Reviews

PLEEEASE!! Give me a break, (("Fantastic..the BEST..Magnificent..Perfect.."!!)

I'm sorry but I must be the ONLY voice in the universe who thinks the LOTR trilogy is not only nothing special, not only poorly directed, but the most EPIC SHEER BOREDOM to hit screens since French melodrama's were invented. I was ESPECIALLY dissapointed in this 3rd installment, I think the most compelling and impressive part of the entire trilogy was the huge battle sequence from the Two Towers (extended version) Really I think Peter Jackson is terribly overrated, I mean frankly his direction is downright BAD in many ways. Not to ignore the good points, I'm not sayiong it's all terrible, there are some strengths in this trilogy of stilted stirrings. The casting is mostly good (with the exception of some of the gay-goofy looking backround elves) and Liv Tyler has WAY too much make-up, they ruined her with make-up, and Hugo Weaving puts me to sleep instantly. The production/locations/costume's/set and SFX design is all top notch and beautifully done (I should hope so, they only had several hundred MILLION dollars to make the films with!!) And here are some nice shots here and there, but for the most part, these films trully lack the kind of genuine originality, passion, emotion, movement, action and characters I would like to see in a fantasy film

For some I can't stop thinking about this little gem of a movie, it has more heart and soul than most of an entire decade of mainstream films combined. Konchalovsky is an interesting director, certainly when you think at the wide range of his work (Runaway Train, Shy People). I was somewhat fascinated and semi-perplexed when I first saw this, but the more I tried to peg it down ("ok this is the Russian Cookoo's Nest--with some 'I Never Promised you a Rose Garden' mixed in") the less it became so. This is an original one of a kind film, highly underrated, highly overlooked, especially in this country. Which is too bad, the rest of the sleepwalking brainwashed masses can flock to see their "Bruce Almighty's or Matrix Reloaded's every week, I'm glad I'm aware of films like this.

I can't believe there is not one comment or even rating for this film. This must be a real obscurity, even among anime' afficianados (which I'm not necessarily, but I've seen a fair amount) This was one of the most beautiful sword and sorcery animated fantasy films I've ever seen, right up there with "Laputa" and "Nausiica" Why has this film not received more attention or for that matter any type of domestic distribution (on DVD) or otherwise? I don't understand it, I basically will have no one to talk with about this film because NOBODY's seen it!! At least not in this country.

Truly one of the finest examples of ultra-creative late 60's avant garde filmmaking. And so perfectly captures the haunting, mysterious, dreamy, metaphoric and visually poetic style of the time. Perhaps better than anything has or ever will. Clu Gulager was a tormented demented genius who serves as another unfortunate example of how "being too brilliant" as an artist trying to work in the realistic arena of the film industry, often simply can not work out. At least not within this dimension on this planet.

Frankly I've always been fascinated by the short wave of fantasy films which came out the early 80's, even though admittedly most were awful. They still have more interesting and charming qualities than many 'later' fantasy efforts (Willow, LOTR) yes you heard me right, I HATED Jacksons Lord of the Rings, and I find campy low bug fantasy films from the early 80's much more interesting any day. Why? This is hard to pin down but I feel it has much to do with the time they were made in, in the way a creepy well made horror film or TV episode of Night Gallery or 6th Sense was best suited for the early 70's late 60's era of organic disturbing-haunting "wierdness" (which no other era could capture as effectively) somehow the early 80's were suited for mythic, organic sword and sorcery fantasy. And they captured the ambience better (Dark Crystal, Dragonslayer) than anything made in later years. It really is hard to define logically but there is something else unconsciously going on. Someday I hope to make a trully great fantasy film which captures the mythic ambience of the early 80's.

I recently had the privilege to see a brand new (from the camera negative) 35mm print of this film at the American Cinematheque here in Los Angeles. It was a Friday night, there were probably only about 20 people in the theatre. Bill Fraker and Sondra Locke were there to talk about it. I really admire this film on many levels, visually it is quite amazing, filled with haunting pastel images and eerie dark shadowy lighting. It had look and feel [and content] of a film made around the 1970-71 period as opposed to '73, and sure enough that was indeed the case. (the film was shelved for 2 years before the studio did something with it) This is yet another interesting example of the kind of strange and bold and brilliant and unconventional film that could have ONLY been made in that time. (and surely the filmmakers of the time were not aware of it--as this was just the reality of the era)

In the same kind of haunting and lonely ambience this film created, I felt depressed that these works are still so overlooked. Even now, (as of late March 2003) there is only one other comment here on the IMDB. And this person (verna55) happens to a friend of mine I've corresponded with. It seems only too apparent there is simply no audience for movies like this, except for rare, intelligent, aware people like me. On one level I'm glad to know about and connect with films like this, on another it makes me morose with utter hopelessness knowing there is simply no market for films like this. Or chance anything like it could ever be made again, especially given the way people tend to overlook and ignore the most brilliant things. But gee, thats nothing new isn't it? I hold little hope for the future of humankind, and you know what? frankly I think some kind of armageddon would be the best thing that could happen to planet earth right now. (--D. Packard, director of "Reflections of Evil")

Well, I finally got around to finish watching my DVD of Hathaways shoot-out. Ok, well another True Grit it ain't. In fact I've come to feel True Grit was something of a fluke after seeing this, how could the same talent (writer, director, producer) go from THAT to THIS? This could very well have been just another so-so episode of Gunsmoke of the early 70's. I don't care how much Greg Peck tries, that guy just CANNOT be intimidating. They should have had him muttering lines like "I'll fu*%ing kill you putrid fish-eatin' son of a Bi*%"! That would have at least been 'real' cussing not just an occasional "damnit". And they should have teamed him up with Jimmy Stewart--also trying to be psycho. Stewart: "yea--n-now you just do what my partner says, or I'll fu*&ing kill you!!" All in all I'd have to say I found Shoot Out rather amsuing though, that counts for something

Really the average earth humans' sensibilities about films these days astounds me. Am I the ONLY one who was miserably bored to death with this hollow nonsense? Oh, no question Jackson does a magnificnt job with the VISUALS and the camera-work, and I'm not denigrating his ability to direct actors either. Nor am I denigrating JRR Tolkiens fine novels. What I am complaining about is a series of films that could very well be retitled "Stilted Dialogue: the epic miniseries" For one thing I NEVER thought a straight (or even semi-straight) adapation of Tolkien's books would necessarily make a great film. The story is too spread out, complex, filled with beautiful language and prose, landscapes and characters but that doesn't necessarily translate well in the world of film. Especially with concepts and idea's we've seen explored a billion times before (Dragons, talking tree's, wolf-beasts, snarling creature warriors, epic battles of sword wielding army's, never-ending close-ups of characters with concerned wide-eyed face's, including some very annoying and goofy visages) Sheesus Chriist I was in complete agony. I mean COME ON it's time for something NEW and different! Doesn't ANYBODY out there have the ability to write something with the intelligence and ambition of Tolkien yet with FRESH new idea's? What is so damned fascinating about sitting through 3 hours of ultra-stilted dialogue and concerned facial expressions?

As expected I see most of the comments here (except one or two intelligent ppl) are from the usual mass of "limited thinkers" who immediately chastise the film 'racist garbage'. It's actually quite a brilliant film in many ways. Funny, irreverent, honest, completely crazy, and yes "trashy" but fun creative trashy. I'm not one would put down something like "Amistad" in favor of this. Amistad is a brilliant film too, there are many different forms of artistic filmmaking and storytelling, I recognize and appreciate most of it. I am not biased or racist or prejudice, just someone who can appreciate the many forms of filmmaking as an art-form.

Here we are with yet ANOTHER fascinating and curious 'overlooked' obscurity from the 70's. It just never ceases to continuously amaze me how much originality and unique creativity came out of that decade. One overlooked film after another, the fact is, it was SUCH a creative and "pioneering" decade on SO many different levels, there literally was only so much room for the 'popular hits'. This was a curious film, funny, bizarre, crazy yet always interesting. A genuinely superb and eerie score by Charles Gross, which contributed much and deserves mention, as well as Zalmon Kings always interesting antics. King was an actor like no other, and this film is one like no other.

Here we have yet ANOTHER case of an extremely underrated film. is everyone out of their minds?? Whats with all the mediocre reviews/comments? And here we go with the "it isn't as good as the book" comments. I thought I cleared that up when I reviewed "Slaughterhouse Five" A great cast in a fascinating gritty 70's crime thriller, VISUALLY much in the vein of French Connection, Taking of Pelham 1,2 3 or Panic in Needle Park. The sequence with Bob Balaban as the maniac amputee was brilliant, Susan Blakely is beautiful, story is fascinating. Thank god I had the chance to see this on film (as a pristine 16mm print) I'm looking forward to seeing the 2nd reel.

Here is another example of a film that could have ONLY been made in the '69-71' period. Things were loose, strange, in transition, crazy creative idea's abound. But here is a film I cannot for the LIFE of me understand why it has not received more attention or acclaim over the years. Not even a single comment here on he IMDB! (which is a rarity) I feel like I should write a detailed review of The Ski Bum, it deserves it. But somehow I'm in the same kind of mood Zalmon King's character was (looking exactly like a brooding young Sean Penn throughout the entire film) Charlotte Rampling does that 'ravenous kinky seductress' thing she does best, not unlike in "The Night Porter". I suspect the average simple minded movie-goer would not take an interest or understanding to this film due to it's 'stream-of-consciousness' nature. Average humans need to have cohesive plots and things explained, but they can't seem to handle sheer brilliance in it's many forms. I do not belong in this world. After seeing this film I realize that my interests, films, idea's will certainly NEVER 'fit in' to the real and practical world, so why am I here?

Truly it saddens and astounds me how few comments (save ONE) of The Visitor are so drastically poor and give the impression of a commonly terrible low budget waste of time. Am I experiencing reality on such a drastically different

level or are people so cinematically ignorant it really

makes little sense to even bother living in this world (or this dimension) anymore? This film is brilliant beyond words. I repeat, this film is brilliant beyond words. Perhaps most of the viewers in here had only seen the badly chopped incomplete version of this film? (later released on video by HBO) If so it's an absolute tragedy,

the later video release had missing shots in sequences

which were among the best.

Ok, so this isn't an 'intelligent' 'coherent' prominently

received film in the realm of Friedkins Exorcist or Donners' Omen. I can say one thing, it is every bit as

entertaining and brilliant in it's own way. Why can't people see art for what it is? There are so many different forms of it. Is this a planet of completely inept, insipid, ignorant, robotically conformed brainwashed humans?

God I wish this was available on DVD or video, I remember seeing it years ago on PBS, late at night, just came upon it by accident and was completely hooked. It was truly fascinating. The 70's were so strange and interesting, and this is the real deal, real life. The quintessential portrait of an American Family at an interesting time in history. Series like this should be well preserved and available for future generations, it's a tragedy.

I can't believe the number of positive or semi-positive

comments/reviews this film has received. You gotta be kidding?? Now don't get me wrong, I've been a fan of Eastwood all my life but this film hardly even compares to any of his classic work, even though it resembles in both pace and style a bland TV movie from the 70's. This is by FAR, Eastwood's worst, weakest film to date.

It's almost like he's completely lost it, what the hell

was so interesting about this perfectly trivial story and

why would anyone want to make a film of it? Eastwood's

direction is flatter than a squished pancake, I've never

seen such run-of-the-mill overly banal direction. Even the settings, locations and interiors were dull, plain, cheap and lifeless. And Jeff Daniels as a psycho? You gotta be kidding? Really this makes his

last 'so-so' film (True Crime) look like a work of genius. C'mon Clint give us another Unforgiven or Magnum Force.

Frankly I'm a bit surprised this visually entertaining

sci-fi/Fantasy extravaganza only received a rating of 6 on

the IMDB. It deserves more than that. If you like fantasy, adventure, science fiction, excellent filmmaking, superb SFX, great visuals, decent score and outstanding sound

design you will enjoy this film. At least as much as Lord

of the Rings or Minority Report. This is high quality work, not monotonous tripe or mediocrity. Some really good things in this picture, and a

special mention to Adrian Biddle's superb cinematography.

Watching this really brought back memories, having lived

in Venice in the 70's, and Rollerskated the skate bowls

(we were often made fun of and ridiculed by the regulars,

I believe they called us "Rollergaf's" or something like

that) Anyways, this film is an extremely good example of how

radical, pioneering, grungy, dangerous and loose that decade was, which is something the 80's and 90's have tried so hard to erase from history in this Neo-New-World- Order age of Sterile blandness, pointless pursuits and overwhelming restrictions. Of course no-one was aware of it then, it was just reality. Venice and Santa Monica were decayed and run down, rampant with gangs, hard-core crime, and tough characters, but that was just an aspect of what GAVE the

70's it's tremendous character. Does anyone remember when

the Santa Monica Promenade was just an old dusty ghost

town full of closed down businesses with one cheap 49 cent theater? And there were no fences, no heavy restrictions on things, can you imagine kids trying to skate in empty

pools in this high-security, fear-riddled extreme punishment era? Life was in the moment and pioneering at

that time, but no-one thought of it like that. What do we

have now days? Hopelessness.

Well, it was interesting. I enjoyed it..Some very fine direction here no dought. However, for all of it's fun likable qualities I felt it was still lacking the overall ambition and inspiration that were so much a part of the 60's & 70's. Not that it's such a reachable task in this empty, cheap, homogenized, creatively dead time we live in. If only the 60's saw the early 21st century as the period it truly is. Hopeless, pointless, spiritless, angry, flustered and tragic.

Another legacy of genius filmmaking from the late 60's/early 70's era of super creativity. Fellini at his height was simply incredible, the sheer volume of interesting/grotesque/hilarious/realistic face's and characters he would cram into any single one of his films were more than most directors captured in a lifetime. Like a dizzying phantasmagorical parade of comical historical realism captured as no artist ever could or will again. And visually in many ways he was the italian Spielberg of the time, except more interesting than Spielberg, Kubrick, Coppola all put together. I can't understand why Criterion didn't put out the DVD on this one, they did a beautiful job on all his others but somehow missed this one. Grant it, MGM DVD's look perfectly fine, but if any DVD could have benefitted from a super-remastered Special edition, this one could have. It often seems somehow the most incredibly brilliant works of art get slightly overlooked/underrated and or forgotten about. I guess the "mainstream public" can only handle a certain level of brilliance

I always thought that Spielberg "ghost directed' this episode. I seem to recall reading it somewhere at the time and the episode seems to have his style all over it. Hmm, anyways, I hope they get all the Columbo's out on DVD someday

Now I'm probably one of the biggest Lynch fans in the world, meaning or no meaning I've always simply loved his work. And by the way there's nothing wrong with a pointless meaningless incomprehensible plot as LONG as it's an interesting journey. But this one was like being tortured with boredom. It just go's on and on and quite frankly nothing interesting ever really happens. Nice music and atmospheric tones by Angelo Badalementi as always, but I'm afraid Badalamenti was the only redeeming element of this extreme tediousness. All of Lynch's tricks and obsessions (dark 1950's undertones, erotic lesbianism, artistically disturbing corpses, subconciously constructed abstract plots) couldn't save this one, for me anyway.

I've never read the book but I think this is an excellent film, if anything seeing the FILM first gives me interest in reading the novel, as opposed to the other way around.

I'm getting so sick of reading these endless reviews hammering in "read the book read the book!" Jeezus Christ allmighty, is the book crowd still so dense as to think a movie could or should in some way actually be 100% faithful to an adaption and capture all of the emotional subtleties as the written word can? Movies are movies, books are books, both have wonderful things to offer! end of conversation!

I can't seem to stop watching or thinking about this little documentary and it really makes me want to view the rest of the footage. How can one be so obsessed with a Making of film? I often find them more interesting than the films themselves. Jack Nicholson's camera charm antics, "beautiful! finish the assignment!" Vivien's ultra-cute sounding voice "Thats not true it's 8 o'clock." I was a bit disappointed in the new "A Life in Pictures" documentary from Jan Harlan, mostly banal interviews and film clips, where's all the behind the scenes footage from his various films? That's what I want to see, more footage of Stanley having a fit and getting frustrated. Thank god for Vivian's Making the Shining, she is a prodigy. To think she photographed that at age 17, with a large heavy Aaton 16mm (I'm assuming) and did a magnificent job of filming. A truly amazing job, absolutely astounding, incredible, precocious. I often wonder what line of work she went into later in life, she probably could have been an amazing cinematographer, which is a field somewhat lacking the female gender. Vivien, if your out there, contact me, I'd like to hire you to shoot my next film!

I was 9 or 10 when this film first came out and it captured my imagination probably more so than any other film of the time. You'd think a child in 1977 would be enveloped in Star Wars but for me it was "Demon Seed", "Wizards" and "Looking for Mr Goodbar" (can't explain that one)

I was obsessed with Wizards, used to see it every week during it's release. Only a film like this could have been made in the 70's, and only such magic, originality and inspiration could come from such a time. But that's just the way reality was then. That time is long gone and we now live in an age of cheap burned-out fakeness.

Regarding all the intelligent, positive comments and reviews for this film, I agree and share all the admiration for this unique 'semi-masterpiece'. Except no-one seemed to mention something that I feel truly contributed to probably 50% of this films' haunting effectiveness. (subtracting the substantial percentage of watching the mesmerizingly beautiful and talented spanish actress Isela Vega)

And thats Jerry Fieldings incredible score.