Reviews

It's not so often I encounter the chance to revisit a classic on the big screen yet yesterday I had that privilege to watch John Carpenter's cult horror classic 'The Thing' at the Cineworld Cinema near Piccadilly Circus.

The film begins in the midst of the Antarctic snowfield where a helicopter is circling an American research base chasing down a husky with a sniper. When the helicopter crashes and the pilot is killed, the passenger survives only to continue his mission of pursuing and killing the dog and in the process shots one of the members of the research team to get to the dog. The gunman who appears to be Norwegian is shot down by the captain of the base as he obviously appears to be steered crazy and incredibly dangerous.

When they eventually find out that this dog isn't what it appears to be, two members of the team, one being MacReady (played by Kurt Russel who gives a fine performance here), goes on a search for the Norwegian base to see what clues they can find. When they do find the abandoned base, they find a large block of ice which looks as if something had been frozen in it for centuries and a half burnt corps that looks like something they've never seen. Of course this corps is brought back to the base, and after a few autopsies are made, one of the doctors makes the shocking discovery of a creature that imitates cells

When one of the members of the base is left alone with the remains of the creature, another team member enters the room only to discover the creature is not dead and is now in fact imitating a member of the team. When help comes forth, the creature has almost finished the process and looks exactly like the team member except for a few last features.

This is where the tension really begins; paranoia hits everyone and hits them hard. Did they kill the creature? Are there any remains of the creature left? If so, has it taken shape of any other team members? Who is human and who is the creature? Who can they trust? You can even feel the tension in the atmosphere of the base, the silence, the darkness, and the reactions of the team members when they suspect another team member.

If one person gets out of their sight for an instant then that person is automatically a suspect. The best example of paranoia is shown by Dr. Blair played by Wilford Brimley who delivers the best performance in the film. He discovers that if this creature reaches civilization, it will eventually imitate mankind little by little and this drives him over the edge and wants no one from the base to escape for the sake of mankind.

I felt quite fortunate as to have previously visited Howard Hawk's original Sci-Fi classic 'The Thing from Another World' which is quite an impressive film especially for 1951, did not feature a shape-shifting creature, instead it featured a gigantic creature that required human blood in order to reproduce. The director John Carpenter, being a fan of Howard Hawks did not try to copy the original; instead he went back to the original novel 'Who Goes There?' by John W. Campbell Jr. from 1939 which did feature a shape-shifting creature, thus making the film more tense and more suspenseful.

John Carpenter has never been known for his character build up; in fact the villains in his movies are usually mindless and lack emotion or personality as shown in this film and many others such as Michael Myers in his merciless masterpiece 'Halloween', the car Christine in 'Christine' or the zombie-like ghosts from 'The Fog'. But he is famous for his tense scenes and his dark and creepy shots as hardly any of his movies contain more than ten minutes of daylight. This is a well paced, well shot film and with these sorts of movies, that's rare.

Watching 'The Thing' again I couldn't help but be reminded of Don Siegel's Sci-Fi classic 'Invasion of the Body Snatchers' from 1956, where a doctor in a small town practise finds numerous patients of his claiming that their relatives or close friends are not who they seem to be but in fact impostors who look exactly them. These two films feature the same sort of paranoia, only John Carpenter makes the decision of showing the shape-shifting commence by using extremely grotesque and gory special effects. Although I am not a fan of grotesque special effects, especially as over blown as they are here, John Carpenter's version of 'The Thing' still succeeds as a haunting tale of paranoia and is a highly entertaining and action packed sci-fi film that is sure to entertain even if it's not as great as Don Siegel's classic.

Upon the film's release back in 1982, the film did not do so well in the box office, maybe because it came out only two weeks after the phenomenon 'E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial' or maybe it's simply due to its extensive use gore and violence which it earned it an "R" rating by the Motion Picture Association of America. It instead went on to become a cult favourite and is now considered to be one of the best and scariest horror films ever made.

Seeing 'Batman Begins' three ago I was so thrilled because I never thought a Batman film could be such a great film. Now Christopher Nolan (Batman Begins/Insomnia) who truly is one of today's finest directors has outdone himself. Not only has he made a better Batman movie but has crafted an epic crime masterpiece that is up there with Michael Mann's 'Heat' and has redefined comic book movies as we know them.

I highly respect Nolan's intense style of direction for many reasons but one of the main reasons is because he chooses to avoid using 'CGI' as much as possible, therefore looking a lot more realistic than your average comic movie or any of today's action movies for that matter. The movie begins in a bank where a robbery is about to commence. Now this scene is great for its absolute realness, the reactions of the citizens, the guards & manager are very realistic. The story is merely a story of good vs. evil but the way it is written and directed is just phenomenal and the cinematography is gorgeous.

At the end of 'Batman Begins', officer Gordon (Gary Oldman) hands Batman a joker card, the calling card of the new criminal who's terrorizing Gotham City. So of course there are great expectations on how good the joker's performance is going to be especially since it was already done by Jack Nicholson and did quite a good job at it as well. Well to say the least, those expectations have been met.

Nolan has made a brave decision and chose not the origins of the joker and I think it was a wise movie for numerous reasons. One is that Tim Burton already showed us this in 'Batman' from 1989 and two it leaves us to draw our own conclusions, you never where he came from and that makes him even more mysterious and terrifying. The joker is played by the Late Heath Ledger plays as the demented villain he truly is and gives a bone chilling Oscar worthy performance in doing so.

Since the everyday villain does whatever he does for some sort of reward such as money, control etc. Batman (Christian Bale) tries to find out what that something is in one the film's greatest scenes where Batman interrogates the joker in the cell at the precinct by literally beating his head time and time again against the stone wall to gain absolutely nothing because the joker can never be bargained with or reasons with… ever! Another great character in the film is Harvey Dent (Arron Echart) who also does a fantastic job with his part. He is a man who would do just about anything for the good people of Gotham City and happens to be in a relationship with Bruce Wayne's ex-girlfriend, Rachel Daws (Maggie Gyllenhaal – a terrific upgrade from Katie Holms in Batman Begins). He is a man that believes in the justice system & Batman so much that he would give his life for the greater good but the joker aims to change that appeal as that is the joker's goal. To corrupt the good people of Gotham for his own sick pleasure as Alfred (Michael Caine) Bruce's butler tells Bruce "some people just want to see the world burn!" When the movie was over I had the same reaction I had with 'Batman Begins' only greater and that is I was disappointed that it was over and I cannot wait for the next one

Howard Hawks, director or numerous great films such as "Scarface" from 1932, "His Girl Friday" from 1940 and "Red River" from 1948 gives us an American western like no other.

One of the great things about "Rio Bravo" are the characters, Hawks has a great talent for making us care so much for these characters and here you get all the sort of characters you'd want in a great western. There's a tough sheriff (John Wayne as John T. Chance), a drunken ex-sheriff (Dean Martin as Dude), a young gunslinger (Ricky Nelson as Colorado Ryan), a beautiful broad who's constantly flirting with the sheriff (Angie Dickinson as Feathers) and an old cripple who can't shut-up to save his life (Walter Brennan as Stumpy). Like another American classic western "High Noon", we get a great showdown at the end and let me just say that it's an explosive scene.

The plot is simple, a man named Joe is arrested for a murder in a saloon and Chance is holding him in a small jail where his friend Stumpy is guarding him. If Joe's brother's henchmen try to break in the jail, Stumpy will kill Joe.

Usually I would say that if Dean Martin was in the picture, then I wouldn't really care for the film. But to my surprise, his performance was the most interesting. Not that the other performances weren't grand because this film simply doesn't have a bad performance, even though I am not a fan of the Duke. Although he did have a few great performances such as "Red River", "Sands of Iwo Jima" and The Searchers" which is arguably is best role.

Watching this film for the second time, I was reminded of Dean Martin's great battle over alcoholism in the film. From his torn clothes, his facial remarks, his non-stop sweating, to him punching his leg several times to stop the shaking or not even being able to role his own cigarettes since his shaking hands wont permit.

Lately I've discovered that "Rio Bravo" was remade into "El Dorado" also directed by Howard Hawks which may not be as great as "Rio Bravo" but it still was a high entertaining western also staring John Wayne and this time Robert Mitchum taking on Dean Martin's role and to my surprise the young James Caan since the oldest film I've ever seen of James Caan was "The Godfather" in his most glorious role as 'Sonny'.

According to IMDb.com, I've read that director Quentin Tarantino stated that "Rio Bravo" is one of his all-time favorite films, and I find this very easy to understand because it's a film that is very hard to dislike. It can easily be called at least a guilty pleasure, although there isn't really anything to be guilty about liking this film. However out of the whole film, I had one objection to it. There is a scene where Dean Martin starts to sing in the jail and young Ricky Nelson joins in with his guitar and sings along. Now this bothered me not because I'm not a fan of these two singers but I just believe that no one wants to see people singing in a western.

Other than this scene, I have no complaints towards this film, the acting is great, the directing is great and hence the film is great.

Here lies a western that isn't very well known now-a-days, it's not a film that people often talk about and it's not on any movie list I've encountered either and that's a real shame. It is a very well made, well directed and under-rated film. Directed by Richard Brooks who directed such films as 'Cat on a Hot Tin Roof' in 1958, a very good and fresh looking film staring Elizabeth Taylor, Paul Newman & Burl Ives, 'Elmer Gantry' in 1960 which I did not care much for except for Lancaster's academy award winning performance, and his masterpiece, 'In Cold Blood' in 1967. He also wrote the terrific film-noir film 'Key Largo' from 1948 staring the great Humphrey Bogart, Edward G. Robinson & Lauren Bacall.

The film stars Burt Lancaster as Dolworth, Lee Marvin as Rico, Robert Ryan as Ehrengard & Woody Strode as Jake and they all have something in common, they're all professionals in what they do. It begins with arrogant Texas millionaire offering a proposition to the professionals stating that his wife Maria (played by the beautiful Claudia Cardinale) has been kidnapped by a notorious Mexican bandit named Jesus Raza played by Jack Palance.

As the men track down Maria, not everything goes as planned but not because they 'screw up' but because it seems that they've been had.

Now besides the great directing of Brooks, it is a well written western and it was written by Brooks himself in which he was nominated for an Oscar for best screen play along with a nomination for best director.

This film had plenty to offer film goers, strong performances from the whole cast, beautiful cinematography and awesome and well shot action sequences which never seize to disappoint which are not so common in American westerns. I can also see how this film may have slightly inspired Sam Peckinpah's masterpiece, 'The Wild Bunch' from 1969 as there are some slight similarities in the two films, even though 'The Professionals' is no match for 'The Wild Bunch'.

This is a well-casted western that even non-western fans can enjoy and of course Lancaster fans as it is tailor made for Burt and I must out of the whole cast, Lancaster's is the performance that conquers as it is the most interesting of them all as Bill Dolworth, the man who loves all women.

Jake Sharp: "We could all do with a rest." Hans Ehrengard: "A shave would be a relief, too." Jake Sharp: "So would a bath." Bill Dolworth: "Might as well throw in a woman. Any size, any age, any color. Any woman."

I would normally go for the 'bad ass' Lee Marvin performance but I just could not resist Dolworth's character. It's a film that you can enjoy watching over and over again and that's what's important. I love watching this film, sheer entertainment.

The Seven Samurai is an example of film making at its highest level. It is the first film I've seen of Akira Kurosawa; I saw it for the first time in my first year of college. It's also the first film that comes to mind when I think of Kurosawa and not to mention Akira Kurosawa is one of my all-time favorite directors. It is also the film that at he will be remembered for.

The story begins in Japan in the early 1600's with a poor town being robed, raped and murdered by bandits. The bandits then come to the town again but decide to visit the town when the barley has fully grown. One of the town members finds out it's going to be robbed again and of course tells the town the disturbing news.

The town of course is absolutely terrified and are in a state of panic and don't know what to do. Some wish to just give the bandits their food and beg them to leave them enough food to last them the winter. Some wish to kill themselves since they cannot stand this life of sorrow and pain. But a few wish to take a stand and fight back. They then take it up with the eldest member of the town and agrees to fight back but since they are farmers and do not know how to fight, he tells them to hire samurai. But the town is a very poor town so he tells the people to find 'hungry' samurai, samurai that will work for a sum of three meals a day.

This film is so exquisitely made that it ranks as possibly one of the greatest films ever made. It has such superb scenes especially the final battle scenes in the heavy rain, such beauty on screen… words cannot describe. There is also another beautiful sad scene where the two leading actors Kambei & Kikuchiyo (Takashi Shimura & Toshirô Mifune) find a mother who has been murdered but she has saved her new born son and Kikuchiyo holds the boy and starts to cry "This is me… this is exactly what happened to me!" That scene always brings tears to my eyes.

Like many other Kurosawa film, it has inspired other films such as he terrific western remake of this film (the American version of 'The Seven Samurai') called 'The Magnificent Seven' from 1960 which is also a great film. It stared Yul Brynner and the great Steve McQueen in the role that made him a star. The film also to some extent influenced 'The 13th Warrior' as well as it also shares the main idea of hiring men to save a town, in this case, Vikings and one Arab.

I have also heard that Steven Spielberg, one of our finest directors who gave us such masterpieces as 'Schindler's List', 'Raiders Of The Lost Ark' and many others watches this film every time he sets out to make a film of his own, along with three other great films, 'Lawrence of Arabia', 'The Searchers' & 'It's a Wonderful Life'.

It's a script like this that makes a film like this a real treasure in any genre and it's directors like Akira Kurosawa that turn a film into something worth cherishing the rest of your life.

The first Mel Brooks film I've seen was 'Space Balls' which I pretty much enjoyed, but I had no idea he was capable of creating such comic brilliance.

The first time I saw this film was when I was living in my apartment in downtown Toronto a couple of years ago. It was a Saturday night and I had no plans and this was before I had gotten a roommate. So I went over to the nearest Blockbusters and looked for a couple of classics. I ended up renting 'Five Easy Pieces' and 'Young Frankenstein' and it ended up being a pretty good night since I had three important ingredients, pizza, beer and a barrel of laughs.

I love the way Mel Brooks tackled the original James Whale classics (Frankenstein from 1931 & Bride of Frankenstein from 1935) which are in my opinion the greatest monster classics ever to be put on screen.

This film looks so authentic that it actually feels like a 1930's monster film, except of course for all the comedy. It has everything it needs to make a perfect classic comedy work: A terrific performance (Gene Wilder), a hot babe (Teri Garr), the creature himself (Peter Boyle) and one of the funniest characters in motion picture history, Igor which unlike in the original is pronounced Eye-Gor (Martin Pidman).

The story begins when Fredrick Fronkensteen (Gene Wilder) gets a visit from a strange old man who brings him the will of his great grandfather, 'Baron Bofort von Frankenstein'. He then of course goes to his great grandfather's old castle which actually looks exactly like the castle in the original picture from 1931 because in fact it is a picture of the castle from the original film.

He there meets the care taker of the castle named Frau Blücher (Cloris Leachman) in which she is so creepy that every time her name is said, the horses begin to whinny. Now that is very funny. At first he doesn't want to face the facts of his grandfather's work but when he finds his grandfather's secret library and starts to read his books he figures it out: "It… could… work!"

So of course he walks in the foot steps of his grandfather and sets out to create the creature. As told by his grandfather's books, the creature must be of gigantic stature, everything must be increased in size and of course then, "he would have an enormous schwanstugel" in which I-Gor replies, "he's gonna be very popular!" But of course the creature doesn't set out to be as smart as they anticipated and this obviously leads to bigger laughs, like when he visits the blind man played brilliantly by Gene Hackman.

I watched this film again last night with a good friend of mine and who happened to be a fan of Mel Brooks. I guaranteed him a great time and believe me he wasn't disappointed. It was just as great for me as it was the time I saw it, if not better, It's one of the best American comedies of our time.

Daniel Day-Lewis has got to be one of the most dedicated actors of our time, giving us one great performance after another particularly in these four; "My Left Foot", "In the Name of the Father", "Gangs of New York" and now "There Will be Blood" in his darkest role ever. One a whole his performance in this film reminded me of Orson Wells from the great "Citizen Kane".

This is one of the greatest performances I've seen in a long time; it is so great that it is absolutely terrifying at times. For insistence there is a scene where his competition is trying to buy him out and tells Plainview that he can spend more time with his son but Plainview feels that he's trying to tell him how to raise his family and he says the following: "One night, I'm gonna come inside your house, wherever you're sleeping, and I'm gonna cut your throat." Now that just put chills down my spine and the way he says it with that 'John Huston' kind-of accent is just brilliant. There is also a great scene where he is burying someone in the middle of nowhere in order since he felt that this person was after his money. It just simply reminded me of Humphrey Bogart in "The Treasure of the Sierra Madre" when trying to kill Curtin, looking out for his share of the gold along with some other scenes since the director (Paul Thomas Anderson) went to sleep every night watching "The Treasure of the Sierra Madre" while filming "There Will Be Blood", and you can tell.

The film basically is about a man who is looking for silver but instead finds oil and is now determined to be the best in the business and make sure that he ranks on top and above the others along with his partner H.W. Plainview, his young son. In the process he finds difficulties in gaining all the land he desires and in building his pipeline. Every single scene is extremely well made and shows us Plainview's ruthlessness slowly turning into madness.

One of the film's finest scenes is the opening scene when Daniel Plainview (Daniel Day-Lewis) is on his own in the middle of nowhere and is trying to wrest silver from the earth with a pick and shovel and a stick of dynamite. There is no music in that scene, you just here the sound of the pick hitting the rock and Plainview moving around in the hole and it works perfectly. Not to mention the cinematography is absolutely gorgeous in almost every scene.

This film is defiantly film making at its best but it could have been a lot better since it had quite a few flaws in it and the major flaw is the annoying Eli Sunday (played by Paul Dano from "Little Miss Sunshine"). I didn't care one bit for his performance and in fact it even got on my nerves at times, especially his 'church scene' where he 'casts the devil out of people' in his little chapel.

This is Paul Thomas Anderson in his finest hour as a director, his best film since "Boogie Nights" one of the best films of 1997 since I wasn't a fan of his last 2 films: "Punch Drunk Love" & "Magnolia".

The real question of this story is: if you knew you were going to die, what would you do? Would you spend your last days doing everything you wanted to do… any form of pleasure you can imagine, or would you do something importance, something that would actually mean something.

An old man (Takashi Shimura) named Kenji is dying of cancer and feels his whole life has been wasted. For the past 30 years he's been working at Tokyo City Hall behind a desk accomplishing absolutely nothing, mainly just stamping papers with his rubber stamp and warming his chair.

When he does find out he has cancer in the beginning of the film, he simply stops going to work and one day meets a stranger (who does a terrific job with his role) in a bar and in a conversation he says that he has money but doesn't know how to spend it for sheer entertainment. The stranger has pity on the man but at the same time envy since he doesn't just kill himself, but faces the facts of life and so of course he helps the old man have a good time but with his money as they go out on a night of night clubs, women and booze.

Akira Kurosawa is one of my personal favorite directors and has many masterpieces but this doesn't exactly rank among those masterpieces like "Ran", "Throne of Blood", "Yojimbo" and the forgotten gem "The Bad Sleep Well". But that doesn't mean that this isn't a good film because in reality it's a great film, and the strongest point of this film is the simple but brilliant script as it tells us to appreciate life and the beauty of it, while we have it, hence the title of the film, "Ikiru" which means "To Live".

One thing I didn't like about this film is the way the old man talks throughout the film; as if he can barley speak and you can barley make out what he is saying. But then again that is his role, moping around with this performance, you really believe that this man is dying of cancer and is truly upset with himself for not "living" his life all these years. One of his co-workers even tells to him over lunch that everyone has a nickname at the office and his was "The Mummy". He pauses for a minute and she thinks she has offended him but he reassures her that she hasn't in-fact; she has named him perfectly as he realizes that's what his life has been ever since his beloved wife has left him 30 years ago.

Kenji feels that the worse part isn't dying; he feels that he has wasted his whole life and doesn't want to die before he does something of importance, meaning he wants to live his last days and not just exist as he has been doing all his life. He feels that he has been dead for a long time now but is just realizing it now when it's too late.

There is a great moral to this story and a novelist in this film says it best with this beautiful and unforgettable quote: "How tragic that man can never realize how beautiful life is until he is face to face with death."

When 'Rocky Balboa' came out 2 years ago, my first reaction was, "Oh man, that's just what we need… another Rocky picture!" But it was actually the best 'Rocky' picture since the original, the best of the sequels. I had the exact opposite reaction about 'Rambo' the 4th installment in the Rambo franchise and I have to say that this is by far the most violent film I have ever seen and this goes without saying , it makes 'First Blood' look like something out of Nickelodeon.

It basically starts out with real footage of attacks in Burma and then shows us the sixty year old Rambo in the heart of the jungle, fishing with a bow and arrow. Later in the film he is approached by a group of volunteers with Burnett as the group leader who wishes to bring medical attention, prayer books, and support to the Karen tribe's people in Burma. But of course Rambo is aware of the horror in Burma and tries to warn them but doesn't succeed.

Obviously the group encounters some major problems in Burma and a team is sent in to rescue the group with… you guessed it, Rambo as the 'boat man', since he knows the jungle like the back of his hand. It doesn't take too long for the team to realize that their boat man is actually a "machine" built for war.

I saw this film on the big screen with some friends of mine and I couldn't stop laughing at the action because it was just so over the top and so cheesy, even my friends were laughing but to my surprise, they loved it. There is even a scene where Rambo literally rips out a man's throat with his bare hands and another where Rambo turns a huge machine gun on one person only and tears him to bits. Now that is as over the top as action can get.

It's a pity that Stallone chose to direct the film in this direction because this film could have been really good, it had some really nice shots in the beginning when he's finishing in the heart if the jungle and there was a good scene when he kills for the first time in the film on the boat to save the group.

But then it's all just down hill from there and Stallone doesn't really bring anything new to the screen about Rambo. There is even a dream sequence where Rambo is tortured by his past and is way too long for a dream sequence.

I loved 'First Blood' from 1982 but that was it, it think hard core Rambo fans will love this film and probably even fans of the ridiculous 'Saw' franchise for it's enormous amount of blood and gore. But I found it to be more cheesy and extremely over the top than entertaining.

This is the story of Edith Piaf, the most famous and beloved French singer of her time. It starts with Piaf at the age of 5 and she's being raised by her mother… horribly. Later her father takes her and gives her to Therese who is the 'caretaker' of a whore house who does a much better job taking care of Piaf than her mother, believe it or not.

Later on in the film at the age of around 20, she starts 'street singing' with her friend… beautifully and is one day noticed by promoter Louis Leplée (Gérard Depardieu) who thinks she is perfect for his club and is right; she dazzles the public at the club. The film also reveals one of Edith Piaf lovers, Yves Montand, one of the great French actors who was in some of France's great films like "The Wages of Fear" and "The Red Circle".

The film basically shows the life struggle of Edith Piaf and her enormous problems. Marion Cotillard does a spectacular performance as Edith Piaf in arguable one of the greatest female performances of our time and wins the Oscar for it. But despite Marion Cotillard's performance, the film is a very exhausting experience. It starts with her last performance, then with her at the age of 5, then back to the 1950s then back to her at the age of 9 and so on and so on. In general it is really hard and tiring to keep up with.

The film also shows you an affair Piaf had with a boxer named Marcel Cerdan (Jean-Pierre Martins) in which she really loved him but at the same time knew he would never leave his family but never wanted to face this fact. Thus she kept picturing herself with him and him alone which was somewhat of a fantasy. Towards the end of the film in the very late 1950s, she is very ill and is struggling to keep on singing but with great difficulty. She thinks that if she does not sing, then she might as well die because singing is her life, it's what she lives for.

Edith Piaf in certain ways really reminds me of Judy Garland and her struggle and even looks a little like Judy Garland.

Basically on a whole, the film isn't really much of an entertaining film but it's worth seeing just for Marion Cotillard's spectacular and unforgettable performance.

Let me start out by saying I'm not a fan of the old English story telling and thought I wasn't going to enjoy this picture. But I couldn't have been more wrong, this is quite possibly Charles Dickens's best story and probably the best film about a Charles Dickens story.

The film starts out with a young orphan named Pip paying a visit to his parents at the cemetery when he encounters an escaped convict named Magwitch that tells him to get some food and a file for him or he'll slit his throat! Later in the story, Pip is summoned to a Gothic mansion where a wicked old woman known as Miss Havisham played by Martita Hunt (from the Disney classic The Story of Robin Hood and His Merrie Men as 'Queen Eleanor') lives still in her weeding dress from years ago in which she hasn't seen the sunlight since the day her heart was broken. She also has a little girl played by Jean Simmons (from The Big Country) who treats Pip like dirt since she was raised by the wicked lady to hate the opposite sex in a sort-of revenge on all men.

The Gothic mansion is beautifully done as if it were something out of an old horror picture. It is occupied with dust from years past, cobwebs and a weeding cake, for the mice to feast on still from her wedding day. Later in the film, the 21 year old Pip played by John Mills is given the chance to be educated as a gentleman but the person who has sponsored him wishes to remain anonymous.

The film also features Alec Guinness (who gave an Oscar winning performance in The Bridge on the River Kwai in 1957 also directed by David Lean) who plays young Herbert Pocket. The film is beautifully directed by 2 time academy award winner David Lean (who gave us Brief Encounter the year before). Lean does a brilliant job in bringing the Charles Dickens characters to the screen and they are the kind of characters you don't forget that easily, kind of like 'Fagin' and 'Artful Dodger' (from Oliver Twist in 1948 also directed by David Lean or the musical Oliver! in 1968).

This film is terrific for many reasons, one is that it is truthful to the book; another is that all the performances are wonderful in the film and even the cinematography is gorgeous to look at and some great shots of the old English ports. One thing is for sure… this is a classic not to be missed.

When I first saw this film, I just couldn't stop thinking about it and what an experience it was to watch such a magnificent film. Humphrey Bogart, one of my favorite actors plays the role he was born to play in his best performance ever, not to mention John Huston's best as well who has shown us his brilliance in directing 'The Maltese Falcon' in 1941. This is a film about greed and how it can drive you over the edge.

The story begins with Bogie as Fred C. Dobbs, an American down on his luck; asking people for money in order to eat a meal. He ends up asking the same person three times which happens to be the director John Huston. Bogie then meets Curtin (Tim Holt) when they're both offered a job but doesn't go as planned. They then meet the old man (Walter Huston) who happens to be an expert in gold digging and this gives them an idea on how to get their hands on some real dough, but nothing is as easy as it looks, especially when dealing with strangers, bandits and insanity while looking out for your share of the gold.

This movie has such brilliant performances especially from Bogart and Huston and has a script you will never forget. I think this movie is one of the greatest films I've ever seen and it is defiantly in my list of top 10 favorite films. Winning best supporting actor (Walter Huston), best director, best screenplay, and nominated for best picture which went to 'Hamlet' staring Lawrence Olivier who also won best actor that year. Why this movie didn't win best picture and why Bogart wasn't even nominated for best actor will remain a mystery to me forever.

I personally envy the experience of someone who gets to see this movie for the first time!