DVD Collectors Online

The Girl Who Knew too Much, a review by Achim

Title: La Ragazza che sapeva troppo
Year: 1963
Director: Mario Bava
Rating: NR
Length: 86 Min.
Video: Anamorphic Widescreen 1.77:1
Audio: Italian: Dolby Digital Mono, Commentary: Dolby Digital Mono
Subtitles: English

Stars:
John Saxon
Leticia Roman
Valentina Cortese
Titti Tomaino
Luigi Bonos

Plot:
'Bava's' fourth film as credited director was his first contemporary narrative, a slyly Hitchcockian thriller that scholars cite as the first true giallo. 'Leticia Roman' stars as an American tourist in Rome who witnesses a serial killer's latest slaying and convinces a charming young doctor ('John Saxon') to help her investigate the city's 'Alphabet Murders'. Co-written by Bava and his final feature shot in black & white, its inventive camerawork, masterful compositions and wily humor combine to create one of the most surprising and satisfying film in Il Maestro's career.

For the first time anywhere, this presentation includes Bava's original uncut Italian-language International Version LA RAGAZZA CHE SAPEVA TROPPO/THE GIRL WHO KNEW TOO MUCH.

Extras:
Scene Access
Audio Commentary
Trailers
Gallery
Production Notes
Interviews



I was very pleased that we got something entirely different with this film and how effortlessly Bava made the switch. This is a murder mystery which is very captivating, although it drags a little in the middle (I also might simply have been too tired when I watched it) and lingers on the ending ever so slightly too long.

The film has a young woman, Nora, arrive in Rome to live with her aunt(?) for a while. In the airplane someone you unknowingly receives a few marijuana cigarettes. Her aunt dies shortly after her arrival and since the phone doesn't work she leaves the house to walk to the hospital to find the friendly doctor who had taken care of her aunt earlier in the evening. On the way she gets mugged and when she falls to the ground bumps her head, rendering her unconscious. When coming to her she apparently witnesses a murder. ...and this s only the first 12 minutes of the film. We follow Nora and the young doctor (an underused John Saxon) around trying to clarify whether Nora actually saw a murder or dreamed it all up. Cranking up the tension is the fact that she is could be the next victim.

Wonderful black &white photography of the criminally underused location Rome and lots of shadows make for a creepy investigation until the truth is eventually revealed. The ending was neither simply what I expected nor an eye-rolling experience, certainly worth mentioning and a bit out of the ordinary. The story provided some (unexpected) turns along the way which kept things exciting. The acting was good, although John Saxon was trying a bit hard at times.



(From Mario Bava marathon on June 23rd, 2009)

The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies, a review by Danae Cassandra

The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies
Year of Release: 2014
Directed By: Peter Jackson
Starring: Martin Freeman, Richard Armitage, Ian McKellen, all those guys from the first two films
Genre: Fantasy, Action, Adventure

My Thoughts:
Everyone was saying that this was a step down from the previous two Hobbit films.  I don't agree with that.  All three are an enormous step down from Lord of the Rings, but The Hobbit trilogy holds together itself.  If you've enjoyed the first two, and like me, simply enjoy spending time in Middle Earth, you'll enjoy this one.  If you didn't like the first two, don't bother seeing this one. 

What was good in the other films is also good here - Freeman's Bilbo is wonderful.  He really does a great job with the character, and I really wish we'd seen more of him.  Armitage's Thorin is also great, and I liked his descent into madness, I thought he did it really well with what he was given to work with.  In fact, I felt all of the actors did well with what they were given.

The problems of the other films are present here too.  There's too much action, too much emphasis on the set-pieces, and not enough character moments.  We needed to see more of Thorin's descent into madness (and we needed the foreshadowing that got left out of the theatrical cuts of the previous two films).  A lot of the green screen work was really atrociously obvious for being green screen work. 

The character moments that were there worked so very well, though, and the deaths definitely brought a tear to the eye.  The journey is over, now, though despite my criticisms and the flaws of his second trilogy, if Jackson did anything else in Middle Earth I'd watch it in a heartbeat.  So take from all this as you will.

Bechdel Test: Fail

Overall: 4/5

(From Within My (Mom's) Lifetime Marathon on January 31st, 2015)

Tom's TV Pilots marathon, a review by Tom

Robot Chicken: Season One (2005/United States) IMDb | Wikipedia Warner Home Video (United States) Length: 333 min. Video: Full Frame 1.33:1 Audio: English: Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround, Commentary: Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo Subtitles: English, French, Spanish

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Plot:
It's here! The premiere season of Robot Chicken -- 20 channel flippin', toy murderin', attention-span shatterin', episodes straight from the hellish maw of Adult Swim's late-night lineup! Enjoy bite-sized nuggets of sketch comedy performed by yesteryear's favorite playthings, animated in state-of-the-art stop motion! (Hey, CGI-go straight to hell!) IT'S LIKE A POULTRY PARTY IN YOUR PANTS!


Robot Chicken
1.01 The Deep End (2005-04-10)
Writer: Doug Goldstein (Writer), Tom Root (Writer), Seth Green (Writer), Pat McCallum (Writer), Matthew Senreich (Writer)
Director: Seth Green
Cast: Seth Green ( (voice)), Alex Borstein ( (voice)), Chad Morgan ( (voice)), Adam Talbot ( (voice)), Breckin Meyer ( (voice)), Michael Benyaer ( (voice)), Dan Milano ( (voice)), Abraham Benrubi ( (voice)), Seth MacFarlane ( (voice)), Ryan Seacrest (Himself (voice))

This is a series which I had enjoyed watching but it kind of fizzled out during the third season which I still haven't finished watching.
The first episode is good but nothing really laugh out loud funny.

Rating:

(From Tom's TV Pilots marathon on June 25th, 2012)