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The Boston Strangler, a review by Jimmy

Title: The Boston Strangler
Year: 1968
Director: Richard Fleischer
Rating: R
Length: 1h56
Video:  Wide Screen
Audio:  English, French and Spanish
Subtitles: English and Spanish

Stars:
Tony Curtis - Albert DeSalvo
Henry Fonda - John S. Bottomly
George Kennedy - Phil DiNatale 
Mike Kellin - Julian Soshnick
Hurd Hatfield - Terence Huntley

Plot:
One by one, the victims fell, each death more gruesome than the last. The actual murders that rocked Boston in the '60s are the gripping subject matter of this unforgettable police thriller. Henry Fonda stars as the investigating police detective. Tony Curtis delivers a stunning performance as the psychopath Fonda must conquer. Filmed in a documentary style that makes the horrifying events all the more real, 'THE BOSTON STRANGLER' is one of the most powerful films in its genre.

Extras:
Fox Movietone News : Boston Strangler
Backstory : The Boston Strangler
Theatrical Teaser
Theatrical Trailer

With this one I'm not on unknown territory since I've read the book by Gerold Frank who is the inspiration of the movie and like almost everyone I've read a lot of documentation about this case and some others like it.

This movie is an Hollywood production so it's evident that it will be more mainstream. The first good thing to mention is the cast of the movie, all the principal actors are well cast (It's hard to understand why Curtis and Fonda didn't get a nomination for the Oscar, but maybe the subject was too dark for the members of the Academy) and the majority of the others (Kellerman in particullar) does a good job too. The utilisation of the split screen (sometimes there are 4 different at the same times) is an imaginative way to show the different point of view and it give a way to move the movie faster. But there are a lot of fact from the book that are not mention and some of those are not really important (some of the suspect), but some of those omission are hard to forgive. By exemple the fact that Desalvo was in the army for 8 years, the fact that his girl had an handicap, the fact that he had an anormal level of sexual need, the complete omission of the role of George Nassar for the conection between Desalvo and the strangler, the fact that Desalvo was not prosecuted for the strangler case but for the Green man case (he got a life sentence) and the worst case of volountary omited fact : Desalvo was found mentally competent to stand a trial.

That's doesn't means that the movie is bad, but if you know about the case the agenda by the director is very easy to spot : the mental disease are responsible of the crime in the society.   

Rating : 3.5/5

More information about the case

(From My review - unseen and unwatched january marathon on January 22nd, 2008)

The Heat, a review by Dragonfire

The Heat



I've been wanting to see this movie since I first heard about it because I really like Sandra Bullock.  I went to see the movie on opening day and I really like it.

Sarah is a very up tight, by the book FBI agent who closes more cases than the men in her field office.  She can be a little arrogant at times about her success at her job, which causes her co-workers to dislike her even more.  Her boss says she isn't right for a promotion because of that and he sends her to Boston to work on a case involving a drug lord to prove herself.  Sarah encounters Shannon, a detective on the Boston force, and things don't go well between them.  Shannon is the complete opposite of Sarah, and she is a bit hostile most of the time.  The women end up having to work together to catch the drug lord.

The movie is funny and entertaining overall and I think it is worth watching.  The story could be a little stronger, but that didn't bother me.  The humor works well.  Some of it does get a little vulgar or crude since it is an R rated comedy, but I don't think it is as bad as some of the other recent R rated comedies - including Bridesmaids.  A little of that stuff is ok at times, but it gets old when movie makers just relie on that for the humor.  Most of it isn't even funny.  Thankfully, the funniest stuff isn't in the trailers.  Some of it is a little silly or stupid, but it is funny and it works for the movie.  Bullock and McCarthy are great together and both are very funny.  They've shown in previous things that they aren't afraid to make themselves look silly for humor.  There is action at times and some violence.  Some of those things are a little graphic, but I don't think they are that extreme. 

The Heat is very entertaining overall and it deserves to be seen, especially for people who like Sandra Bullock or Melissa McCarthy.



I did post a longer review at Epinions.

The Heat


(From The Heat on June 30th, 2013)

The Good Old Days TV Thread, a review by addicted2dvd

My Thoughts:
This is a show from my teen years. The show originally started on HBO but shortly after moved to USA. This is a show I only ever seen a small handful of episodes when they first aired. This is one of the many episodes I never seen before. This particular episode I didn't care too much for. I found it rather slow and boring. Nothing very thrilling about this episode what so ever.

My Rating:

(From The Good Old Days TV Thread on February 18th, 2010)