one.

- De Zaak Alzheimer (The Memory Of A Killer): One of the most successful Belgian movies ever but I was not impressed. Too much clichés and MTV-effects.

- Bullit: Topper-Steve McQueen rules and the car chase is breathtaking.

- The Stud: Disaster... but that one really got me in a great Disco-mood.

- Jaws: Can u believe this? I never ever saw that one. Great pic and 1 to be watched again.

- Oliver: the classic musical! Enjoyed every song and minute of it!

- The Day After Tommorow: looked at it again after seeing the terrible images of the American disaster areas. When I bought it last year I found this one very spectacular, now it gave me the shivers and made me think a lot about the way we are living.

- Once We Were Kings: Superb documentary on the legendary boxing match in Zaïre, starring Muhammad Ali and James Brown. Highly recommended for sport-fans and Funklovers.

Tonight: XXX-the second 1 starring Ice Cube. I'm curious if it will top the Diesel 1?

Other tips???

[paul]

Johan, put Boat Trip on your list. Talk about eye candy :P :lol:
My recent DVD viewing includes:

Swept Away (original 1975 version)
Back In The Day
City Of God
Hook'd Up

[Videoskooter]

I will keep "Boat Trip" in my notebook.

Now:

- XXX-The Next Level: OMG-what a bummer was that one. Ice Cube doesn't match up to Vin Diesel. The cars were ugly, the Crap music immediately got on my nerves and the story is so over the top that it becomes ugly. The chase with the Shelby Cobra is awful, pure animation and I'm sick of watching real life movies that suddenly change into cartoons. Hollywood, wake up :evil:

- Frankie And Johnny: mmmh-Al Pacino is great-Michelle Pfeiffer proves that she can even look gorgeous without make-up and it contains musical excerpts from my favourite classical composer Debussy. Nice romantic little pic!

Tonight: Heat

[DiscoMan]

Check out "Inside Deep Throat". Excellent view of America in the early '70s.

"Deep Throat" itself was a gas though in many ways it was just a cheap little piece of **** movie.

[DISCODISK]

City Of God

paul if you enjoyed it take also 'city of men' all 9 episodes of the spin of t.v series, not quite so heavy and great little stories and great acting from the kids that are really from that area, at the end theres a great real life documentry about the police who have to go in there [if you have plans to vacation there it might just change your mind] it claims one person is shot in rio every 30 minutes,look at the face of the young policeman who is interviewed before they go into the favellas for a shootout with tears in his eyes he just says i just cant do this anymore.

[Videoskooter]

Check out "Inside Deep Throat". Excellent view of America in the early '70s.

"Deep Throat" itself was a gas though in many ways it was just a cheap little piece of **** movie.

Discoman, funny that you mention "Deep Throat".

This movie is programmed at the Belgian major filmfestival, next month in the city of Gent. And you know what? The organisation is so terrified to be arrested by the Police that they don't dare to show it at the regular theatre and instead, reserved a porn theatre in the dark side of the town where it will be shown for 4 hours. In looping since the direction of the festival say that the script is so bad that they are sure nobody's gonna complain this method of sex-education.

- "Heat": I watch this movie 2 times a year and it still captiones my attention and enthusiasm. Pacino and De Niro proove why good actors are rare in times ruled by non-talents and Michael Mann again shows that he can tell a story.

- Blow Out: Travolta after the Disco-fever. Underrated movie IMHO. Too bad the general public didn't accept him when he was not dancing BITD.

- Tonight: Gangs Of New York

(Bernie, I know Hollywood moguls are trying to shut down this topic but don't give in-the truth, nothing but the truth :o )

[DiscoMan]

Looks like the Belgian authorities are reacting to "Deep Throat's" notoriety and not it's content. :D :D :D

Linda Lovelace swallows a coupla Johnsons to the nut line and there's a coupla xxx sex scenes. Pretty tame stuff by today's standards - culture shattering in 1972! :D :D :D

[Videoskooter]

Looks like the Belgian authorities are reacting to "Deep Throat's" notoriety and not it's content.

It was shown many years ago but Police raided the theatres and confiscated all copies. You have to be careful in Belgium: Pornography is not officially allowed here.
The law is very vague: of course sexual acts with children and animals are forbidden, they also don't allow hard S&M and every depiction of acts that are degrading for a human being and there's the tricky part! Justice explains: "we only allow things that are not offensive to the major part of the public. This is constantly changing". Now, we have explicit sex on national television, we have xxx-shops and all videostores rent x-rated movies but...sometimes somebody gets arrested and only because the Justice of that district wants to draw a line. Unfortunately nobody knows where that line is. A famous Belgian pornproducer was arrested a few years ago till he could prove that his magazines were sold in every bookshop and his lawyer pleaded that his client could not be found guilty coz the owners of the bookshop were not arrested and thus he won the case.

- Now: Gangs of New York was axed since we didn't have the time for this one. Instead we picked "The Long Good Friday": an excellent crimepic that was released in 1979 and has Disco breathing all over it.

The music by Francis Monkman is very Moroder-esque and is worth looking for. Bob Hoskins is great as the London gangster who gets in trouble with the American outfit and the IRA. Helen Mirren is superb as his wife and the very young Pierce Brosnan plays an Irish hitman. The plot can be seen as a seventies version of "24" since all the action takes place on Good Friday and is concluded on Saturday. A delightful little picture that gets the full Five Videostars (from now on this is a registered trademark!)

- Second one is "Starsky And Hutch" since Nicole wanted to see that one. We already regretted buying this one after 15 minutes. Stiller and Wilson are simply not funny. The plot is ridiculous, even for a pure-entertainment movie like this, and the only panache of the movie is the great Ford Torino and the appearance of Soul and Glaser at the end of the movie. This one gets Zero Videostars.

[DiscoMan]

Check out Michael Mann's 1992 "The Last Of The Mohicans", very good, very authentic and somewhat accurate (the Brits couldn't fire back in real life). Excellent portrayal of the worst Indian massacre during the Euro conquest of North America.

[paul]

City Of God

paul if you enjoyed it take also 'city of men' all 9 episodes of the spin of t.v series, not quite so heavy and great little stories and great acting from the kids that are really from that area, at the end theres a great real life documentry about the police who have to go in there [if you have plans to vacation there it might just change your mind] it claims one person is shot in rio every 30 minutes,look at the face of the young policeman who is interviewed before they go into the favellas for a shootout with tears in his eyes he just says i just cant do this anymore.

Yes DD, I did enjoy City Of God. I'll look into City Of Men.
I've heard these stories about Rio for decades and that has kept me away :cry:
I've also heard similar stories about Caracas. On my way to Curacao several years ago, I mentioned to businessman seated next to me my desire to visit Caracas. He told me he goes there often for business and hates it. He said you frequently hear the sounds of gun fire. :(

[Videoskooter]

That brings me to tonight's pic:

-"Shadow Conspiracy":Starring Charlie Sheen, Donald Sutherland and Linda Hamilton. Now this one begins promising. Scientifists that are killed by a hitman but....when a hitman is hired to do a job, he will first check his targets.

Not the guy in this movie, he enters the house and just starts shooting without counting how much people he killed. Then, he goes after Sheen, during the night, in a WHITE coat :o :o :o Why doesn't he wear a cap that has leds on it and give signs as: hey, I am a professional hitman and Amme gonna shoot you!

The movie is so full of unbelievable stuff that the interesting plot is smashed by all those weird things. So this one gets 1 Videostar.

[JussiK]

"Shadow Conspiracy" gets one videostar - what is the maximum amount of videostars a work can be awarded? Personally I would give Renato Polselli's "Revelations of a psychiatrist in the perverse world of sex/Rivelazione di un psiciatro..."" the maximum amount, as this early 70's film ( out on Nocturna label in Italy ) is even weirder than the oddball director's previously available-on-dvd milestone "The Reincarnation of Isabel". Revelations..is a tabloid exposé of softcore sexual aberrations with a few h/c snippets spliced in. Feast your eyes on bizarre characters in grip of passions such as "necrosadismo"! There's relentless screaming, fast and furious editing, tilted images of heavily made-up actresses rolling their eyeballs in ecstasy, saturated colors, bri-nylon underwear etc . In other words lightyears ahead in entertainment value from turkeys like , well, most boring American popcorn fodder shown in multiplexes today. Buy!!!

[Videoskooter]

Jussik, I can already imagine what this movie will be like :D

BTW: 5 Videostars is excellentnottomiss-6 videostars is masterpiece.

Just watched:
- "The Insider":Russell Crowe and Al Pacino star in this breathtaking epic about a man who revealed the secret agenda of tobaccofirms. Brilliant movie, superb acting but unfortunately it didn't make me quit smoking yet (yes I am a criminal!).
5 Videostars

- "Assault on Precinct 13":No, I didn't even bother to watch the remake, I prefer the original. Perfect example of a low budget movie that grabs you with its simplicity and keeps you watching from the first second to the last.
4 Videostars

[pinknsparkly]

Got Barber Shop, Barber Shop II and Beauty Shop from Netflix about 2 weeks ago. Darn it. I'm NEVER home. Always working or on the road. So I don't ever get to actually watch any of my DVDs. I just got a program from psptransfer.com that puts your dvds on your PSP. I haven't had time to bust it out yet, but if I can watch the 2nd season of the Sopranos on the go, I'm stoked.

[JussiK]

Watched The Centipede Horror dvd, a mid 80's Hong Kong title, a real blast from the vhs past. I thought I'd become too jaded to even blink at the sight of foot long live centipedes emerging from the actors mouths en masse - no GCEs, no rubber monsters, only the revolting real things, very much alive - but no, the impact was still there, it still made my toes curl in discomfort. How much did they pay for those people to puke actual live insects like that? And did you ever watch The Devil, also made in Hong Kong, in which the possessed characters throw up long live snakes, eels and spiders? Nicole Kidman and other Dogma actors would never do that.

[Videoskooter]

Jussik, that's gross :lol:

-Scarface: Always enjoy this perfect example of a peaceful biography! Pacino is in overdrive. La Pfeiffer is classy and beautiful as usual! 5 Videostars

- Matrix Reloaded: What the hell is this anyway? Humbug!!
The only White Rabbit that's cool figures in "Monthy Python's Holy Grail". 1 Videostar

- The Art Of War: Wesley Snipes is one of my favourite contemporary actors. The guy has flair! The story here is a bit over the top but I always enjoy complots and good action. A nice entertaining pic 4 Videostars

- Bandits: Bruce Willis and Billy Bob Thornton are starring here as weird bankrobbers. This could have been an interesting little pic but it was ruined by the dreadful Cate Blanchett. Is there a movie in which this woman stars and where she does not over-act and irritates? Oscar? Her? 1 Videostar

- American Beauty: Masterpiece! There's something wrong with all the characters that are presented here. Excellent acting, good plot and very funny! MUST

- Buffalo 66: A surprise! Didn't know this beauty about a guy (Vincent Gallo) that loses a bet and is forced by his bookie (Micky Rourke) to take the blame for a murder he didn't commit, is jailed and when he is released, kidnaps a young girl (Christina Ricci) that is presented to his parents as his wife. The plot? Rent it! MUST

- Cannonball: Bad acting, stupid plot, unfunny and predictable, the only star I'm giving this one is for David Carradine (cool as usual), the beautiful Veronica Hamel and the cars who are the stars here. 1 Videostar

- To Catch A Thief: Classic Hitchcock, starring Cary Grant (now that's a man) and Grace Kelly about a gentlemen-burglar who robs the rich and famous in Nice/France. MUST

Will be continued...