Thread: Index of High Definition (HD) Movies on HD Cinema & Monsters HD

Unjustly overlooked in Clint Eastwood's oeuvre, this critical examination of the hubris of machismo predated Unforgiven by just two years and meditated on similar themes. Eastwood plays a macho movie director, in Africa ostensibly to shoot a movie, but more pressingly (to his mind, anyway) to bag an elephant. The story is based loosely on the true story of John Huston's behavior while making The African Queen; Eastwood's Huston imitation (the character here is named Wilson) will no doubt prove distracting to some--he drawls out vowels to the point of breaking--but he captures both the arrogance of and the magnetic force behind the man. The film boasts splendid visuals by cinematographer Jack Green, and the final scene--and Eastwood's performance therein--is nearly heartbreaking. --David Kronke.

Clint eastwood stars in and directs the colorful tale of a flamboyant filmmaker's flair for danger and adventure while on location in Africa, based on Peter Viertel's novel inspired by The African Queen. Year: 1990 Director: Clint Eastwood Starring: Clint Eastwood, Jeff Fahey, George Dzundza

Starring: Clint Eastwood, Jeff Fahey Director: Clint Eastwood Studio: Warner Home Video Aspect ratio 1.85 : 1

Voomer Reviews:

rrobe99999 : (2-star) Clint Eastwood plays a director on location in Africa obsessed with hunting elephants. He didn't do a good job of playing that role.

Tvlman : 3 STARS - An astonishing story of a Hollywood Director making a film in Africa but wanting to bag an elephant first. (Supposed to be a true story of guess who....John Huston)

Anyone having high hopes for the artistic collaboration between Robin Williams and director Bill Forsyth (who made Local Hero, perhaps the most enjoyable film of the 1980s) probably left this movie disappointed. Forsyth is attempting nothing less than The Ages of Man, using Williams as his representative of humanity through history. Cast as a kind of Everyman, Williams plays a guy who can't seem to get his family situation straightened out to his satisfaction, whether he's trying to protect his family from Vikings in prehistoric times, being a nomad in the Middle Ages, or showing up as an unhappy divorced guy in contemporary times who's trying to reconnect with his teenage daughter. It's worth a look, if only for the opportunity to see how a big idea can go decidedly wrong and to observe what happens when a director gets a hold of an unworkable concept that he believes in completely. Williams wears a pained expression through most of the film. --Marshall Fine

Starring: Robin Williams, John Turturro Director: Bill Forsyth Studio: Warner Studios Aspect ratio 1.85 : 1

Voomer Reviews:

rrobe99999 : (1-star) Robin Williams in 4 short stories that suck. Why are his dramatic movies so bad?

A plastic surgeon and a model investigate the murders of three women, who were killed after being used as models for subliminal advertisements.

Starring: Albert Finney, James Coburn Director: Michael Crichton Studio: Warner Studios Aspect ratio 2.35 : 1

Voomer Reviews:

rrobe99999 : (3-star) Susan Dey (nude scene) in a Sci Fi about using CGI to create subliminal messages in comercials. I love 80s Sci Fi movies where they try to make futuristic technology that would be obsolete by today's standards. It was presented in its OAR on VOOM.

Life stinks--and if by "life" you mean this movie, then here indeed is truth in advertising. Mel Brooks totally missed the boat with this attempt at a comedy about life in the greedy Reagan years. He plays a heartless tycoon who bets that he could easily survive for a month on the streets of L.A. without a penny to his name, and then gets tricked out of his fortune. He winds up learning how the other half lives and it isn't funny. Literally. Watching this film, it's hard to believe it was made by the same man who wrote and directed The Producers. What does it tell you that this film was loved in France? --Marshall Fine

Starring: Mel Brooks, Lesley Ann Warren Director: Mel Brooks Studio: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer

Voomer Reviews:

MattP-bgsu : I enjoyed "Life Stinks" last night. Mel Brooks has always been one of my fav's. I'd say 4 stars.

A sweet and sassy comedy about the bonds of sisterhood, Mystic Pizza offers the opportunity to see some solid young actors early in their careers. Three sisters of blue-collar Portuguese descent work in a pizzeria in the coastal town of Mystic, Connecticut. Each has her own unique romantic entanglements. One is the fast girl in town (Julia Roberts), who falls for a rich kid but wonders if she'll ever be accepted; one is the lifelong local girl (Lili Taylor) in love with her fisherman boyfriend (Vincent D'Onofrio) but scared of what marriage will do to their sex lives; and the youngest sister (Annabeth Gish) dreams of going to Yale but during a summer of baby-sitting has an affair with a married man. Through it all each sister depends on the others regardless of the complications. It's the alluring charm of the three disparate leads that makes Mystic Pizza the delightful experience it is. --Robert Lane

Starring: Annabeth Gish, Julia Roberts Director: Donald Petrie Studio: Mgm/Ua Studios Aspect ratio 1.85 : 1

Voomer Reviews:

MattP-bgsu : I also remember Mystic Pizza 3 stars. Decent 80's movie.

TheTimm : 4 stars : A terrific little movie dealing with timeless themes of love and relationships, and featuring the timeless beauty and nuanced acting of a young Lili Taylor (not to mention some chick named Julia Roberts). Also kinda cool to see a young Vincent D'Onofrio as Ms. Taylor's love interest -- and a quick appearance (don't blink!) by Matt Damon (his debut?). Very good PQ, and while there isn't much call for fancy surround sound effects the music mix is surprisingly aggressive, and quite satisfying.

Thelma & Louise is a feminist manifesto writ large on the big screen, a smart and funny gender reversal of the standard Hollywood buddy formula, a road movie extraordinaire, with characters who became instant cultural icons. No matter how you define it, Ridley Scott's 1991 box-office hit pinched a nerve and made the cover of national news magazines for tweaking gender politics like no movie before or since. Callie Khouri's screenplay overhauls the buddy formula with its story about two best friends (Susan Sarandon and Geena Davis) who embark on a liberating adventure that turns into an interstate police chase after a traumatic incident makes both women into fugitives; they are en route to a destiny they could never have imagined. The perfect casting of Sarandon and Davis makes Thelma & Louise a movie for the ages, and Brad Pitt became an overnight star after his appearance as the con-artist cowboy who gives Davis a memorable (but costly) night in a roadside motel. --Jeff Shannon

Starring: Susan Sarandon, Geena Davis Director: Ridley Scott Studio: Mgm/Ua Studios Aspect ratio 2.35 : 1


Voomer Reviews:

MattP-bgsu : Thelma and Louise was good. First time I'd actually watched it all.

TechCop : 4.5 stars: It's a chic-flic, it's a action movie, it's funny, and it has LOADS of great actors. Great soundtrack, too. What more could you want?

TheTimm : 4 stars : Now I see what all the fuss was about - it's a damned good movie! In the spirit of full disclosure though, I must admit I find it hard to dislike anything with Geena Davis -- Hey, Voom-folks, how 'bout The Long Kiss Goodnight in HD? Please?

If you ever thought you had a reason to suspect your significant other isn't all they claim to be, then this movie will definitely make you jumpy to find out more. The gorgeous Madchen Amick works her way into the heart of James Spader and starts him down a path of being everything he's ever wanted in a woman, yet there's things that she seems to be hiding from him. The paranoia keep growing throughout the movie as more and more clues are accidentally left for James Spader to find. It's disturbing how Madchen Amick's character is able to play Spader like a sap and trick him time and time again. Even when he catches onto her schemes, he's still not able to do anything about it because she has exit plans for everything she does. She gets away with all kinds of stuff and somehow gets people to blame James Spader's character for being unwarranted with his paranoia. It's not really an original story, but the movie is pretty disturbing. While I prefer different types of mysteries like The Courtyard more (another Madchen Amick movie), this movie provides a pretty good story with plenty of plot twists. --

Starring: Director: Nicholas Kazan Studio: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer

Voomer Reviews:

Walter L. : 4.0 Star I thoroughly enjoyed this film the first time I saw it and was pleased to watched again in HD. Very well written script. Warning: very disturbing, it may happen to any of us HD transfer was excellent except no OAR.

Sean Mota : 4.0 stars I caught it the other night about 3am. I couldn't sleep. The movie stars very slow and it picks up later on. Quite a surprising ending and good one too. I kept wondering how the heck he got married to a woman that only invited one friend to the ceremony. That would be enough to say that something is wrong. Good movie. HD transfer was very good.

FredOh: Recent viewings that rocked: Mad Max with original australian soundtrack, Dream Lover, Evil Dead, Original Solaris, and Heaven and Earth. Better average than I usually get from A month of HB) (sopranos and Deadwood exlcuded)

An attorney (Timothy Daly) rescues Miranda (Kelly Preston) from being beaten up by her abusive boyfriend in a parking lot. Then the two fall in love. However, it turns out that she is a witch as well as a runaway from her coven and they want her back. It turns out to be a satanic cult and they spend the picture chasing the two lovebirds all over town. Ends with a good twist. This movie is wonderfully hammy although sure to offend Wiccans everywhere.

Starring: Timothy Daly Director: Studio: Fox Home Entertainment

Voomer Reviews:

Walter L. : 4.0 Stars Never watched this movie before until now on Cinema10. At the beginning was a little skeptical and I wasn't sure if I wanted to keep watchig it, but after 15 minutes it turns out to be very interesting movie and the end was unexpected. HD transfer was very good but again no OAR.

TheTimm. : 4 stars : I've been a fan of this movie for quite some time now. It has one of my favorite endings of any movie ever. It's a little on the cheesy side and some of the effects aren't quite as "special" as you'd expect from a modern horror film, but it's still a real enjoyable flick that responds well to HD and surround sound.

The title character of Molly, played by Elisabeth Shue (Oscar nominee for Leaving Las Vegas), suffers from one of those afflictions that are only found in Hollywood movies: she's sort of mentally challenged, sort of autistic--but only enough to give her a childlike appreciation of rhythmic water fountains and The Wizard of Oz. An operation that somehow activates brain cells brings Molly to a more sophisticated level of intelligence, much to the astonishment and joy of her brother Buck (Aaron Eckhart, playing a much more sympathetic character than he did in In the Company of Men). Then, when her brain cell progress becomes threatened for some unclear reason, Molly and Buck are faced with her mental reversal. Aside from being scientifically dubious and somewhat insulting to mentally challenged people and their families, the developing sibling relationship has an emotional pull. Eckhart brings a quiet dignity to his role, lending a bit of realism with his understated performance. Shue, though saddled with an impossible character, has moments of naked emotion that almost make Molly believable. Thomas Jane (Deep Blue Sea), as a medical assistant with a never-explained "learning disability," does all he can with his equally inconsistent part but fares less well. Molly wants to be a combination of Forrest Gump and Flowers for Algernon, movies about discovering the meaning of life through an appreciation of simple things, but falls short

Starring: Director: John Duigan Studio: Mgm/Ua Studios Aspect ratio 1.85 : 1

Voomer Reviews:

TechCop : 3 stars: The nude shot of Elizabeth Shue is worth 3 stars by itself. That tells you what I thought of the rest.

TheTimm : 3.5 stars: My two favorites so far are Molly and Rush. I'd give 'em both about 3 1/2 stars. I think Rush is the better movie - a drug classic - but Molly looked better transfer-wise.