Reviews

This story came across from some friends who brought a DVD of "Hachi" for us as a gift. I knew of the story having lived in Tokyo in the 80's quite near where this great dog's statue is located today.

I believe this story is everyone's story at one time or another, especially my Dad who under the same circumstances took in a stray Collie, he called "Dick", that wandered on to his Dad's farm one day when he was 12 years old. Fast forward 9 years later, while a senior in college Dad received a letter from his parents that Dick had died. By accident rummaging through our family heirlooms after Dad died several years ago, I came across a diary book of his and in it was an handwritten eulogy he wrote upon learning about Dick's death. He wrote this in 1934 (excerpts) : ...." No truer friend did I ever have than this dog. She had much to with shaping my character that is the virtue I possess for I learned from Dick much of the valuable principles of good living...." This movie is for those who had a strong and stirring attachment with their dog and it does bring tears to our eyes because of it. There was a Hachi in our life at one time another that made this story so compelling. Richard Gere deserves all the credit for a wonderful story.

By chance I watched ELR some months ago because there wasn't any other program that interested me at the time about this dysfunctional Italian family ( poetic license expressing the universal problems that all families have and had at one time or another ) and I recalled at first how charming and loving the family was in trying to straightened out some domestic issue along the lines of the "Cosby Show" of which I was fan at that time.

It took me about 3 episodes before I realized how wrong I was about the show and its characters centering on controversial subjects that skewered the relationships between the Barone family members and all of the conniving they did to maintain the upper-hand over each other. I will say this that Patricia Heaton (Debra Louise Barone) regardless of what others have not said about her, is the key to making this comedy work. She's terrific. The show is addictive to watch unfortunately.

Without going into the plot of the movie as many of the comments from this website have impeccably done so already, I came away at first blush that the writer and author of this story - Richard Yates - provided a moral about relationships in a marriage and how fragile they can turn out to be, when couples, who impose an emotional overload upon each other in their marriage, are doomed to failure. Leonardo and Kate's performances were excellent and well tuned to the moral behind this story. The most telling to me was the final scene between the senior couple - Howard Givings ( Richard Easton ) and Helen Givings ( Kathy Bates ) - when Howard subtly revealed a good deal of anger at Helen during her trash-talk about the Wheeler family, but then thought the better of it by tuning her out by shutting off his hearing-aid. Richard Easton's performance from this scene was the most telling about the entire movie as far as I was concerned. Perhaps I was reading too much into this scene about avoiding emotional overloading a relationship.

This was my first view of Britany Murphy in a movie, "The Ramen Girl". I was impressed with her acting and presence on screen. With all the new Hollywood stars coming out of the woodwork these days, you begin to lose track about who's good and who's not so good. This movie has definitely etched a niche for her as a capable actor and hope she manages her career accordingly with her remarkable talent.

The movie in many ways is a throw-back to a silent movie where dialog is not really the centerpiece to the story. The subtitles though helpful were not needed as the audience would have gotten the gist just by viewing the actors' facial expressions intertwined with their body language.

This movie must have been successful in Japan and Asia as it importantly catered to the emotional side of things and the nuances associated with human relationships in order to successfully carry the story rather the plot itself. We are usually accustomed to movies with a continuity heading toward a final conclusion that makes sense to all of us. The viewers, who feel this way about a movie, will be disappointed because "The Ramen Girl" falls short of this requirement. I liked the movie because it successfully joined two cultures in an attempt to show that the traumas and jubilations arising out of love, pride, loneliness, self-worth, honor and feelings we share and experience with people are commonly the same universal denominators we all share in culturally different ways in Tokyo or NYC or the world for that matter. The writer was right on the mark on this one. The movie does have its funny moments to keep it interesting. All around, I give it an 8.

I am not a Disneyesque movie fan about animals and rather preferred seeing the standard top box office movies instead until my girl friend wanted to see Nankyoku Monogatari movie in 1983. We went and I didn't expect much until I saw it. It was more than I could take emotionally as the memories and love I had for my own dogs in the past came pouring out. Truly a great piece of work. I tried to find the movie at BlockBuster but to no avail.

A post script: I visited Sapporo, Hokkaido back in 1994 on a business trip. Over the weekend with nothing to do I took a taxi to the Hokkaido Agricultural Museum. Lo and behold, there was Taro in the place of honor who had been stuffed. How regal he looked. I didn't recall seeing Jiro there but learned later that he is along side of another famous Japanese dog, Hachiko, at the National Science Museum in Tokyo. Anyway, seeing Taro made my day.

"Son of Pale Face" is good clean fun performed by 3 great stars who are joined together with Trigger as one great team. Roy plays the good guy and government agent going after the infamous bandit , "the Torch", played by the sexy Jane Russell. Gumming up the works of course is Bob Hope who plays the off-spring of DDS Pale Face Potter from the earlier movie, "Pale Face" 4 years before. I saw this movie in 1952 and was a great fan of Roy Rogers. I remember I was disappointed during the movie that Roy wasn't wearing his twin six-shooters and was just using his secret agent's guitar hidden gun by pulling one of the strings to thwart his foes. I was happy though that he didn't have any kissing scenes with Jane Russell. I was sure he was going to (dread the thought) during the bar scene and was relieved that he thought the better of it. Afterall it was a sissy thing to do in those days if he did. His reputation remained intact with me from then on.

The only reason I rented this movie was that Val Kilmer rarely stars in a bad movie. There is of course a first time for everything. In many ways, this movie proves that oaters aren't as easy to make as we think, especially by foreign directors. The only one who got by with it was probably Sergio Leone, but even his movies lacked that something indefinably innate to our American psyche and panache. American actors in Clint Eastwood and Henry Fonda did help . I can see now why they changed the original title from "Summer Love" to " Dead Man's Bounty". That itself tells me the producers and director didn't have any core understanding about a western other than those standard shoot'em up scenes and violent themes. I suppose we can say the same about American directors attempting to make a Polish movie while failing miserably in the process.

I first saw this movie on VHS in 1984 and thought, "Wow", "This movie is what comedy and slap-stick movies are all about." I rate it one of the best along with "Shot in the Dark". It was also the first time I took notice of Val Kilmer for the first time, then and wondered why he never continue to star in more comedies as he has the knack for that kind of venue. Instead, he accepts bete noire roles. He came close to near comedy in "Comanche Moon" which belies his talent for comedy.

The funniest scene from this movie I thought was when he was tortured by the GDR guards in prison until he became unconscious into the dream world of a nightmare depicting him missing his final exams at high school. When he awakens from that nightmare, he is smiling while he is still being whipped by the guards, saying to the effect, " thank god that was only a dream". I think all of us at one time or another had similar nightmares about our high school or college experiences.

A must see movie just for the hell of it.

I viewed "Bridges at Toko-Ri" today on TMC and brought to mind when I saw that movie as an army brat when my dad was stationed at Itami Air Force Base near Osaka, Japan during the Korean War. My dad made friends with several marine fighter or bomber pilots at the base and continued that friendship until he died in in the mid'90's. My Dad recounted that a Major Redman and his squadron played golf on the weekends and flew out that evening on a combat mission in Korea. They'd fly back early next morning and play golf again that morning as though nothing happened during those missions. After they played, his friends would say," see you, Harry, tomorrow at 9am for our tee-off. They were brave souls that still stick with me to this day. This movie exemplified that courage and sense of duty our military men have even to this day. A great movie. Shame on those who believe otherwise.

Clearly. I remembered "On the Beach" to this very day when I saw it as young teenager back in 1959. I grew up during the Cold War era at a time when we had school drills hiding under our desks or rushing to a makeshift bomb shelter when the sirens sounded their alerts throughout the community. This movie I believe is more meaningful to those of us who lived through that period than to those who did not because the emotions of that time are hard to capture or imagine otherwise.

The center piece to this movie that still indelibly sticks with me is when Ava Gardner and Gregory Peck meet for their last and final farewell at the dock before the SawFish crew departs back for the U.S. where they decided to spend the remaining days of their lives . In retrospect,this scene still haunts me because I remember it evoked so many mixed and simultaneous emotions of loneliness, immense sadness, honor, duty, love and finally their endearing humanity to each other that tragically and inevitably must end by forces and circumstances beyond their control. There is a sense of despair and helplessness that I remembered having as I exited the theater, even at that young age, which says a lot about the movie. I believe now that Stanley Kramer metaphorically summed up the entire theme in the movie from this scene : there is that indefinable humanity in all of us, arising out of tragic consequences from events that we did not intend or want. I never watched (or wanted to) this movie again until last night on TMC ... almost 50 years later. It was powerful. Ava, Greg, Fred, Tony et. al. deserve more than accolades for their impeccable performances. For those expecting a high-tech disaster movie from "On the Beach", they will be disappointed.

I've seen every Bond film since Dr. No, but noted that Casino Royale II to be entirely out of character than the standard runs of yore...no gimmickry gadgets, no Moneypenny, no lead-in hair-raising episodes, and etc. From this movie, our fans finally get to have an inside peek into what makes James Bond tick for the first time. Dan Craig's portrayal of Bond was certainly different in contrast to the Bonds I knew. Craig was less debonair and more boorish of being roguishly dangerous...someone you might want to avoid in a dark alley for sure or meet for that matter. It is a refreshing and novel approach. The unusual and different ending left me dumbfounded with the thought that Casino Royale was really a prologue, telling us that a new genre of Bond films are on the horizon, so don't be surprised! Obviously the producers and the director must have given careful thought and consideration to this departure with the idea that the time has come to create and show the world that their new interpretation about James Bond is appropriate and long over due.