DVD Collectors Online

You've Got Mail, a review by Tom

Title: You've Got Mail
Year: 1998
Director: Nora Ephron
Rating: FSK-6
Length: 115 Min.
Video: Anamorphic Widescreen 1.78
Audio: English: Dolby Digital 5.1, German: Dolby Digital 5.1, Spanish: Dolby Digital 5.1, Commentary: Dolby Digital Surround, Music Only: Dolby Digital Surround
Subtitles: Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Hebrew, Hungarian, Icelandic, Italian, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Spanish, Swedish, Turkish

Stars:
Tom Hanks
Meg Ryan
Greg Kinnear
Parker Posey
Heather Burns

Plot:
This sweet romantic comedy reunites 'Sleepless In Seattle' stars Meg Ryan and Tom Hanks. He's the owner of a bookstore chain; she's the woman he falls for online. Both are unaware that she runs the little shop his company is trying to shut down.

Awards:

AFI	1998	Nominated	100 Years... 100 Passions (2002)
Blockbuster Entertainment Awards	1999	Nominated	Favorite Actor - Comedy/Romance	Tom Hanks
Blockbuster Entertainment Awards	1999	Won	Favorite Actress - Comedy/Romance	Meg Ryan
Blockbuster Entertainment Awards	1999	Won	Favorite Supporting Actor - Comedy/Romance	Greg Kinnear
BMI Film & TV Music Awards	1999	Won	BMI Film Music Award	George Fenton
Golden Globe	1998	Nominated	Actress in a Leading Role - Musical or Comedy	Meg Ryan
Satellite Awards	1999	Nominated		Meg Ryan
Satellite Awards	1999	Nominated		Lauren Shuler Donner, Nora Ephron
Satellite Awards	1999	Nominated	Best Original Song	"Anyone At All": Carole King, Carol Bayer-Sager

Extras:
Commentary
DVD-ROM Content
Featurettes
Production Notes
Scene Access
Trailers

I have always enjoyed this movie. Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan are both great in this one. I think they have great chemistry together. The only thing I didn't like is the horrible product placement of AOL, which really dates this movie.

Rating:

(From DCO third annual November Alphabet Marathon - discussion/review/banter thread on November 5th, 2009)

The Man Who Knew Too Much, a review by Jon

The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956)
3 out of 5



On holiday in Marakesh with his wife, Jo (Doris Day), Dr. McKenna (James Stewart) is the only one to hear the dying words of a French spy, dragging him into an assassination plot. Soon, his young son is kidnapped and they travel to London, desperate to get him back.

This was a pleasant surprise as it was far more enjoyable than I remember. I’ve always considered it one of Hitchcock’s lesser films of this period, but it just goes to prove, Hitchcock couldn’t make a bad film if he tried.

He certainly wasn’t trying here, either, despite my misgivings. Ok, it’s a remake of one of his own films which smells of studio meddling to me, but while that film was very good for its time, this improves the story and pace. It loses the originals sometimes wicked humour, but the characters are so much more believable.

I had originally considered Doris Day’s role as lazy; a world-class singer playing an ex-world class singer? That’s a stretch! However, the original 1934 version of the role was also a figure in the public eye and it’s a nice touch that a famous face suddenly has to hide real heartbreak of losing their child. Plus Doris Day is superb at putting across that emotion and I haven’t been fair by dismissing her in the past. Still, the song Whatever Will Be still sounds a bit out of place, but I don’t suppose you can feature one of the finest female singers of all time and just make her cry! But there’s the catch-22. Apparently Hitch didn’t want the song (another sign of studio control), but typically he pulls it off, especially on the second performance with Day singing it within earshot of her locked up son. Written for the film, it went on to be one of her most famous songs. He never did half-measures, did he? 

Hitchcock’s best moment though is the incredible Albert Hall sequence, still an influence today (Eagle Eye). Once again, a key part of the film is acted in front of an on-screen audience as well as off. The whole thing is nail-biting and it’s great to have Bernard Herrman conducting the orchestra! My favourite though is how he let the music come to the fore so you can’t hear any dialogue, despite everyone having a lot to say. It makes it visually powerful and a throw-back to the silent days.

My main problem with the film is the plot. It’s a good premise and a nightmarish situation, but there’s no substance. Normally, as we have seen so often before, Hitchcock’s real interest lay in a sub-plot while the chase/murder/conspiracy is a diversion tactic. Here, there is no sub-plot! No romance, no development, it just is what it is.

Still, such empty plotting has been the typical Hollywood method for years (in fact, it’s normally sub-plots that ruin such films! coughEagle Eyecough. Again. ) and this is as much fun as any of them, mainly down to Stewart’s expert everyman performance. I do miss the bonkers dentistry or the chair-throwing scenes from the first one. I suppose that does demonstrate how Hitch has developed from macabre farce to colder violence though.

(From Alfred Hitchcock Marathon on September 19th, 2009)

Tom's TV Finales marathon, a review by Tom

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Clerks: Uncensored (2000/United States) IMDb | Wikipedia Miramax Home Entertainment (United States) Length: 130 min. Video: Full Frame 1.33:1 Audio: English: Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround, Commentary: Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo Subtitles: English

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Plot:
Based on Kevin Smith's cult comedy classic, this outrageous anthology brings together every hilarious episodes of Clerks: Uncensored - including 4 never before seen anywhere! It's the continuing adventures of clerks Dante and Randal, two guys just trying to make the best of menial labor! With constant interference from the outlandish Jay and Silent Bob - follow the clerks' wildly improbable antics from one riotous episode to the next! Filled with big laughs and hysterical jabs at popular culture - anyone who enjoys fun, irreverent comedy won't want to miss it!


Clerks
Season 1.06 Episode 6
Writer: Kevin Smith (Original Characters By), David Mandel (Writer), Kevin Smith (Writer)
Director: Steve Loter
Cast: Jeff Anderson (Randal), Jason Mewes (Jay), Brian O'Halloran (Dante), Kevin Smith (Silent Bob), Alec Baldwin (Leonardo Leonardo), Kevin McDonald (Pinhead), Mark McKinney (Pinhead), Jeff Bennett (Various), Tara Strong (Various), Diana Devlin (Various), Dan Etheridge (Mr. Plug), Walt Flanagan (Walt the Fanboy), Bryan Johnson (Steve-Dave), Matthew Maher (Various), Michele Maika (Various), Brian Posehn (Mooby-Shirted Fan), Kevin Michael Richardson (Announcer/Morpheus), Lisa Spoonauer (Caitlin), Julia Sweeney (Upset Mother), Frank Welker (Various)

A good episode. Seems like they already knew that they were cancelled when producing the episode, or they really just like to make fun of themselves. This episode jokes that the series is unsuccessful because it is not like the movie. So this episode is more like the movie, just with some crazy stuff going on outside of the store.

Rating:

(From Tom's TV Finales marathon on April 13th, 2013)