DVD Collectors Online

Flesh and the Devil, a review by Antares

Flesh and the Devil (1926) 4.5/5 - One gaping hole in my film watching is most definitely Silent film dramas. I've seen plenty of silent comedy, but due to lack of material available or time constraints, I've never been able to really sink my teeth into what is my favorite time frame in Hollywood history. A few years back, I got the TCM collection The Garbo Silents Collection and it has been gathering dust ever since. But I'm in the midst of watching Kevin Brownlow & David Gill's mammoth documentary on the silent era, Hollywood, and decided to shake the dust off some of my silent film DVDs and this was first on the list. I've only seen Greta Garbo in one of her sound films, Grand Hotel, and glimpses of a few others such as Ninotchka and Queen Christina. Aside from being a radiantly beautiful woman, I find the performances I've watched either overly melodramatic or somewhat wooden and her voice to be a bit too deep and masculine to fit her image. I've never been able to understand why she survived the transition to sound, when so many other gifted, beautiful actors and actresses were left behind. I really wanted to watch this mainly because it starred John Gilbert, one of the most tragic figures in Hollywood history. And just as I expected, he was magnificent in the role of the love struck Prussian aristocrat who almost forsakes a life long friendship for the love of a woman who's not worth his efforts. After finishing the film, I started to ponder if Gilbert was the first actor to have true screen presence, because every moment he is on screen, he dominates. I couldn't think of one actor before him, where the camera just made them come alive so much. When the film was finished, I cursed Louis B. Mayer for what he did to his career. I've listened to a few of Gilbert's sound films and there was absolutely nothing wrong with his voice. I really hope Mayer is rotting in Hell for not only what he did to Gilbert, but to Judy Garland and Buster Keaton also. That being said, if you're into silent films, you need to definitely check this one out.

(From Antares' Short Summations on April 27th, 2012)

Duplicity, a review by goodguy

Duplicity (2009) Written & Directed by: Tony Gilroy Starring: Julia Roberts, Clive Owen DVD: R1-US Universal (Aug 15, 2009) My rating:

Cover blurb: Oscar winner Julia Roberts and Clive Owen star as two sexy spies-turned-corporate operatives in the midst of a clandestine love affair. When they find themselves on either side of an all-out corporate war, they'll put everything on the line to remain one double-cross ahead in a high-stakes game of cat-and-mouse. From writer/director Tony Gilroy (seven-time Oscar-nominated Michael Clayton) comes the film critics are raving about: "Roberts and Owen have sizzling chemistry in this instant classic."(Lou Lumenick, NEW YORK POST)

No they don't. Have "sizzling chemistry", I mean. In fact, I'm hard-pressed to think of a movie pairing with less chemistry (*1). That Roberts and Owen can do much better even with somewhat detached characters playing games with each other, they both demonstrated in Closer a few years ago. Here, about the only scene that works between them is one that gets repeated a few times throughout the movie under different circumstances; the first repetition also cleverly clueing you into what's really going on, plotwise.

The plot, of course, is all clever scheming and double-crossing in a corporate spy game. For all its cleverness, it is surprisingly pedestrian and dragged quite a bit during the two hour running time. It has a final twist, I didn't see coming. Maybe I would have, if I cared enough about it in the first place. But I'm the guy who prefers Ocean's 12 over Ocean's 11, so spending too much time on supposedly intricate plotting and twisting is a surefire way to get me bored.

The highlight of the movie is Carrie Preston as a travel agent who gets caught in the crossfire. She has a separate scene with each of the leads, and with her, even Clive Owen gets a chance to shine.


---
(*1) Maybe Kate Beckinsale and the Michael character in the Underworld movies, but there the romance angle wasn't that important anyway.


(From goodguy's Watch Log on October 4th, 2009)

Tom's Random Reviews, a review by Tom

Moonlight: Season One (2007/United States) IMDb | Wikipedia Warner Home Video (United Kingdom) Length: 664 min. Video: Anamorphic Widescreen 1.78 Audio: English: Dolby Digital 5.1, German: Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround Subtitles: English, German

---

Plot:
Any private eye knows a lot about other people's secrets. L.A. private eye Mick St. John (Alex O'Loughlin) has a secret of his own. He's a vampire, dwelling in a covert netherworld complicated by friendship with an undead finance honcho (Jason Dohring), memories of the alluring ex-wife (Shannyn Sossamon) who turned him into a vampire, and a relationship with a human (Sophia Myles) he feels drawn to protect - and maybe to love. But no matter how tempting, Mick knows a vampire-human romance is eternally dangerous.

This 16-episode, 4-disc set of the series voted the 2008 People's Choice Award for Favorite New TV Drama is a sure entertainment bet for all who like their vampire stories sleek, intense and passionate.

When going in I thought this would be just another vampire doing redemption by helping people series. But this series surprised me. I really enjoyed it. Also some ideas to the vampire mythos were refreshing (though some were more like going back to Bram Stoker, like stake through the heart only paralyzes the vampire).
The ongoing romance storyline was good, as where the cases they were working on. Also nice to see a vampire series, where vampires stay the only supernatural thing. And not introduce magic, werewolves etc.
This is a thing which bothers me with such series or superhero movies and series: First the hero is the only thing different to the "real" world. But then they introduce more and more "super" and extraordinary stuff. This is probably the reason why I never got into superhero comics.
Too bad this series was cancelled so soon. It really would have had the stuff to continue.
The only thing I didn't like about this series was the need for vampires to sleep in freezers. These are a fairly recent invention. What did the vampires do in the past then?

#	Episode	Rating
01	No Such Thing as Vampires
02	Out of the Past
03	Dr. Feelgood
04	Fever
05	Arrested Development
06	B.C.
07	The Ringer
08	12:04 AM
09	Fleur de Lis
10	Sleeping Beauty
11	Love Lasts Forever
12	The Mortal Cure
13	Fated to Pretend
14	Click
15	What's Left Behind
16	Sonata

(From Tom's Random Reviews on February 17th, 2011)