DVD Collectors Online

On The Waterfront, a review by Rick

On The Waterfront



OverviewMy Thoughts:
Perhaps it was because of Elia Kazan's infulence but to me this movie could be in the film noir category. No, I didn't know the director by name but when I looked him up I saw he directed Panic in the Streets and Boomerang. Both of which I watched and enjoyed. The look and feel of this movie certainly seems to fit other Film Noirs I have watched. Perhaps because it was more about the main character's internal struggle with what to do on a personal level then solving the crime or getting out of whatever situation the character was put it that keeps it out of this category.    Maybe one of you more in the know can tell me why it's not considered as film noir. 

As I said, it was about one man's struggle of what to do and how to deal with the morality of his decisions. This is one of those must see movies for any true film buff. Fortunately for me it lived up to the hype (many don't). Brando was phenomenal, but he wasn't alone. Personally I found Karl Malden's acting just as riveting and filled with passion. He took command of every scene he was in. I'm not taking away from Brando, just pointing out there were other noteworthy performances too.

Being a dues paying member of the Sheet Metal Workers Union (local  15) I couldn't help but compare the union bosses back then to what we have now. Unfortunately I feel some of the corruption we see in the movie still plays out today. Not so much telling people daily if they can or can't work (although that has happened in my family - my father was blackballed sometime ago) but the greed that was there then seems to be there now as well. (I mean no offense to anyone who may happen to be in a union or supports them - I am speaking in generalities here - I also don't want to get into a political debate about the pros or cons of todays unions...). I'll just leave it at this. Corruption has evolved but it is still there.

I loved the cinematography in this as well as the locations in general. They transported me to a time where you could see someone sitting in front of a fan trying desperately to cool off on that hot summer's evening. Kids playing stickball in the street. Baseball game playing on the radio while drinking a glass of homemade lemonade. The rooftop scenes were very cool. I don't know if you can go from rooftop to rooftop like they showed in the movie now. Most likely not. If you can I'm guessing it is these rooftops where a lot of crime would go on today and somewhere you would probably be better off avoiding!

The story itself was pretty predictable I felt, but everything else made the movie great. It certainly proved you don't need the best story ever written to have a great movie. Take a good story and tell it with great performances and you will have a winner.   

My Rating


(From Rick's "Vowels Only" Marathon Reviews on August 2nd, 2010)

Faster, a review by GSyren

Title	Faster (5-051162-283676)
Director	George Tillman, Jr.
Actors	Dwayne Johnson, Mauricio Lopez, James Gaines, Tom Berenger, Jan Hoag
Produced	2010 in United States
Runtime	94 minutes
Audio	English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1, Spanish DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1, Catalonian Dolby Digital 5.1, Thai Dolby Digital 5.1
Subtitles	Danish, English, Finnish, Hindi, Norwegian, Spanish, Swedish, Thai
Overview
My thoughts	Like many of today's action stars, Dwayne Johnson is not much of an actor. But then again, films like Faster don't require a great range of emotions. Actually. it basically just needs on - hate. And Dwayne does that OK. The story is pretty simple. "The Driver" (Johnson) wants to hunt down and kill the gang that killed his brother. He also wants to find the as yet unknown man who put them up to it. That man has hired a killer to stop The Driver. Films like this needs a balance. The reveal at the end - who the top man is - shouldn't come totally out of the blue. But on the other hand it shouldn't be so obvious that it totally ruins the surprise. The director doesn't quite pull this off. The hint is not subtle enough. The films isn't just mindless action, though. Billy Bob Thornton does quite a good job as the drug addicted cop on The Driver's tail. Jennifer Carpenter has a small role, but even that is too much for me. I just don't like her at all. She had some good moments in Dexter, but not here. So, all in all a fair action/revenge movie that didn't quite work for me.
My rating	3 out of 5

(From Reviews and ramblings by Gunnar on July 28th, 2013)

Death Note anime/manga/movies comparison, a review by Tom

03. Dealings

This episode catches up with the missing scenes from the previous chapters and continues with the fifth chapter of the manga.

- we learn that the head of investigation of the Kira case is in fact Light's father (chapter 3)
- L and police find out, that the times, people are killed probably fits the non-school time of a student. Also that Kira needs to know the face of the victim (chapter 3)
- Light logs into the police computer with his father's password and finds out the status of the investigation (in the manga, Light learns the fact, that the police suspects a student doing the killing from his father during dinner, chapter 3)
- Light kills the next criminals at full hour intervals (when writing down the cause of death, he can specify a time) (chapter 3)
- L sees this as a proof, that Kira can manipulate time and is in fact aware of the police investigation. L sees this as challenge by Kira. (chapter 4)
- Light did this, to make L suspicious of the police and vice versa. He wants L to start investigating the police and expects the police to react negativelly to be investigated by someone, who doesn't even show his face. (chapter 4)
- investigation team members quitting because they fear to be killed by Kira (chapter 4)
- L has FBI agents following the family members of the police investigation team (chapter 5)
- Light finds out, that he is being followed (chapter 5)
- Light learns from Ryuk (the death god), that death gods write down the names of people in their death notes, to get the remaining years of the victim's life span added to their own. But this does not work for a human writing down the names. He also learns, that death gods can see the names and remaining life span of the people they are looking at. He offers light a deal. A death god's eyes in exchange of half of his remaining years. (chapter 5)


Movies: Everything happening in this episode also happens in the movie.


(From Death Note anime/manga/movies comparison on February 1st, 2009)