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mulveymeister
Reviews
Bridge to Terabithia (2007)
Great for all
Firstly, I'd not allow children under 8 watch this alone, because of the plot. That said, I'd happily let them watch with older kids or adults. It is such a good film on lots of levels. The most important point is that you quickly believe in the central characters. It's really well acted and - SPOILER - handles death with great sensitivity and reality. Everyone says they cried watching it and okay, I sniffled too, but you'd want to be callous not to! The lessons of life are tough and we all go through them growing up. There's bullying, lack of support, isolation and tragic loss. But there is also that teenager linking to another place. There's a friend which you think may be more and the awkwardness that that creates, as you tip toe into romance. And there's escape to another world. Where teenagers can escape to - no kids or adults allowed. There's the freedom to be your true self, uncaged. The joy of finding someone to share that world with and the grief from having that thorn apart.
Josh Hutcherson and AnnaSophia Robb are superb stars with great futures. Director, Gabor Csupo, has given them great scope to shine. They capture the emotions of teenagers and the dark side of life. The CGI is non- intrusive but may lull parents into thinking that this film is aimed at a younger audience. I'd say this is for aspiring teenagers up to adults. Men may dismiss this as a chick flick, but it's not. It's for anyone who has ever been a teenager, or dreamed, or felt, or loved. An unsupervised box of tissues would be appreciated! I've got to update my vote to 10 :) I loved it!
Hotel for Dogs (2009)
Quirky
A few basics first! Kids will like this! There is little for adults. We have become so used to 'films for kids but written for adults' that it is nice to see something just for the kids again. A parent may be useful with very young kid for the slightly 'spooky' bit. The kids and dogs all act well and Emma Roberts is a great anchor. Don Cheadle is giving his time competently but Lisa Kudrow is miscast. Now the important news. This has very, very little to do with Lois Duncan's book! You can be sure that the book is better and a perfect read for any dog lover. Buy both or buy the book! With only 5 dogs, 2 kids and a family life there is much more depth of character in the book. This film is a good one off. The book will be a favourite reread :)
A Big Hand for the Little Lady (1966)
Better than the Sting
This is great! The first viewing is a roller-coaster ride of confident control suddenly lost, then understood, then whipped away again! It's certainly Joanne Woodward's finest hour with an excellent cast of also ran stars. At the end, it all makes wonderful sense and you just wish to see it again!
Second viewing lets you see how everything works, and you marvel at the screenplay and acting. Then you want to see it again and just enjoy the whole film. The fourth viewing is confident entertainment which you want to share with your nearest and dearest. Repeat viewing maintains the entertainment level and I still want to see it again!
One of the top films I have ever seen and I look forward to seeing it again. Thank you Hollywood!
The Green Years (1946)
Special
I find this film charming. As a 1950's Dublin kid, I loved the acting, direction, script and message of this film. I agree that it is a Scottish 'How green is my Valley'. I have always felt closer to Scotland than Wales, although not understanding why! Dean Stockwell and Tom Drake are especially wonderful. Nowadays, some follow ups would be certain. I would love to follow Robert Shannon's adulthood, after this film ended. I have always been a fan of Jessica Tandy and it was great to see her as a young girl, knowing what a successful career she had. This is a warm hearted Sunday afternoon film with feel good after-shocks. I don't know if a colour remake is possible but it's a black and white classic. Enjoy!
The Poseidon Adventure (1972)
A disaster of a movie
I was a teenager in the 1970s and this film turned me off cruising or package travel for life! Because of the people I might meet. I have no idea how Hollywood gathered the cast of stars together, but they are terrible. The camp over-acting; the totally unsympathetic characters and the ham-fisted editing meant that it should have sunk without trace (dragging the Towering Inferno down with it, please). It took Gene Hackman and Hollywood a decade to recover. Do I care for any of the cast? Absolutely not! The rescue party should have gone to the pub and read a better script. The producers must have been selling ice to the Inuit and coal to Newcastle to pull this off. The delightful Shelley Winters never got out of the disaster mode and deserves a more dignified memory. Avoid!
The Land That Time Forgot (1974)
great B-Movie
This has everything for a budding boy to enjoy. There's monsters, the struggle against evil, a submarine and the stunningly beautiful Susan Penhaligon. I was lucky enough to see this when it came out and it enthralled me. I still watch it on television when I can, with fond memories. It is not aging well. CFXs have left it looking quite poor in places. However, for a B-Movie it is very well done. The acting, storyline, direction and editing are all well controlled. I agree that a remake may be justified, as long as the inherent innocence of it all is not lost.
It is good family fun which will keep boys glued for an afternoon. And Susan is as beautiful as ever :-)
Hating Alison Ashley (2005)
A very nice film
Australia loves quirky and does it better than everyone else. It has allowed their film industry to create great films over the decades. Lately they have concentrated (in this part of the world anyway) on children's' television. This seems to fit in here and is very well done. The acting is very good, although Delta's wig is distracting. There is great attention to the minor roles and Saskia is perfect in the lead. I think this works best for slightly younger kids than the ages portrayed in the film. They possibly relate to teens a couple of years old, without being adults. Hopefully, it will open them to the wonderful treat of Aussie film, which as for me, will last a lifetime. It's good.
Cool Runnings (1993)
Whooa
This film leaves me breathless. It is like a prescription tonic for the credit crunch. John Candy is wonderful. The bob-sleigh team is a true Ambassador for Jamaica. You add in the nasty Germans, the resentful Americans and the whole amateur sports is controlled by professionals nonsense. It all works. I know some very cynical Capitalists who expressed themselves above such candy floss trivia and yet whooped for Jamaica by the last run :-)
This is my favourite feel-good film of the 90's. If you have seen it already - do yourself a favour and watch it again. Everyone needs some buttons to help them through bad economic times and I've yet to find better.
Cool Runnings Rules!
Hotel Rwanda (2004)
A must
I came to this film having read the book 'We wish to inform you that tomorrow we will be killed with our families' by Philip Gourevitch. I was frightened by how Hollywood may distort the story of the Rwandan genocide for commercial reasons. Well, I have to admit that I think they did a wonderful job. Don Cheadle really rises to the task, despite being American. It feels right to have concentrated on one person's remarkable story and allowing the horrifying conflict ( and the world's guilt ) to remain as a backdrop. I find this an important film in the way Shindlers List was important in telling a man's story and reminding us of the flawed humanity which caused it to happen in the first place. 'Enjoy' this great film and then read the above book to learn more.
The Great Waldo Pepper (1975)
A special treat
I'm sorry to hear that this film is not as respected as I had assumed. This is a great film on so many levels and I highly recommend it. I saw it aged 13 and it absolutely thrilled me. Waldo's friend's death in a crash and fire may correctly need a PG warning but the film will still give most kids a love of flying. For the next 10 years I knew I would be a fighter pilot! There are obvious comparisons with The Blue Max, made 9 years earlier. I like the civilian side to this film. Susan Sharendon's sudden exit was a real shocker, which took me months to get over. In conclusion, I think that this was the first film that I watched, thinking I am an adult enjoying an adult story. It made me feel great and I've had a fascination with film ever since. All thanks to Waldo!
Das Leben der Anderen (2006)
Simply the best
The Lives of Others is the best German film I have ever seen. Thankfully, I am too young to have seen anything of WW2, but this Cold War drama is stunningly real to me. The superb cast and direction gives an edge of seat tension seldom seen nowadays. I visited East Berlin in the 1970's and was full of Cold War concepts of misplaced wonderment! I was fortunate to have lived in the reunited Germany in the 1990's and to see Eastern Berlin again. Memory was fresh enough to fill me with a very different kind of wonderment. The lessons of the USSR and it's satellites would be well remembered today, as governments in the EU try to rewrite the democratic dictionary. Stay alert and watch this fantastic film.
Life of Brian (1979)
Timeless enjoyment
Just viewed this fantastic film for the umpteenth time and it is as enjoyable and fresh as it was 30 years ago. This is Monty Python at their best. There are so many sub-plots and stunning one liners. Are those offended brethren annoyed by Brian's denial that he's the Messiah? It rails against the mob, bigots, procrastinators, career politicians - in fact everyone except God (and the Romans naturally!). Imagine how sad Heaven would be if this film were not held in high esteem. This film gives hope to all believers and is the perfect aspirin to dull the pain of the Credit Crunch. Always look on the bright side of life - and whistle! A true masterpiece.
A Kid for Two Farthings (1955)
A sweet tale
This has just been shown on the UK's Channel 4 series of Carol Reed films. I watched it having read the reviews here on IMDb. It is a lovely uncomplicated tale of a little boy in the east end of London. Were he any other age he would be an annoying brat. He is in that 6 month time of innocent acceptance of the world around him and wishing good for everyone. The cast is well picked and work nicely together. The story is secondary to the time capsule of Joe's memories which he can cherish in adulthood. It would be great to know how Jonathan Ashmore looks back on the film. I believe he never made another. There must be hundreds of childhood tales in every city. This is a particularly nice telling of one of them.
The World at War (1973)
Too important to ever ignore
I had just reached thirteen when I first saw this series and I am watching it again, on DVD, over thirty years later. The pictures over the opening credits have never left me. It has affected my view of the world and the peoples in it. My parents were with me long enough to have seen the series with me, and we always discussed the programme afterwards. It gave me a love for studying history and the highest marks I got in our school's public exams!
Sir Laurence Olivier's voice and delivery is timeless and perfect. I get the feeling that the people who lived through it would feel that this is their version of the history of the Second World War. I cannot imagine ever getting bored looking at it. Maybe an similar Cold War series could now be contemplated, although who could replace Sir Laurence is difficult to imagine.
Buy it!
How the West Was Won (1962)
A Great Movie
Karl Malden says 'I tell the truth as I see it' at the start of this epic and that will do my conscience for this film. Sure, this is Wild West history as seen by the victors - but what a story! If you need criticism it is that it may be too rich to enjoy everything in one seating. So, calm down, settle in and watch it yet again!
The all-star cast act wonderfully together, never hogging the story. Debbie Reynolds does carry through, as the linchpin connecting the scenes together, and she is perfect at doing it. The speed of the story telling is brisk and never allows a soap opera feeling to take hold. This is a major reason for hoping that NO REMAKE will be done. It also scares me to imagine which of the current lightweights would be allowed to work in it. I smell a soap opera chick flick! Mamma Mia goes west - UGH!!
Now that this great movie is available on DVD, there is no need to invest in any more than buying a copy. You get a super film, with a fantastic musical score and magical scenery. If that wasn't enough, you also get a bunch of the best actors and actresses who do what few ever achieve - get you to forget that they are acting at all. Marvelous.
The Longest Day (1962)
This is a terrible film
I have read all the post here and if I am given the chance, I would like to explain why I DO NOT like this film. I see it as the ultimate dumb blonde ww2 film, which I have suffered again in the build-up to Christmas 2008. Now, I have lived in the USA and have a very small idea of how they think (at least in the Midwest). I quite accept that they may love this film anywhere in the United States, especially with their armies in Afganistan and Iraq. Hollywood is the US film industry and playing at home to the US public. Europeans have no such loyalty to any film industry outside each of their own countries.
My real problem with this film is with the screenplay. You cannot argue that the money and stars were not thrown at it - and that is a major problem. Every name had to get it's 5 minutes on air and the money was there to allow it. Monosyllabic German is subtitled (bar Curd Jürgens). I reserve my harshest complaint for those do believe that this film has a grain of truth about it. Cornelius Ryan seems to have given the dumbest situations possible to stage the action scenes. There are literally dozens of examples of layered stupidity. Nuns roaming through the beaches unharmed. Bagpipers marching from inland to the beaches (and being cursed for being Irish!) undisturbed by the shells falling within their ranks. Then you have the time for American GIs to respond to the slow witted Germans. This brings up the problem of the cast.
No stars were included from outside Hollywood. Only the Dutch actors were previously unknown to American audiences. This allows lazy acceptance of the stereotype norms - em, for who? Well, in this case, the American audience. So the Yanks were all John Wayne wannabees, the Brits all Trevor Howard wannabees (even Sean Connery and Richard Burton). The Germans were irrelevant as this is an American victory film. I have no problem admitting that the Allies could not have won the war without the US. It is something Europe will always owe the USA....but that is a separate topic. This film is a celebration of those 'Palinesque' Americans who believe all the dumb stereotypical images of Europe and their peoples. The stars had to take part, or be noted for not being. No depth of character was asked for nor given. No actors or situations were challenging. No questions were asked or answered. Steven Spielberg and others have done wonderful ww2 films, from all the countries involved. This is a very poorly made, expensive, film which did nothing for the career of any actor taking part. I hope I am allowed to hold these views without negating my liking for my time working in the United States, England and Germany.
Destination Gobi (1953)
The poor Mongols
The UKs Channel 4 TV is showing a series of WW2 action films. They vary in quality, but this is the worst so far. The acting is wooden, the film is clichéd, the screenplay is lazy and the Mongolian culture is so insulted by Hollywood's 1950s image of indigenous peoples. Look at the wonderful family film 'The Cave of the Yellow Dog' to see the Mongols as they wish to be viewed. Find some wonderful films starring Richard Widmark (How the West was Won, Judgement at Nuremberg or The Alamo for example) rather than this rubbish. Whilst Everett Freeman was a prolific Hollywood writer, this was Edmond G. Love's only film. I am not surprised to see a long list of uncredited actors. Robert Wise was such an accomplished director, he must have been very inexperienced to do this work. He went on to direct classics like West Side Story, the Sound of Music and even Star Trek. This should be allowed to slip away uncredited to protect his good name.I cannot give more than 1 out of 10.