DVD Collectors Online

Crazy Heart, a review by Silence_of_Lamb

Summary:
Bad Blake (Jeff Bridges) is a broken-down, hard-living country music singer who's had way too many marriages, far too many years on the road and far too many drinks way too many times. And yet, Bad can't help but reach for salvation with the help of Jean (Maggie Gyllenhaal), a journalist who discovers the real man behind the musician.

My Thoughts:
A movie like a freight-train: Slow and Powerful

In fact this movie is more or less a One-Man-Show, granted, there are other actors and actresses appearing but what makes it exceptional is the performance of Jeff Bridges.
And what a performance this is, Bridges is giving us the down-on-his-luck musician struggling for survival with such an intensity ... it's simply breathtaking.

The, besides the acting of Mr. Bridges, best thing about this movie is what it isn't.
It isn't a movie about an alcoholic drowning in his addiction.
It isn't a movie about an egomaniac doomed to destroy himself and all that love him.
It isn't a movie about a big comeback of an almost forgotten former idol.
And best of all: It isn't a fairytale, in which the ugly frog miraculously turns into a prince.

In the end we find Bad Blake exactly where he was at the beginning of the movie, with just one important difference: In the beginning he had to be there, in the end he wants to be there.

Highly recommended to all but Pete (too much music)

My Rating: (out of possible 5)

(From Michael's random reviews on March 26th, 2011)

To The Last Man, a review by Rogmeister

To The Last Man (1933)
Directed by Henry Hathaway
Cast: Randolph Scott, Esther Ralston, Noah Beery, Larry "Buster" Crabbe, Barton MacLane

This is an early sound western and, like many westerns of the time, it is almost totally devoid of music except for the opening titles and a bit at the end.  The credits are unlike I've seen in any movie...they give the title of the music, wrier and director and all that but don't show the cast credits right away.  What they do is when each person makes his or her first appearance, then their credit is shown with them...thus, at 28 minutes into the movie when Randolph Scott finally appears, you finally get to see his name on screen.

The film is based on a Zane Grey story and deals with two feuding families who come from Kentucky and wind up the same region out west.  The Colbys, angered because the father spent 15 years in prison after the Hayden patriarch went to the law instead of the usual feuding alternative, go to work rustling all the Hayden livestock.  It's at this point that Lynn (Randolph Scott) comes home and he winds up falling for the daughter of the evil Colby (the daughter played by the fetching Esther Ralston).  While the film moves rapidly along (it's only about 70 minutes long), it has the old type western fights with lots of apparently sped-up action which seems even more odd with no accompanying music.  Also of note is that this movie features the film debut of Shirley Temple as one of the grandchildren of the Hayden patriarch.  It has an overall familiar cast and most, including Scott, do well for this 76 year old film.

This was a Paramount film but apparently the movie has fallen into the public domain as there are a lot of copies out there by different companies.  My own copy is from VCI Entertainment and it's a pretty decent copy...a nice sharp print with clear sound...but, as is usual with such cases, no extras to speak of. 

(From Roger's Ongoing Westerns Marathon on July 6th, 2009)

Tom's TV Pilots marathon, a review by Tom

Switch Reloaded: Vol. 1 (2007/Germany) IMDb | Wikipedia AL!VE, MerchandisingMedia, Turbine Classics (Germany) Length: 236 min. Video: Full Frame 1.33:1 Audio: German: Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo, Commentary: Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo Subtitles:

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Switch Reloaded
1.01 Folge 1 
Cast


(From Tom's TV Pilots marathon on July 28th, 2012)