Topic: Reviews and ramblings by Gunnar

[GSyren]

Title	Life of Pi
Year	2012
Director	Ang Lee
Stars	Suraj Sharma, Irrfan Khan, Ayush Tandon, Gautam Belur, Adil Hussain
Overview	Embark on the adventure of a lifetime in this visual masterpiece from Oscarr winner Ang Lee*, based on the best-selling novel. After a cataclysmic shipwreck, young Pi Patel finds himself stranded on a lifeboat with the only other survivor - a ferocious Bengal tiger named Richard Parker. Bound by the need to survive, the two are cast on an epic journey that must be seen to be believed.
My thoughts	You are probably going to disagree with me on this... After all the rave about this film, I was quite disappointed with it. To be sure, it's a marvellous technical achievement, and the acting and direction is excellent. I just didn't like the story. Unlike most viewers, I see in the moral of the story (or rather the extension of the moral of the story) just what is one of the biggest problems in the world. The film tells one, admittedly beautiful, story. Then at the end, we get another, not so beautiful story, and we are asked "Which story do you prefer?". Well, that's religion in a nutshell. And on the surface there's nothing wrong in believing in a beautiful fairy tale, as long as you accept that other people may believe in something else. The problem arises when you get so absorbed in your chosen story that you are willing to kill people just because they don't share your story. Don't get me wrong, though. There is nothing in the story that encourages hating people. It's just the idea of chosing to believe in a basically unbelievable story that rubs me the wrong way. So, if you are a cynic and an agnostic, like me, maybe you'll react as me. If not, chances are that you'll love this film. Please don't hate me for my views, though. I'm giving this film 3.5 out of 5 for its technical excellence.
Rating

[Achim]

I see your point. But expecting the movie to go discussing that extension would be too much of a scope. Also I think, it's really just about why people may choose to believe in God, even though the bible/koran/etc. may tell stories that are scientifically impossible. Or even more to the point, the movie is simply about choice or even just storytelling.

Also, the people bending the chosen story to then abuse it against other are usually in the minority of any religion. But let's not go there.

In the least can always work as simply a beautiful film, which I guess your 3-1/2 stars represent

[GSyren]

Title	The Living Daylights (5-039036-050746, Disc ID: 5065-9218-93D7-42E4)
Director	John Glen
Actors	Timothy Dalton, Maryam d'Abo, Jeroen Krabbé, Joe Don Baker, John Rhys-Davies
Produced	1987 in United Kingdom
Runtime	131 minutes
Audio	English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1, English Dolby Digital Dolby Surround, Spanish Dolby Digital 5.1, French DTS 5.1, German DTS 5.1, Portuguese Dolby Digital 5.1, Commentary Dolby Digital 2-Channel Stereo
Subtitles	Danish, English, French, German, Finnish, Commentary, Norwegian, Portuguese, Spanish, Dutch, Swedish
My thoughts	I didn't much care for this film when I first saw it in the cinema in the summer of '87. Maybe there were too many changes at once. Bernard Lee had been gone for a few films, but now we not only had a new Bond, but a new Miss Moneypenny as well. The only remaining reoccuring character was good old Q, Desmond Llewellyn. Also, the plot didn't seem too well thought out. The goals and motivations of the villain were rather confusing, and Joe Don Baker was far too hammy to make a good Bond villain. Jeroen Krabbé had some good moments and some not so good. Maryam d'Abo was far too much of just a damsel in distress for my taste. Most of this still stands, but 25+ years later I've come to appreciate Timothy Dalton much more than I did back then. I'm not sure why I didn't like him then, because it's obvious to me how much better suited he was to play Bond than Roger Moore. I have absolutely nothing against Roger Moore, he was great in many roles, especially The Saint, but he was far too flip as Bond. Much of that is probably the writers' fault. Having read all the Bond books, and growing up with Sean Connery as Bond, I should have appreciated Dalton more than I did. One thing that always bothered me was the death of Saunders. That scene seems very abruptly cut. We never see exactly what happens to him. Does the door crush him, or is it the explosion itself that kills him? We don't get to see his dead body, either. I wonder if the scene was cut to get a PG rating, or if the scene was just botched so it became unusable. I cannot imaging that they didn't shoot more than we see. Still, despite its faults I really enjoyed it this time. Dalton was good, the action was good, and maybe I was just in the right mood this time. Almost as good as the best of the Connery films.
My rating	4 out of 5

[GSyren]

Title	A Man Called Django! (011301-660060)
Director	Edoardo Mulargia
Actors	Anthony Steffen, Stelio Candelli, Glauco Onorato, Donato Castellaneta, Esmeralda Barros
Produced	1971 in Italy
Runtime	90 minutes
Audio	English Dolby Digital Mono
Subtitles	None
My thoughts	A rather typical spaghetti western. Not one of the best, but certainly not one of the worst either. Revenge theme, have we seen that before...? English dubbing is adequate. Acting, well this kind of movie doesn't really challenge the actors, so it's ok I guess. Fine enough when you're in the mood for this kind of stuff.
My rating	3 out of 5

[GSyren]

Title	Django and Sartana's Showdown in the West (011301-660060)
Director	Demofilo Fidani, Diego Spataro
Actors	Jack Betts, Franco Borelli, Simone Blondell, Benito Pacifico, Calso Faria
Produced	1970 in Italy
Runtime	83 minutes
Audio	English Dolby Digital Mono
Subtitles	None
My thoughts	Someone has called Demofilo Fidani "The Ed Wood of spaghetti westerns". That's not fair. He (with co-director Spataro, together using the alias "Dick Spitfire" here) is nowhere near as inept as Ed Wood. And consequently doesn't achieve the same level of "so bad it's good". This is just rather dull. It becomes almost comical at times, because the stunt arranger goes overboard and turns every guy that is shot into an acrobat. Nobody just falls down dead in this movie. Gordon Mitchell is the token American, and plays a deliciously crazy gang leader that talks to himself in a mirror. And even plays cards with himself. Unfortunately we never get to see who wins... Summed up in one word: "Meh"
My rating	2,5 out of 5

[GSyren]

Title	The Evil of Frankenstein (025192-833328)
Director	Freddie Francis
Actors	Peter Cushing, Peter Woodthorpe, Duncan Lamont, Sandor Elès, Katy Wild
Produced	1964 in United Kingdom
Runtime	87 minutes
Audio	English Dolby Digital Mono, Spanish Dolby Digital Mono
Subtitles	English, Spanish, French
Overview	Once hounded from his castle for creating a monstrous living creature, Baron Frankenstein (Peter Cushing) returns to his ancestral home in Karlstaad, determined to continue his experiments into the creation of life. High in the mountains, Frankenstein and his faithful assistant, Hans, stumble on the body of the creature, perfectly preserved in ice. He is brought back to life, but Frankenstein is forced to employ a hypnotist, Zoltan, to complete the process. Unbeknown to Frankenstein, Zoltan now controls the creature and has plans to use him to rob and pillage the local villages. Can Frankenstein break Zoltan's hypnotic spell, or will Zoltan induce the creature to destroy its creator?
My thoughts	After reading my newly purchased Hammer books I decided that it was time to revisit the Hammer Frankenstein franchise. Since I quite recently viewed Curse of Frankenstein on blu, I thought I'd start with Revenge. My plan was thwarted when I found that I didn't own Revenge. I used to have it on VHS, but I threw out all my VHS tapes a couple of years ago. That omission is about to be corrected (along with Frankenstein Created Woman). So instead I went for the next one, The Evil of Frankenstein. As it turns out, skipping Revenge (for now) turns out not to be such a big deal, because for some reason Hammer chose to do something of a reboot. The script for Evil totally ignores the two previous films. Despite that, the film is quite entertaining. Peter Cushing is great as always. But he is actually not very evil. “The Evil of Zoltan” would have been a much more accurate, though much less commercial, title. Peter Woodthorpe is quite good as the mesmerist Zoltan. Katy Wild has the rather unenviable task of portraying the deafmute beggar girl, but she pulls it off quite well. The monster is this time portrayed by a wrestler from New Zealand named Kiwi Kingston. He only appeared in one other film, “Hysteria”, also from Hammer. Previously Hammer couldn't use a monster makeup that resembled Karloff's because Universal wouldn't allow it, but this time the film was going to be distributed in the US by Universal, so that ban was lifted, and the monster's makeup does somewhat resemble the original design that Jack Pierce had created from Boris Karloff in 1931. Opinions vary greatly about the effectivity of this design. Personally I'm not too fond of it. The makeup is not the only thing that was inspired by the Universal films. The monster is found in a block of ice, just like in Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man (1943). And in the end, the laboratory blows up, reminiscent of the ending in Bride of Frankenstein (1935). As in almost all Hammer films, the production design is impeccable. Bernard Robinson could do wonders with very little money, making the Hammer films he worked on look much more expensive than they actually were. I missed one thing, though. It doesn't feel like a “real” Hammer film unless it has either Michael Ripper or George Woodbridge in some small role. Ripper was sort of the UK equivalent of Dick Miller. Put him in a minimal role and he would shine. Woodbridge wasn't quite as versatile, but you would often see him as a jovial policeman or innkeeper. However, Peter Cushing more than makes up for the lack of Ripper and Woodbridge. Did that man ever turn in a bad (or even a mediocre) performance? Michael Ripper George Woodbridge So, even though not perfect, this film was very enjoyable. Highly recommended if you like Hammer's horror films.
My rating	4 out of 5

[GSyren]

Title	The Revenge of Frankenstein (5-035822-065130)
Director	Terence Fisher
Actors	Peter Cushing, Francis Matthews, Eunice Gayson, Michael Gwynn, John Welsh
Produced	1958 in United Kingdom
Runtime	86 minutes
Audio	English Dolby Digital Mono, German Dolby Digital Mono
Subtitles	Arabic, Danish, English, French, German, Finnish, Hindi, Norwegian, Swedish, Hebrew, Greek, Hungarian, Polish, Czech, Turkish
Overview	PETER CUSHING reprises his famous role as Baron Victor Frankenstein in the Hammer horror classic THE REVENGE OF FRANKENSTEIN. Rescued from the guillotine by his devoted dwarf Fritz (Oscar Quitak), the Baron relocates to Carlsbruck, where he becomes a celebrated society physician, Dr. Stein. But under the guise of charity work, the good doctor continues his gruesome experiments, this time planning to transplant Fritz’s brain into his latest creation: a normal, healthy body (Michael Gwynn). When Hammer released 'The Curse Of Frankenstein' in 1957, it was a great success for the studio and made an international star out of Peter Cushing. In 1958 Hammer produced this sequel 'The Revenge of Frankenstein' with Cushing once again in the title role. The critics were delighted with both the film and it's star "Cushing is the new Karloff" 'N.Y. Daily News.'
My thoughts	The Curse of Frankenstein ends with Frankenstein being condemned to death and lead out to the guillotine. But we never get to see the actual beheading. Were the people at Hammer really smart or just cheap? I don't know. But it was a good thing, because Curse was a huge success (with the public, but many critics hated it). So they wanted to make a sequel, of course, but they had killed off Frankenstein. Or had they? Well, it turns out that the good (?) baron wasn't killed after all. I don't think I've revealed too much saying that, because it would have been difficult to have another Frankenstein film without him. But I won't go into any more detail in case you haven't seen the film. This time Frankenstein creates a much better looking monster. It does, in fact, not look like a monster at all. It looks pretty much like an ordinary human being. But of course circumstances work against Frankenstein this time around as well, and bad things happen. Michael Gwynn plays the “monster”. Peter Cushing repeats his role as Frankenstein going under the pseudonym Dr. Stein. Francis Matthews plays Frankenstein's apprentice, Dr. Hans Kleve. Eunice Gayson, best known as Sylvia Trench in Dr. No and From Russia with Love, plays Margaret Conrad who comes to work in Dr. Steins surgery. And we see Hammer regulars Michael Ripper and George Woodbridge in minor roles (and for once George is anything but jovial). Gwynn and Cushing are excellent. Ripper and Woodbridge are good as always. Matthews and Gayson are OK, but not outstanding. But it's just as much the people behind the camera that make this such an enjoyable film. Director Terence Fisher, Screenwriter Jimmy Sangster, Director of Photography Jack Asher, Production Designer Bernard Robinson and Makeup Artist Phil Leaky all return from Curse, and do an outstanding job. All in all a very enjoyable film, I think.
My rating	4 out of 5

[GSyren]

Title	Taxi 3 (5-060034-576013)
Director	Gérard Krawczyk
Actors	Samy Naceri, Frédéric Diefenthal, Bernard Farcy, Bai Ling, Emma Sjöberg
Produced	2003 in France
Runtime	84 minutes
Audio	French Dolby Digital 2-Channel Stereo, French Dolby Digital 5.1
Subtitles	English (forced)
Overview	When the police are outsmarted time and time again by thieves calling themselves the Santa Claus Gang, all under the watchful eyes of a reporter (Bai Ling), Daniel and his super-taxi pitch in to save the day. Written and produced by the legendary Luc Besson (director of The Fifth Element, Leon and producer of The Transporter 1 and 2), Taxi 3 skillfully oscillates between action and comedy, with some ingenious gags and impressive stunts thrown in along the way. Starring the original Taxi cast: Samy Naceri as Daniel the fearless taxi driver, Frédéric Diefenthal as Emilien, Bernard Farcy as Captain Gilbert and Marion Cotillard (Big Fish) as Lilly, plus a memorable cameo by Sylvester Stallone!
My thoughts	15 years ago, the first ”Taxi” was a big hit, written and produced by Luc Besson and directed by Gérard Pirès. And of course a hit needed a sequel. Or two. Or three. None of them could live up to the original (no surprise there). Hard to say if this was because of Besson's writing or because he couldn't/wouldn't get Pirès to direct them, instead giving the helm to Gérard Krawczyk for the sequals. The second sequel, “Taxi 3”, opens with a somewhat amusing cameo by Sylvester Stallone (uncredited) being driven to the airport by Daniel (Samy Naceri). Actually “somewhat amusing” is about the best that can be said of the humor in this film. There are some nice car stunts, but they are not terribly exciting. The film is just mediocre, and the same can be said of this DVD. Original French dialog with forced English subtitles. No extras except a trailer. Acceptable time killer on a rainy day, but nothing more.
My rating	2.5 out of 5

[GSyren]

Title	That Man from Rio (8-809154-130562). Original title: L'Homme de Rio
Director	Philippe de Broca
Actors	Jean-Paul Belmondo, Françoise Dorléac, Jean Servais, Roger Dumas, Daniel Ceccaldi
Produced	1964 in France
Runtime	111 minutes
Audio	French Dolby Digital Mono, Russian Dolby Digital Mono
Subtitles	English, Korean
Overview	An eight-day pass, a kidnapping, and a greedy group of South American Indians provide the basic ingredients of this madcap adventure. A French air force pilot has the pass and plans to use it to see his girl friend in Paris. He gets there just in time to see a gang of South American Indians, who believe that the girl knows the location of a set of statues that can pinpoint the location of a fabulous jungle treasure, kidnapping her. He follows them to the Brazilian jungle and many riotous adventures ensue. Eventually the lovers manage to escape and return to France just before the pilot's pass expires.
My thoughts	From looking at the cover image you might think that That Man from Rio is a Bond spoof. It isn't. It's more of a romantic adventure in the Indiana Jones style, with a bit of Tintin thrown in. Philippe de Broca made several great movies, many with Belmondo. My favorites, apart from this one, are Cartouche and Le Magnifique. Especially the latter. Belmondo plays a soldier on leave in Paris. He sees his fiancee being kidnapped and follows the kidnappers to Brazil. There he goes through various adventures to try to free her. Belmondo is very good, and so is Françoise Dorleac as the fiancee and Jean Servais as the professor. Dorleac (elder sister of Catherine Deneuve) died way too young in a car crash in 1967. The film has some humourous moments. My favorite is when a little shoeshine boy in Rio offers to steal a car for Belmondo, and asks what color he would like. Belmondo answers sarcastically ”Green with pink stars”. The next scene shows Belmondo driving a green car with pink stars. This film wasn't easy to find on DVD. Eventually I found a seller on Amazon UK that sold a Korean release that had the original French audio and English subtitles. The picture quality is only just acceptable, but I'm still happy to have found this. If this had been anamorphic widescreen with good quality I would have given it 4 out of 5. As it is, it's just barely a 3. The DVD is R0/NTSC. If you want to see a really great de Broca / Belmondo collaboration, try to find a copy of Le Magnifique. It's also hard to find, but there is a French R2/PAL release that has French, English and German audio.
My rating	3 out of 5

[Dragonfire]

I never heard of this one before.  It does sound interesting.

[Achim]

That Man from Rio was a childhood favourite! I have looked into finding the DVD several times, but when I found the one you have decided not to buy. Seems that was a good decision.

I also seem to vaguely remember cartouche (period piece, right?) but I am not quite so sure about Le Magnifique. I'd like to add one of those to my collection, but they are indeed hard to find.

[GSyren]

Le Magnifique is a wonderful film, in my opinion. It's right up my alley.

Belmondo plays a writer of spy novels. In the film his vision of the action gets mixed with his everyday real life. As one of the reviewers on IMDb tells:

I did enjoy the surreal slips between the film itself and then the book being created within the film. The first one I think was on a beach as the housecleaner blithely waltzes through soldiers storming the sands, vacuuming only to enter a door and voila. Additionally latter battles between the author and his protagonist and/or protagonista mostly worked for me. Though they dipped in shtick.

I completely agree.

Le Magnifique is available on Amazon.fr both on Blu-ray and DVD. Unfortunately the BD is French audio only and no subtitles (as far as I have been able to determine). The DVD releases have French, English and German audio. If your equipment can handle R2/PAL, then this is a purchase that I strongly recommend. Or if you're fluent in French and can play Region B blu-rays. I'd love to have this on BD, but my French just isn't up to it...  

[GSyren]

Title	Who Framed Roger Rabbit (8-717418-389642)
Director	Robert Zemeckis
Actors	Bob Hoskins, Christopher Lloyd, Joanna Cassidy, Charles Fleischer, Stubby Kaye
Produced	1988 in United States
Runtime	104 minutes
Audio	English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1, French DTS-HD High Resolution 5.1, Italian Dolby Digital 5.1, German Dolby Digital 5.1, Spanish Dolby Digital 5.1, Commentary Dolby Digital 2-Channel Stereo
Subtitles	Danish, English, French, German, Finnish, Italian, Commentary, Norwegian, Spanish, Dutch, Swedish
Overview	On Blu-ray™ for the first time ever, this digitally remastered edition of Who Framed Roger Rabbit practically jumps off the screen with its brilliant picture, rich sound — and dangerous curves. It's 1947 Hollywood and Eddie Valiant (Bob Hoskins), a down-on-his-luck detective, is hired to find proof that Marvin Acme, gag factory mogul and owner of Toontown, is playing hanky-panky with femme fatale Jessica Rabbit, wife of Maroon Cartoon superstar, Roger Rabbit. When Acme is found murdered, all fingers point to Roger, who begs the Toon-hating Valiant to find the real evildoer. Complete with hours of bonus features — including three digitally restored Roger Rabbit Shorts, this multi-Oscar® winner (Best Film Editing, Best Sound Effects Editing, Best Visual Effects, Special Achievement In Animation Direction, 1988) is pure magic in Hi-Def Blu-ray™.
My thoughts	You've all seen this film, right? If you haven't, shame on you! It's a brilliant film. Not only is it funny, but the interaction between the cartoons and the real world objects is done in a most amazing way. Looking at it on Blu, the minor technical flaws that has always been there shows up more a bit clearly than on the old DVD. This is especially noticeable in some of the darker scenes. That has led some reviewers to feel that the picture quality on the BD is actually inferior to the DVD. That's unfair. For the most part the pq is better. Not drastically better, but better. But perhaps not so much better that a double dip is really warranted. The extras seem to be pretty much the same as the old 2-disc Vista Series DVD from '03, so if you've got that one the BD doesn't have that much to offer. Looking at Roger Rabbit today one has to remember that it was made in the eighties. 1986 thru 1988 to be precise. Yes, they spent a long time making this film. Would it have looked different if it had been made today? Perhaps. But you can't compare WFRR to CGI efforts like Toy Story. You couldn't make WFRR with CGI. The whole point would be lost. The film as such I rate as 4.5 / 5, but I'm deducting half a point for the pq flaws. It's still a really cool film, so if you don't have it in your collection already, now is the time to buy it, on BD or DVD. The extras reveal a lot of how hard the film was to make, so if you've only seen this in the cinema, you have missed quite a bit. Highly recommended.
My rating	4 out of 5

[GSyren]

FYI, I have posted a review of Steve Canyon in the "TV on DVD" forum.

[Achim]

Belmondo plays a writer of spy novels. In the film his vision of the action gets mixed with his everyday real life. As one of the reviewers on IMDb tells:

I did enjoy the surreal slips between the film itself and then the book being created within the film. The first one I think was on a beach as the housecleaner blithely waltzes through soldiers storming the sands, vacuuming only to enter a door and voila. Additionally latter battles between the author and his protagonist and/or protagonista mostly worked for me. Though they dipped in shtick.

I completely agree.

That sounds awesome! And it sounds like I have seen it before, you know, like, 30 years ago (*gulp*).

Le Magnifique is available on Amazon.fr both on Blu-ray and DVD. Unfortunately the BD is French audio only and no subtitles (as far as I have been able to determine). The DVD releases have French, English and German audio. If your equipment can handle R2/PAL, then this is a purchase that I strongly recommend. Or if you're fluent in French and can play Region B blu-rays. I'd love to have this on BD, but my French just isn't up to it...  

I'd want the original version of course, but I too need at least English subtitles (I should check the German Amazon again in the future, German subtitles are ok as well obviously. Last time I looked I didn't see it there.)