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

[Sean Mota]

Land of the Pharaohs (1955, Drama)

<p><img border="0" src="http://images.amazon.com/images/P/6302354110.01.LZZZZZZZ.jpg" align="left" hspace="5"> The Great Pharaoh orders architech Vashtar to build him the highest pyramid in the world as his tomb. After fifteen years, the work slows as the treasury diminishes. The Pharaoh tries to exact tribute from Cypress, which is ruled by the beautiful and ruthless Princess Nellifer. Impressed with her abilities to charm, the Pharaoh marries her. But Mellifer plots to kill the ruling family - so she can rule Egypt.
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Starring: Jack Hawkins, Joan Collins Director: Howard Hawks Studio: Warner Home Video Aspect ratio 2.55 : 1

Voomer Reviews:

Sean Mota : I am a nut for egyptian movies and bible story movies. I watched this one and did not like the ending but the story was interested (not the drama of the jealous mistress and her plans to kill the pharaoh) but the fact that pharaoh was very much involved in getting a resting place for the afterlife. In my college days, our history and art showed us how the egyptians were preocupied with the afterlife and who can deny the egnima of the piramids. How were they built? Who built them? I liked the movie. Would not recommend this one to watch. The HD transfer was not that great. It was shown in 16x9. This one would have benefited from OAR showing. I have to give a rating of two stars.

 

[Sean Mota]

Platoon (1986, War)

<p><img border="0" src="http://images.amazon.com/images/P/079284646X.01.LZZZZZZZ.jpg" align="left" hspace="5"> Platoon put writer-turned-director Oliver Stone on the Hollywood map; it is still his most acclaimed and effective film, probably because it is based on Stone's firsthand experience as an American soldier in Vietnam. Chris (Charlie Sheen) is an infantryman whose loyalty is tested by two superior officers: Sergeant Elias (Willem Dafoe), a former hippie humanist who really cares about his men (this was a few years before he played Jesus in Martin Scorsese's The Last Temptation of Christ), and Sergeant Barnes (Tom Berenger), a moody, macho soldier who may have gone over to the dark side. The personalities of the two sergeants correspond to their combat drugs of choice--pot for Elias and booze for Barnes. Stone has become known for his sledgehammer visual style, but in this film it seems perfectly appropriate. His violent and disorienting images have a terrifying immediacy, a you-are-there quality that gives you a sense of how things may have felt to an infantryman in the jungles of Vietnam. Platoon won Oscars for best picture and director. --Jim Emerson </p>

Starring: Tom Berenger, Willem Dafoe Director: Oliver Stone
Studio: Mgm/Ua Studios Aspect ratio 1.85 : 1

Voomer Reviews:

Sean Mota : 4 stars. HD Transfer of this movie was excellent.

 

[Sean Mota]

The Terminator (1984)

<p><img border="0" src="http://images.amazon.com/images/P/6305079900.01.LZZZZZZZ.gif" align="left" hspace="5"> This is the film that cemented Schwarzenegger's spot in the action-brawn firmament, and it was well deserved. He's chilling as the futuristic cyborg who kills without fear, without love, without mercy. James Cameron's story and direction are pared to the bone and all the more creepy. But don't overlook the contributions of Linda Hamilton, who more than holds her own as the Terminator's would-be victim, Sarah Connor--thus creating, along with Sigourney Weaver in Alien, a new generation of rugged, clear-thinking female action stars. It's surprising how well this film holds up, and how its minimalist, malevolent violence is actually way scarier than that of its far more expensive, more effects-laden sequel. --Anne Hurley </p>

Starring: Arnold Schwarzenegger, Michael Biehn Director: James Cameron Studio: Image Entertainment Aspect ratio 1.85 : 1

Voomer Reviews:

Sean Mota : I'll be back. 4 stars. Excellent transfer. Don't have to say much. I think most have seen this one.

vinnyv07 : Terminator....on ch 103. Great transfer....I missed it last time it was on MonstersHD. Great transfer. Really looks great for a movie thats 20 years old. I have the DVD and this HD showing blows it away....not even close. Great job VOOM.

Tvlman : 3 Stars. They got it right the first time. Forget T2,T3,T4, ect.

TheTimm : 4 stars : As good as you remember it being, but with better picture quality and better sound.

TechCop : Kept trying till I finally caught this one: (Four Stars) Not much I can add, most of us know this one well. I will say one thing: I did a comparison with the new special edition DVD. VOOM version won, hands down. (Even my wife was impressed with the difference - that's an accomplishment!)

 

[Sean Mota]

In the Time of the Butterflies (2001, Drama)

<p><img border="0" src="http://images.amazon.com/images/P/B000063K0I.01.LZZZZZZZ.jpg" align="left" hspace="5"> In the Time of the Butterflies tells the real-life story of the Mirabal sisters, courageous revolutionaries known covertly as las Mariposas ("the Butterflies"). The sisters' years of dissent during the Trujillo dictatorship in the Dominican Republic led to their eventual murder in 1960, a brutal crime that signaled the beginning of the end for Trujillo. Told through the eyes of Minerva Mirabal (Salma Hayek), the story follows a somewhat predictable plot line as the sisters progress rapidly from naive to idealistic to victimized and on to resolved as they become leaders in an elaborate plot to assassinate the dictator. As with so many biographical depictions on film, even though this one is based on a highly acclaimed novel by Julia Alvarez, the narrative shifts from past to present are clumsy and excessively sepia-toned; the script delivers its life-was-better-before-sequence with little to no grace before quickly connecting the dots of history. Nevertheless, Edward James Olmos, as Trujillo, does a remarkable job of conveying the unique mixture of political intuition and ruthlessness needed to maintain a dictatorship for 30 years, while Hayek delivers a spirited lead performance. --Fionn Meade </p>

Starring: Salma Hayek, Lumi Cavazos Director: Mariano Barroso Studio: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer

Voomer Reviews:

Sean Mota : From a historical account of what happened to the three sisters that fought against the tyrant Trujillo this movie was quite good. I give it 3.5 stars. Transfers was very good and even though it was not a big hit in USA, it has some terrifying moments.

TheTimm : 2 stars : Not bad, really -- just a little on the slow side for me. Without Salma Hayek, I probably wouldn't have kept watching.

 

[Sean Mota]

Live Flesh (1997, Drama)

<p><img border="0" src="http://images.amazon.com/images/P/B000059H9E.01.LZZZZZZZ.jpg" align="left" hspace="5"> This was the first Almodovar movie in which he used a higher picture quality, giving it a more hollywood look, ON THE SURFACE, but this is not hollywood-esque by any means other than that. The charcters are very Almodovar, in that most of them have serious issues. The Almodovar humor, like the grandma cutting the umbilical cord with her teeth, is there as well.

The story has to do with Victor, a young, naive pizza delivery boy who has a quick fling with a drugged out daughter of an Italian diplomat. He eventually finds her, and gets involved in a scuffle with her in her apartment, causing some neighbors to call over the police. The police confront the couple, a shot ends up being fired, and so commences our bizarre, black comedy, tragic love story. The acting is great, great script, beautifully shot, it really is an excellent film.

It is great to see legends like Pedro Almodovar continuing to get better and better. His last three have just been phenomanal, "All about my mother", "Live Flesh" and "Talk to her", can'd wait for his next release, "Bad Education" featuring Gael Garcia Bernal.
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Starring: Javier Bardem, Francesca Neri Director: Pedro Almodóvar Studio: Mgm/Ua Studios Aspect ratio 2.35 : 1

Voomer Reviews:

Sean Mota : 4 stars. Excellent movie. I saw this on DVD and now seeing it in HD was fantastic. It has an intrigue twist of story. It is subtitled. Do not want to give away the movie but it was an excellent movie.

 

[Sean Mota]

The Little Drummer Girl (1984, Mystery)

<p><img border="0" src="http://images.amazon.com/images/P/6302877903.01.LZZZZZZZ.jpg" align="left" hspace="5"> Middle-eastern terrorism provides the dense, perpetually timely context of The Little Drummer Girl, loyally adapted from John Le Carré's complex bestseller. It's slow going at first, taking pains to establish the tragically complicated plight of Charlie (Diane Keaton), a left-wing, pro-Palestinian actress, recruited by Israeli intelligence in 1981 to play the role of a lifetime: Once her loyalties are turned, she will lure a dominant Palestinian terrorist (Sami Frey) into a deadly trap. She's an unwitting pawn, vulnerable to romance (particularly with her Israeli recruiter, played with subtle conviction by Greek-born Yorgo Voyagis), and Keaton brings sympathetic naiveté to her character's potentially lethal dilemma. Klaus Kinski is arguably miscast as the Israeli intelligence chief, but viewers are more likely to stumble over the film's constant flow of intricate detail. The Little Drummer Girl is not always easy to follow, but attentive viewers will be rewarded, and the plot itself is, sadly, as relevant as ever. --Jeff Shannon
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Starring: Diane Keaton, Yorgo Voyagis Director: George Roy Hill Studio: Warner Studios

Voomer Reviews:

Sean Mota : 3.5 stars. I saw this back in 1985 and liked the movie. The transfer had some grainy scenes but overall it was decent. The movie was good too.

 

[Sean Mota]

The Locusts (1997, Drama)

<p><img border="0" src="http://images.amazon.com/images/P/B00005UJYB.01.LZZZZZZZ.jpg" align="left" hspace="5"> "Superb acting [from] a stand-out cast" (The New York Post) including Kate Capshaw, Jeremy Davies, Vince Vaughn, Paul Rudd, Daniel Meyer and Ashley Judd make this sultry, suspenseful and chilling drama about four people drawn into a deadly web of obsession an absolute must-see!
Delilah Potts (Capshaw) has always had her choice of men to work her ranch and fill her bed. But from the moment Clay Hewitt (Vaughn), a handsome drifter with a mysterious past, arrives at her door, Delilah knows that her life will never be the same. And when he spurns her affections, she unleashes a torrent of forbidden passions and deadly secrets that will prove to Clay that the only thing darker and more dangerous than the past he's escaping.is the one he's about to discover.
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Starring: Director: John Patrick Kelley Studio: MGM/UA Video Aspect ratio 2.35 : 1

Voomer Reviews:

Sean Mota : 2.5 stars. This movie is one of those movies that keep you wondering what is the story line all about and you know it's not sucha a good movie but you keep watching it. The story of a mother who was totally attached to a disabled child. Another man comes to their lives and kind of shake up things around. HD transfers was very good.

TheTimm : 3 stars : Deliberate, slow-paced. Some, though not I, may even say boring. Builds up to a rather powerful ending. Some very good performances - particularly Jeremy Davies as Flyboy. And Ashley Judd was just adorable. PQ was good - despite three or four brief pixellation moments. Sound pretty good, too.

 

[Sean Mota]

Dirty Rotten Scoundrels (1988)

<p><img border="0" src="http://images.amazon.com/images/P/B00005PJ6O.01.LZZZZZZZ.jpg" align="left" hspace="5"> Freddy Benson (Steve Martin) is a crass, loud American. Laurence Jameson (Michael Caine) is a suave, urbane European. Their common ground is that they both are confidence men, and they meet in a train compartment as Benson is scamming his way across Europe, taking advantage of women's generosity. The two are forced into a rivalry, which culminates in a wager to see who can be the first to bilk $50,000 out of American heiress Janet Colgate (Glenne Headly). Their game of one-upmanship is, of course, brought to ridiculous heights as things progress. Written by Paul Henning (the mind behind such TV shows as Green Acres and The Beverly Hillbillies), Dirty Rotten Scoundrels is an uneven but funny mix of Martin's physical comedy and Caine's oily charms. Martin's first role as cohort is to assume the persona of Ruprecht, the "special" younger brother intended to scare off potential brides. As Ruprecht, he comes off as a cross between The Andy Griffith Show's Ernest T. Bass and Jerry Lewis; hilarious as it is, it doesn't quite fit with the rest of the film. Once the wager is on, though, Martin slips into his overly earnest mode as an American military man suffering from hysterical paralysis, with Caine as a psychologist who takes on his case. All in all, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels (a loose remake of the 1964 film Bedtime Story with David Niven and Marlon Brando) is a droll, intelligent comedy, short on knee slappers but long on comic situations and characterizations. --Jerry Renshaw </p>

Starring: Steve Martin, Michael Caine Director: Frank Oz Studio: Mgm/Ua Studios Aspect ratio 1.37 : 1 (negative ratio) 1.85 : 1 (intended ratio)

Voomer Reviews:

Sean Mota : 4.5 a must see. One that will make you laugh all the way through the roof. I think this has to be one of the best comedies around.

 

[Sean Mota]

The Woman in Red (1984)

<p><img border="0" src="http://images.amazon.com/images/P/B00005LQ0I.01.LZZZZZZZ.jpg" align="left" hspace="5"> For a few years in the mid-1970s, thanks mostly to his collaboration with Mel Brooks, Gene Wilder was the hottest name in comedy. His films with Richard Pryor made him such a star that he was given the chance to write and direct--a big mistake. The nadir was this slow-moving, self-conscious Americanization of the French bedroom comedy Pardon Mon Affaire. Wilder plays an American executive who glimpses a gorgeous woman and turns his life and his marriage upside down in his misguided pursuit of an unattainable ideal. Heavy-handed sex farce doesn't get much help from Wilder, who does himself no favors as a director; LeBrock is a worthy object of obsession, but she deserves a better movie. --Marshall Fine </p>

Starring: Gene Wilder, Kelly LeBrock Director: Gene Wilder Studio: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Aspect ratio 1.85 : 1

Voomer Reviews:

Sean Mota : 4 stars. Good comedy and good transfer. I think this one most people have seen.

 

[Sean Mota]

Easy Money (1983, Comedy)

<p><img border="0" src="http://images.amazon.com/images/P/0792846141.01.LZZZZZZZ.jpg" align="left" hspace="5"> Hilarious Rodney Dangerfield film with a great plot & situations, classic lines, and Joe Pesci! Rodney plays Monty, a "family man" and baby photographer in Staten Island, NY whose mother-in-law has passed away. In her will she has left Monty millions of dollars if he can give up all vices (smoking,drinking,gambling,carousing, overeating)for one year. Rodney's not all that bad. He loves his family and most of all, loves children..hence his profession. How he handles children while he works is evident in the opening of the film which is very touching. The plot revolves around Monty trying give up his temptations and he is helped by his family in various ways and by his good friend Nicky (a hilarious Joe Pesci). In the meantime, Clive (Jeffrey Jones) an associate of Monty's mother-in-law is trying in every way to stop Monty from gaining that inheritance by underhandedly tempting him in various ways. Also, there is a subplot of his daughter,Allison (Jennifer Jason Leigh-FAST TIMES AT RIDGEMONT HIGH), upcoming marriage to Julio (Taylor Negron - THE LAST BOYSCOUT). Most ot the scenes are tailored for Dangerfield's one-liners and his misadventures with Pesci. Also, there is a hilarious segment where Monty develops a new fashion look called the "Regular Guy Look" based on bowling shirts and baggy polyester pants. There are a few tender moments showing that Dangerfield has a little depth beneath the patter and works well in the film. Overall, a very entertaining film with funny characters, decent and funny story , script and a great title song written and performed by Rock-n-Roll Hall of Famer, Billy Joel from his "Innocent Man" album dedicated to the 60's soul sound. Note / Classic Line: Monty(Dangerfield) - "My Mother-In-Law...All those years I wouldn't kiss her on the face, and I end up kissing her ---!"
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Starring: Rodney Dangerfield, Joe Pesci Director: James Signorelli Studio: Mgm/Ua Studios Aspect ratio 1.85 : 1

Voomer Reviews:

Sean Mota : 2.5 the movie was good but the transfer was not. There were a few problems with the transfer. It looked like the original movie was not kept that well.

 

[Sean Mota]

The Usual Suspects (1995)

<p><img border="0" src="http://images.amazon.com/images/P/6304493738.01.LZZZZZZZ.jpg" align="left" hspace="5"> Ever since this convoluted thriller dazzled audiences and critics in 1995 and won an Oscar for Christopher McQuarrie's twisting screenplay, The Usual Suspects has continued to divide movie lovers into opposite camps. While a lot of people take great pleasure from the movie's now-famous central mystery (namely, "Who is Keyser Söze?"), others aren't so easily impressed by a movie that's too enamored of its own cleverness to make much sense. After all, what are we to make of a final scene that renders the entire movie obsolete? Half the fun of The Usual Suspects is the debate it provokes and the sheer pleasure of watching its dynamic cast in action, led (or should we say, misled) by Oscar winner Kevin Spacey as the club-footed con man who recounts the saga of enigmatic Hungarian mobster Keyser Söze. Spacey's in a band of thieves that includes Gabriel Byrne, Stephen Baldwin, Kevin Pollak, and Benicio Del Toro, all gathered in a plot to steal a large shipment of cocaine. The story is told in flashback as a twisted plot being described by Spacey's character to an investigating detective (Chazz Palmintieri), and The Usual Suspects is enjoyable for the way it keeps the viewer guessing right up to its surprise ending. Whether that ending will enhance or extinguish the pleasure is up to each viewer to decide. Even if it ultimately makes little or no sense at all, this is a funny and fiendish thriller, guaranteed to entertain even its vocal detractors. --Jeff Shannon
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Starring: Gabriel Byrne, Kevin Spacey Director: Bryan Singer Studio: Polygram Video Aspect ratio 2.35 : 1

Voomer Reviews:

Sean Mota : 4 stars. Very good transfer and excellent movie.

TechCop : 5 stars. I have not yet caught this on Cinema10, but I love this movie. Classic storytelling with a great cast and plenty of suspense. Kevin Spacey and Gabriel Byrne are both excellent in this one. Can't wait to see it in HD!

 

[Sean Mota]

The Ballad of Cable Hogue (1970)

<p><img border="0" src="http://images.amazon.com/images/P/B000006FNL.01._PE_SCMZZZZZZZ_.jpg" align="left" hspace="5"> Sam Peckinpah's light-hearted, rambunctious ode to the dying Wild West, with Jason Robards as a rascally prospector who transforms a desert water-hole into big business. Year: 1970 Director: Sam Peckinpah Starring: Jason Robards, Stella Stevens, David Warner
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Starring: Jason Robards, Stella Stevens Director: Sam Peckinpah Studio: Warner Studios

Voomer Reviews:

Sean Mota : 2.5 stars. Here's another movie that I couldn't get away from the TV yet it was not that great! HD transfer was excellent but it would have been better OAR.

 

[Sean Mota]

Lassie Come Home (1943, Drama)

<p><img border="0" src="http://images.amazon.com/images/P/B00004RFHL.01.LZZZZZZZ.jpg" align="left" hspace="5"> Lassie Come Home is a classic for all the usual reasons: its timeless, universal appeal, its first-of-its-kind status, and its exceptional cinematography, direction, and performances. What makes this 1943 charmer especially fun for grownups who haven't screened it since their own preteen, pet-obsessed days, though, is a couple of cute-as-a-button cast members. An adorably over-earnest Roddy McDowall stars as Joe, the mostly hapless lad whom Lassie refuses to part with despite his down-and-out family's decision to sell her, for a paltry 15 guineas, to a wealthy duke; and Elizabeth Taylor, already stunning at around age 10, surrenders a sweet if mawkish performance as Priscilla, the Duke's tenderhearted granddaughter, who lends a hand in Lassie's escape from her family's unkind kennel master and winks her way into winning the fearless pup a permanent place at her true master's side. Beyond that, it's no mystery why generations of dog-loving audiences have marveled at the precocious collie's career--Lassie is a great actor. She so convincingly digs impossible trenches, leaps towering fences, swims raging rivers, knocks out bad guys, and betrays the essence of brokenheartedness with her bedraggled coat and woebegone expressions that it's sometimes hard to shake the suspicion that she's really an incredibly limber person in a cute dog suit. All told, Lassie Come Home delivers a lot to love, not the least of which is the deeply dramatic score--quirky sounding to the modern ear--which returns audiences to simpler, irony-free times, as does the movie's message of loyalty at all costs. --Tammy La Gorce
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Starring: Roddy McDowall, Donald Crisp Director: Fred M. Wilcox Studio: Warner Studios Aspect ratio 1.37 : 1

Voomer Reviews:

Sean Mota : 1 star. Has to be the worst HD transfer I have ever seen and worst movie.

 

[Sean Mota]

Clean and Sober (1988, Drama)

<p><img border="0" src="http://images.amazon.com/images/P/6305162026.01.LZZZZZZZ.jpg" align="left" hspace="5"> After making his mark in several hit comedies including Beetlejuice, Michael Keaton startled critics and audiences alike with his acclaimed performance in this 1988 drama about one man's struggle against cocaine addiction. Keaton's comedic energy is transformed here into the kind of jittery intensity that's perfect for his role, suggesting a driven personality who can maintain the appearance of self-control for only so long before he crashes and burns. After a series of setbacks, Keaton's character seeks refuge in a drug rehabilitation program and must confront the truth of his own addiction at the urging of a counselor (Morgan Freeman) who's heard every lame excuse in the book from addicts struggling to quit. Kathy Baker leads a superb supporting cast as a recovering alcoholic and battered wife whose flagging self-esteem is boosted by Keaton's attention. Under the careful direction of Glenn Gordon Caron (of TV's Moonlighting fame), Keaton and Baker handle this delicate material with consummate skill and grace, turning a potentially depressing story into a moving portrait of people who must battle their inner demons step by tentative step. --Jeff Shannon
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Starring: Michael Keaton, Kathy Baker Director: Glenn Gordon Caron Studio: Warner Studios Aspect ratio 1.85 : 1

Voomer Reviews:

Sean Mota : 3.5 stars M. Keaton was excellent in this movie. The transfer was quite good.

 

[Sean Mota]

Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia (1974)

<p><img border="0" src="http://images.amazon.com/images/P/6301967909.01.LZZZZZZZ.jpg" align="left" hspace="5"> When a powerful man puts a bounty on the head of Alfredo Garcia, a man who committed a minor offense against him, a down-and-out American piano player tries to collect. When he finds Garcia has died, he digs up his body and takes his head on a whiskey-fueled journey across Mexico, bitterly contemplating the social order.
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Starring: Warren Oates, Isela Vega Director: Sam Peckinpah Studio: Mgm/Ua Studios Aspect ratio 1.85 : 1

Voomer Reviews:

Sean Mota : 2 stars I did not think much of "Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia". I saw this movie entirely and did not like it. I thought the story line was not great. The HD transfer was very good.

 

[Sean Mota]

Hannah and Her Sisters (1986)

<p><img border="0" src="http://images.amazon.com/images/P/B00005O06J.01.LZZZZZZZ.jpg" align="left" hspace="5"> Considered by many to be Woody Allen's best film, even over Annie Hall. Hannah and Her Sisters follows a multitude of characters: Hannah (Mia Farrow), who plays den mother to her extended family; her sister Lee (Barbara Hershey), emotional and a bit of a flake, who's involved with a much older artist (Max Von Sydow), who treats her like a child; and Hannah's other sister, Holly (Dianne Wiest), a neurotic who feels incapable of managing her life. Hannah's husband Elliot (Michael Caine) falls in love with Lee, which sets off a series of upheavals. Allen gives one of his best performances as Hannah's ex-husband Mickey, who--much like Allen himself--is obsessed with death and unhappiness. But a simple summary doesn't begin to capture the warmth and intimacy of this movie; though the story follows a capsizing family, the outcome is surprising, joyous, and richly human. --Bret Fetzer
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Starring: Woody Allen, Barbara Hershey Director: Woody Allen Studio: Mgm/Ua Studios Aspect ratio 1.85 : 1

Voomer Reviews:

barth2k : 4 stars. one of my favorites of Woody Allen's "serious" movies (the other being Crimes & Misdemeanors, which has been shown on ShowtimeHD). Basically a family melodrama, with Woody in a very funny role as a hypochrondiac.

TheTimm : 2.5 stars : At first, didn't care much for this movie. . . but as it went on, and I didn't change the channel, I slowly found myself wondering where it was going. Nothing exceptional about it, but some pretty interesting characters.

 

[Sean Mota]

The Big Heat (1953)

<p><img border="0" src="http://images.amazon.com/images/P/B00005RDRL.01.LZZZZZZZ.jpg" align="left" hspace="5"> There's a satisfying sense of closure to the definitive noir kick achieved in The Big Heat: its director, Fritz Lang, had forged early links from German expressionism to the emergence of film noir, so it's entirely logical that the expatriate director would help codify the genre with this brutal 1953 film. Visually, his scenes exemplify the bold contrasts, deep shadows, and heightened compositions that define the look of noir, and he matches that success with the darkly pessimistic themes of this revenge melodrama.
The story coheres around the suicide of a crooked cop, and the subsequent struggle of an honest detective, Dave Bannion (Glenn Ford), to navigate between a corrupt city government and a ruthless mobster to uncover the truth. Initially, the violence here seems almost timid by comparison to the more explicit carnage now commonplace in films, yet the story accelerates as its plot arcs toward Bannion's showdown with kingpin Lagana (Alexander Scourby) and his psychotic henchman, the sadistic Vince Stone, given an indelible nastiness by Lee Marvin. When Bannion's wife is killed by a car bomb intended for the detective, both the hero and the story go ballistic: suspended from the force, he embarks on a crusade of revenge that suggests a template for Charles Bronson's Death Wish films, each step pushing Lagana and Stone toward a showdown. Bodies drop, dominoes tumbled by the escalating war between the obsessed Bannion and his increasingly vicious adversaries.

Lang's disciplined visual design and the performances (especially those of Ford, Marvin, Jeanette Nolan as the dead cop's scheming widow, and Gloria Grahame as Marvin's girlfriend) enable the film to transcend formula, as do several memorable action scenes--when an enraged Marvin hurls scalding coffee at the feisty Debby (Grahame), we're both shattered by the violence of his attack, and aware that he's shifted the balance of power. --Sam Sutherland
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Starring: Glenn Ford, Gloria Grahame Director: Fritz Lang Studio: Columbia/Tristar Studios Aspect ratio 1.37 : 1

Voomer Reviews:

barth2k : 2.5 stars. A decent film noir but not a great one like Double Indemnity. Don't know why Ebert likes it so much except that it was directed by the legendary Fritz Lang.

TechCop : (2.5 Stars) Enjoyed watching Glenn Ford and Lee Marvin. Quality Transfer, Decent movie.

 

[Sean Mota]

Picnic at Hanging Rock (1979)

<p><img border="0" src="http://images.amazon.com/images/P/0780021266.01.LZZZZZZZ.jpg" align="left" hspace="5"> Situated somewhere between supernatural horror and lush Victorian melodrama, director Peter Weir's lyrical, enigmatic masterpiece is an imaginative tease. The setting is a proper turn-of-the century Australian boarding school for girls, a suffocating institution built on strict moral codes, repressed sexuality, and a subtle but enforced class structure. As the film opens, girls draped in immaculate white dress prepare for a picnic at the nearby volcanic formation, Hanging Rock, and Weir hangs an air of dark foreboding over the proceeding. "You'll have to love someone else, because I won't be here very long," says one virginal girl, Miranda, to her friend. Her words are prophetic: during the picnic, Miranda, along with two other girls and an uptight schoolmistress, vanish into the rocks. While a search party repeatedly returns to the rock to look for either the girls or the reasons for their disappearance, Weir leaves the mystery unsolved. Like Antonioni's L'Avventura, the vanishing is open to numerous interpretations--both rational and illusory--but Weir drops enough allegorical clues that it feels like a parable. He transforms the landscape and weather into menacing and eerie images; outlines of faces can be seen in the rocks, while the oppressive heat beating down on the picnic doubles as an atmospheric metaphor for the girls' unbearable social and sexual confinement. These images and other plot twists toward the end hint that this mysterious vanishing, on some level, was actually a form of spiritual escape--the only out, other than death, from the film's bleak, tightly structured community. Regardless of how you see it, though, this hypnotic puzzle remains the highlight of the '70s Australian New Wave.</p>

Starring: Rachel Roberts, Anne-Louise Lambert Director: Peter Weir Studio: Home Vision Entertainment Aspect ratio 1.66 : 1

Voomer Reviews:

barth2k : 3 stars. A moody film about girls at an Australian boarding school who mysteriously disappeatone day on a picnic. Depending on your taste, it's either a snoozefest or a great film. I think it's sort of interesting. It helps that the girl in the lead is an ethereal beauty.

 

[Sean Mota]

Zelig (1983)

<p><img border="0" src="http://images.amazon.com/images/P/B00005O06N.01.LZZZZZZZ.jpg" align="left" hspace="5"> The thinking person's Forrest Gump, Woody Allen's 1983 Zelig is a funny, atmospheric mock-documentary about the collision of one man's manifest neuroses colliding with key moments in 20th-century history. Allen plays the title character, a self-effacing, timorous fellow with such a porous personality that he physically becomes a reflection of whoever he is with. Complex and painstaking, the film's pre-Gump special effects manage to place Allen, buried under a series of makeup and prosthetic guises, in a number of scenes along with Adolf Hitler at a Nazi rally, a pope at the Vatican, and famous guests at a garden party hosted by F. Scott Fitzgerald. Similar in tone and satire to some of Allen's short, comic pieces published in The New Yorker magazine, Zelig is a one-note movie that takes its delicious time establishing the fullness of its central joke. It's well worth the wait. --Tom Keogh.</p>

Starring: Woody Allen, Mia Farrow Director: Woody Allen Studio: Mgm/Ua Studios Aspect ratio 1.85 : 1

Voomer Reviews:

barth2k : 1 star. about a guy who repeatedly shows up in moments throughout 20th cent history. Couldn't get into it. Stopped watching after 15 minutes.

 

[Sean Mota]

Pauline At The Beach (1983)

<p><img border="0" src="http://images.amazon.com/images/P/B00007KQ9Z.01.LZZZZZZZ.jpg" align="left" hspace="5"> In the lighthearted third film in Eric Rohmer's "Comedies and Proverbs" series, 15-year-old Pauline (Amanda Langlet) gets an eye-opening lesson in the games grown-ups play on a two-week summer vacation with her recently divorced and ready-for-fun older cousin Marion (Arielle Dombasle, every inch the vivacious blonde goddess). Smitten young Pascal Greggory turns aggressive with jealousy when the smooth, seductive, happily shallow writer Féodor Atkine wins the fancy of the "perfect" Marion while continuing to fool around on the side. The tangled affairs, mistaken identities, and white lies are the stuff of sex farce, but Rohmer is more interested in the folly of love and the impulsive, illogical workings of human nature. He deftly crafts a gentle and sexy little human comedy that ends with Pauline learning perhaps the right lessons after all. --Sean Axmaker.</p>

Starring: Director: Eric Rohmer Studio: Mgm/Ua Studios Aspect ratio 1.66 : 1

Voomer Reviews:

barth2k : 3 stars. Eric Rohmer's films are an acquired taste. This one, like most of his films, is about young French people playing at, and talking about, love. It's hooking up, French style! Try it, you may like it.

TheTimm : 2.5 stars : A little too ... uh... French, I guess, for my taste. Story wasn't really compelling enough to keep me concentrating on the subtitles. A love triangle I can handle, but this was more like a quadrangle or pentagon or something. But a pretty high sexiness factor kept me watching. PQ was pleasant, sound wasn't bad really - just didn't have much to work with.