Rio Bravo/El Dorado, a review by Rogmeister

You might call this The Howard Hawks-John Wayne Deja Vu Western Experience  


Rio Bravo (1959)
Cast: John Wayne, Dean Martin, Ricky Nelson, Angie Dickinson, Walter Brennan, Ward Bond, Pedro Gonzalez-Gonzalez, John Russell, Claude Akins
Music: Dimitri Tiomkin
Director: Howard Hawks

Whenever people start naming the greatest westerns ever made, you don't have to go far down the list to find this movie. It's often placed in the top 5 along with such films as The Searchers, Stagecoach, Red River and The Wild Bunch. I consider The Searchers to probably be the best western of them all but I seem to alternate between that film and this one as to which is actually my personal favorite western. The Searchers is a mighty intense film at times but this one is probably a bit more fun to watch.

In the beginning, we see no-good Joe Burdette (Claude Akins) gun down a man in cold blood in a saloon who is promptly arrested by Sheriff John T. Chance (John Wayne). The town is then surrounded by the men his brother Nathan, a rich rancher (played by Lawman's John Russell) hires and who periodically try to get him out. Chance doesn't want any help, one friend who tries (Ward Bond) is killed within an hour of telling everyone he needs help. Chance still gets help from a gimpy old deputy named Stumpy (Walter Brennan), a usually drunken deputy Dude (Dean Martin) and a young gun named Colorado (Ricky Nelson...yes, that Ricky Nelson) who was riding guard for the wagon train that Chance's friend had brought to town. Chance tries to keep Joe in jail and also try to keep an eye on Dude who seems to be about to come apart at any moment.

The movie moves along at a good pace despite it's over 2-hour running time. There's humor (especially involving Stumpy), romance (between Chance and a girl named Feathers played by a young Angie Dickinson), and lots of action that ends up with Stumpy chucking sticks of dynamite towards the warehouse the bad guys are in as Chance blasts at them with his Winchester, resulting in a quite-explosive finale.

A previous DVD had been issued of this and then a few years ago, in honor of Duke Wayne's 100th birthday, they released a new edition of this (along with some other films).  I bought Rio Bravo: The Ultimate Collection...interestingly, I'm not sure that's still available.  I looked it up at an online retailer and they didn't have it.  They do have a 2-disc special edition and I imagine it's the same discs but you don't get the other extras I was lucky to get...a reproduction of the lobby cards, the movie pressbook and the comic book adaptation.

Disc extras include an audio commentary by Richard Schickel, the movie trailer and also trailers for 4 of Duke's early "B" westerns of the 1930s, and featurettes on the film and on director Howard Hawks.



El Dorado: Centennial Edition
Cast: John Wayne, Robert Mitchum, James Caan, Charlene Holt, Paul Fix, Arthur Hunnicutt, Michele Carey, Edward Asner
Music: Nelson Riddle
Director: Howard Hawks

He was limping when he left...
He was limpin' when he got here!

The interesting thing about Rio Bravo is that producer/director Howard Hawks did a virtual remake of the film 8 years later...a film called El Dorado. The main plot and certain events were so dead-on that no one could believe it was anything else. They did make some changes in that later film, though John Wayne did star in both. In the second film, the younger character was named after a different state (Mississippi) and couldn't hit anything with a gun so they gave him a sawed-off shotgun. He was played by James Caan. And it was the sheriff (Robert Mitchum) who was drunk, not a deputy. The older deputy was playd by Arthur Hunnicutt this time, not Walter Brennan. And to further give the good guys a disadvantage, Wayne's character got a bullet lodged in his back that would occasionally give him temporary paralysis in one side. It's still considered a very good film in it's own right so check it out when you get the chance. Hawks used plot elements from Rio Bravo a third time in Rio Lobo...that film's not so good.  So I'd recommend you watch and enjoy both Rio Bravo and El Dorado...and leave it at that.

This "Centennial Edition" just came out this summer...for some reason, it has the number "9" on its spine but I'm only aware of one other Centennial Edition film that's come out, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance.  Maybe there will be more?  Or maybe there are indeed others in the series I'm not aware of.  I was comparing the looks of this DVD with the previous DVD and it looks similar, though the paintings shown during the opening credits seem just a bit darker in this edition.  This edition features quite a few extras (the original had only the trailer).  Besides the trailer, this 2-disc set gives you two audio commentaries (one with Peter Bogdanovich and the other with Richard Schickel, Ed Asner and author Todd McCarthy), a 7-part featurette on the movie, a piece on the art of the Old West and an interview with producer A.C. Lyles about John Wayne.

(From Roger's Ongoing Westerns Marathon on July 9th, 2009)

Analyze This, a review by Tom

Title: Analyze This
Year: 1998
Director: Harold Ramis
Rating: FSK-12
Length: 99 Min.
Video: Anamorphic Widescreen 1.78, Pan & Scan 1.33:1
Audio: English: Dolby Digital 5.1, German: Dolby Digital 5.1, Spanish: Dolby Digital 5.1, Commentary: Dolby Digital Stereo
Subtitles: Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Hebrew, Hungarian, Icelandic, Italian, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Spanish, Swedish, Turkish

Stars:
Robert De Niro
Billy Crystal
Lisa Kudrow
Chazz Palminteri
Kresimir Novakovic

Plot:
Robert DeNiro and Billy Crystal team with Lisa Kudrow, Chaz Palminteri and director/co-writer Harold Ramis to make you a comedy offer you can't refuse in this laugh-out-loud mob hit. De Niro, deftly spoofing the wiseguy roles that have been a staple of his estimable career, plays powerful New York crime family racketeer Paul Vitti. Crystal, always one joke ahead of sleeping with the fishes, is shrink Ben Sobel, who has just days to resolve Vitti's emotional crisis and turn into a happy, well-adjusted gangster. Yes, Sobel is a family pychiatrist.But surely this isn't the kind of family he had in mind.

Awards:

American Cinema Editors Awards	2000	Nominated	Best Edited Feature Film – Comedy or Musical	Christopher Tellefsen
ASCAP Awards	2000	Won	Top Box Office Films	Howard Shore
Blockbuster Entertainment Awards	2000	Won	Favorite Comedy Team	Robert De Niro, Billy Crystal
Blockbuster Entertainment Awards	2000	Won	Favorite Supporting Actress - Comedy	Lisa Kudrow
Golden Globe	1999	Nominated	Actor in a Leading Role - Musical or Comedy	Robert De Niro
Golden Globe	1999	Nominated	Picture - Musical or Comedy	Jane Rosenthal, Paula Weinstein
Young Artist Awards	2000	Nominated	Best Performance in a Feature Film – Supporting Young Actor	Kyle Sabihy

Extras:
Commentary
Outtakes
Scene Access

I found this movie rather boring. It had its moments, but overall nothing I will be dying to see again. I thought that I had never seen this movie before, but a lot of it was familiar so I think I must have caught parts of it on TV in the past.

Rating:

(From December Marathons - DISCUSSION AND REVIEW THREAD on December 22nd, 2009)

The Big Bang Theory: The Complete Sixth Season, a review by addicted2dvd

The Big Bang Theory: The Complete Sixth Season Wikipedia |IMDb |Trailer/Intro | Whether on or above Earth, hilarity is outrageously universal in TV's most popular comedy featuring four forward-thinking but socially backward geniuses. Fun discoveries multiply: Leonard learns jealousy is bad for a relationship (with Penny) but science is good for seduction (of Penny). Howard finds life in the International Space Station is no escape from terrestrial turmoil between his overbearing mom and his new wife Bernadette. Raj meets someone special who may be a good match, if only he can keep her from fleeing mid-date. Even Sheldon learns a few things: a) what not to say when called in to meet the university's employee's relations director, b) what happens to childhood TV idols and c) that a Dungeons & Dragons adventure can be the icebreaker his relationship with Amy needs. For those who need laughter with scientific regularity, this 2-disc, 24-episode Season Six set of The Big Bang Theory will rock your cosmos. Episodes: 1. The Date Night Variable 2. The Decoupling Fluctuation 3. The Higgs Boson Observation 4. The Re-Entry Minimization 5. The Holographic Excitation 6. The Extract Obliteration 7. The Habitat Configuration 8. The 43 Peculiarity 9. The Parking Spot Escalation 10. The Fish Guts Displacement 11. The Santa Simulation 12. The Egg Salad Equivalency 13. The Bakersfield Expedition 14. The Cooper/Kripke Inversion 15. The Spoiler Alert Segmentation 16. The Tangible Affection Proof 17. The Monster Isolation 18. The Contractual Obligation Implementation 19. The Closet Reconfiguration 20. The Tenure Turbulence 21. The Closure Alternative 22. The Proton Resurgence 23. The Love Spell Potential 24. The Bon Voyage Reaction

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Stars:
Johnny Galecki as Leonard Hofstadter
Jim Parsons as Sheldon Cooper
Kaley Cuoco as Kaley Cuoco
Simon Helberg as Howard Wolowitz
Kunal Nayyar as Rajesh Koothrappali
Mayim Bialik as Amy
Melissa Rauch as Bernadette

Well that is it. I already finished watching this set. Another great season filled with laugh out loud moments. I really couldn't suggest this series high enough. I feel safe in saying this show is my favorite current sitcom... if not my all-time favorite sitcom. I always find it so easy to watch this show. No matter how long ago I seen the episode before. Matter of fact (while I am not going to do it... I could easily start at season 1 again now.... and re-watch all 6 seasons again. This season while probably not my favorite season... is definitely up there... a must see!



(From Addicted2dvd's Random TV Series Watched on September 12th, 2013)