DVD Collectors Online

The Young Mr. Pitt, a review by Antares

The Young Mr. Pitt (1942) 72/100 - Entertaining bit of British wartime propaganda from 1942. Robert Donat gives another great performance as William Pitt the younger, Great Britain's youngest Prime Minister ever. Many scenes echo the events and sentiments of that time, modern, besieged Britain, at war with the Nazis. Substitute Hitler for Napoleon, the "We are alone now" ideology and somewhat, Pitt as an amalgamation of both Winston Churchill and Neville Chamberlain, and you have a film which pushes all the right propaganda buttons, but has no great climactic moments. It kind of ends with a whimper, but I was entertained.

Teal = Masterpiece
Dark Green = Classic or someday will be
Lime Green = A good, entertaining film
Orange = Average
Red = Cinemuck
Brown = The color of crap, which this film is

(From Antares' Short Summations on July 13th, 2020)

Vertigo , a review by Dragonfire

Vertigo One of Alfred Hitchcock's greatest cinematic achievements, Vertigo, celebrates its 50th anniversary with an all-new 2-disc Special Edition DVD! Set in San Francisco, Vertigo creates a dizzying web of mistaken identity, passion and murder after an acrophobic detective (James Stewart) rescues a mysterious blonde (Kim Novak) from the bay. Recognized for excellence in AFI's 100 Years... 100 Movies, this dreamlike thriller from the Master of Suspense is as entertaining today as it was 50 years ago. Featuring revealing bonus features and a digitally remastered picture, Vertigo is a "great motion picture that demands multiple viewings" (Leonard Maltin's Classic Movie Guide). My Thoughts This one is a bit...darker and more twisted than most of the other Hitchcock movies that I've seen.  That darkness works for the story, but it probably won't appeal to some people, even people who have liked other Hitchcock movies.  The movie starts off showing a traumatic event that causes John to leave the police force.  He has an idea to slowly get use to his fear of heights to get over his vertigo, but his attempt to stand on a step stool doesn't end well.  When he is first approached by his old school friend Gavin about following his wife Madeline, John isn't interested and he tries to leave it by making suggestions of other people who can handle the job, but Gavin is insistent that John has to be the one to take the job.  John should have listened to his instincts, but he ends up being taking the job.  Gavin is worried that his wife has some sort of mental problem and he says that he needs more information before having her committed.  John spends some time following Madeline, lurking around while she does a few somewhat odd things.  After he saves her, John is pulled further into a bad situations and obsession develops.  The mystery - tied to exactly what is going on - works well and there is a good amount of suspense.  The tension and suspense do build slowly. Scenes that deal with John following Madeline do move a bit slower, but that is needed to fully set up everything.  Things are more complicated than they seemed at first, and the time is needed to fully set up everything.  It doesn't take John long to develop an obsession with Madeline.  A few things that happen probably should have raised a question with him, but he is so far gone in his obsession that he misses those hints that things are not right.  There seems to be come resolution in the middle of the movie, but then more is revealed when John sees Judy, a woman who looks like Madeline, only with darker hair.  From the second he sees her, he isn't acting fully rational, and his obsession is in full swing.  As things progress, he slides further into the obsession, acting in more questionable ways.  I think the movie is more about John's breakdown. The characters, especially John, are more complex and there are all sorts of flaws in them.  John's fear of heights is a believable problem, as is how it impacts his life.  He starts off as a likable character, but as the movie progresses, he does some things that make it a bit harder to like as more of his flaws come out.  That does make him a realistic character.  Madeline is a bit of a mystery and that does work well with what is going on in the movie.  Once Judy is introduced, more comes out about her and her motivations are understood more, but she also makes some bad decisions. This movie is very good and entertaining, though it is far from a happy movie.  The ending is more bleak than the endings in several other Hitchcock movies, though from some things I've read about other Hitchcock movies, he wanted to go in different directions with some of them - I'm mainly thinking of Suspicion and how he was forced to change the ending.  I still haven't seen all the extras on the DVD I have.  I did watch the foreign censor ending - or whatever it was called - again.  Hitchcock had to make the alternate ending to show the movie in some foreign countries.  I can't remember which ones at the moment.  That ending does tie up something else a bit more, but I think the original ending fits the movie better even though it is clearly darker and bleaker. I went with 4 when I first reviewed the movie..now I'm thinking more of 4.5 or even 5.  I'm thinking I wasn't in quite the right mood to watch it the last time, so the slower build up didn't work as well for me then. I posted a review on Epinions back in November of 2008, when I watched this one the first time I did an alphabet marathon.  I also posted about the movie here then too. Vertigo

(From Alfred Hitchcock Marathon on July 20th, 2010)

Smallville Marathon, a review by addicted2dvd

9. Bound
After Lex is accused of killing a young woman, Clark sets out to prove his innocence and turns to an unlikely source for help - Lionel.

My Thoughts:
This one is pretty good. the thing I really liked about this one is it has a decent mystery story to it.

10. Scare
Lex's secret experiment at Luthorcorp goes awry and causes a dangerous toxin to be released into Smallville. Those infected by the toxin, including Clark , Lana, Lex, and Jason imagine their greatest fears come true and then fall into a coma.

My Thoughts:
This was a little strange but awesome episode! Of course dealing with nightmares you got to expect it to be a little on the strange side. Definitely enjoyed every second of it. You also learn what happen with Chloe's mom in this episode.

11. Unsafe
Claiming to be cured, Alicia is released from Belle Reve hospital and comes to Smallville to rekindle her relationship with Clark.

My Thoughts:
A decent episode... but not one of my favorites. again... I never cared for the character of Alicia... and this time she slips him some Red Kryptonite

12. Pariah
Lana and Jason are attacked and almost killed by an unseen assailant and Alicia seems to be the prime suspect.

My Thoughts:
This one I liked... but mainly for the fact that Chloe learns Clark's secret. One thing I liked about how Chloe found out is the fact that she went on letting him think she didn't know. It made for some fun situations and comments and such.

(From Smallville Marathon on August 9th, 2007)