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Casablanca, a review by Antares

Casablanca





Year: 1942
Film Studio: Warner Bros. Pictures, First National Pictures
Genre: Romance, Classic, Drama
Length: 103 Min.

Director
Michael Curtiz (1886)

Writing
Julius J. Epstein (1909)...Screenwriter
Philip G. Epstein (1909)...Screenwriter
Howard Koch (1901)...Screenwriter

Producer
Hal B. Wallis (1899)
Jack L. Warner (1892)

Cinematographer
Arthur Edeson (1891)

Music
Max Steiner (1888)...Composer

Stars
Humphrey Bogart (1899) as Rick Blaine
Ingrid Bergman (1915) as Ilsa Lund
Paul Henreid (1905) as Victor Laszlo
Claude Rains (1889) as Captain Renault
Conrad Veidt (1893) as Major Strasser
Sydney Greenstreet (1879) as Signor Ferrari
Peter Lorre (1904) as Ugarte
S. Z. Sakall (1884) as Carl

Review
       Have you ever made such a horrendous mistake that you wished for a at Warner Bros. pictures, alongside James Cagney and Edward G. Robinson. He had reached a level of power at the studio that gave him first right of refusal for scripts that he did not like. In 1941, he turned down two seminal crime dramas, High Sierra and The Maltese FalconHigh SierraThe Maltese FalconCasablanca deserves its place in the upper echelon of film classics and will remain there as long as movies remain our top choice for escapism entertainment.


Ratings Criterion
5 Stars - The pinnacle of film perfection and excellence.

(From Casablanca (1942) on December 17th, 2009)

Fanboys, a review by DJ Doena

Sam Huntington    ...    Eric
Chris Marquette   ...    Linus
Dan Fogler   ...    Hutch
Jay Baruchel   ...    Windows
Kristen Bell   ...    Zoe
Seth Rogen    ...    Admiral Seasholtz / Alien / Roach
Danny Trejo    ...    The Chief
Ethan Suplee    ...    Harry Knowles
Billy Dee Williams    ...    Judge Reinhold
William Shatner    ...    Himself
Carrie Fisher   ...    Doctor
Kevin Smith   ...    Himself
Jason Mewes   ...    Himself

Synopsis: Linus is a great Star Wars fan, but he is also dying of cancer and he won't make it to the premiere of Star Wars: Episode I in 1998. So his best friends (and also Star Wars geeks) decide to break into the Skywalker Ranch to watch a raw edit of the movie. On their road trip to San Francisco they meet other fans, Trekkies and even William Shatner...

My Opinion: This is a geek fest par excellence, no doubt about it. Every other sentence contains a reference to the trilogy, either as direct quote or in the spirit. When you know the movies by heart it's very easy to predict what they are going to say, but that just means that you are as geeky as they are.
But the movie has also a lot of sentimental scenes that are similar to those in Be Kind Rewind and they are very well placed to interrupt the geek fest without destroying its spirit.
But the most astounding thing about this movie and watching the guys on their journey is that you forget how bad Episode I really was.

(From DJ Doena's movie watchings 2009 on June 27th, 2009)

Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles: The Complete Second Season marathon, a review by Achim

1. Samson and Delilah
Rocked by the Jeep explosion, Cameron reverts back to her original mission: Terminate John Connor.  Will he be able to save himself?


My opinion:
After a rather brief summary of season 2 the episodes picks up exactly at the moment where season 1 ended. I highly enjoyed the first 5 minutes, where the dialog-free action on screen was edited to a song (which I liked, guess that helped). The main chunk of the episode is about the chase and the question if they will kill Cameron or be able to get her back on their side; and the related internal group conflict. Somewhere else a new character is introduced which puts that "Turk" storyline right back into gear.

With a good amount of action this episode is a good starting point and makes me look forward for more. Summer obviously had fun being the bad guy (liked the scene where she fixes her face). Only problem I (still) have is, that Thomas Dekker somehow looks too old for the role. As some point they refer to him as a teenager which he is clearly not.

Rating:

(From Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles: The Complete Second Season marathon on January 25th, 2010)