DVD Collectors Online

Poor Pretty Eddie, a review by Jimmy

Title: Poor Pretty Eddie (1975)

Genre: Drama
Director: Richard Robinson
Rating: R
Length: 1h25
Video: Widescreen
Audio: English
Subtitles: Spanish

Stars:
Leslie Uggams
Shelley Winters
Michael Christian
Ted Cassidy
Dub Taylor
Lou Joffred
Slim Pickens

Plot:
A wrong turn on a jazz singer's road trip results in her car breaking down near an isolated lodge run by a faded starlet and a young, homicidal Elvis impersonator.

I did go on this one with very high expectations, since I have waited for its release for more than two years. Usually this is the perfect recipe for an huge deception but it wasn't... This is probably one of the weirdest movie I've seen (how many films intercut an interacial rape scene with one of dogs mating?), but at the same time full of incredible artistic scenes. All the violence is shown in slow motion just like in a Sam Peckinpah's films and most of the principal photography is incredible (by exemple a scene at a waterfall is a little jewel for the eyes). You add to the mix strong acting performances from Michael Christian (Peyton Place), Leslie Uggams (Roots) and Shelley Winters with some well known character actors like Ted Cassidy (The Addams Family) and Slim Pickens as a result you got a perfect southern backwood dangerous redneck type of film. The synopsis do a comparaison with Deliverance but I've to disagree since the only common point is that it happen in the south.

Really this one is recommanded and it isn't as graphic or violent that you could believe it is. But of course this is a product of its time and you will never see anything like this ever made. 


Rating :

(From The little known movie review depot on May 15th, 2011)

True Grit, a review by Dragonfire

True Grit - 2010

I haven't liked a lot of westerns, though I haven't watched that in years.  I have liked the few newer ones that I've seen.  Anyway, after seeing the trailers for True Grit, I decided I wanted to see it.  I might have seen the John Wayne version before, but I couldn't remember if I did.  After seeing the new version, I saw the previous version.  Both movies are really good.  Also today, I bought the book.  I wasn't planning to, but I came across it in Walmart and I decided to get it.  Both versions of the movies are very similar, though there are a few differences here and there. 

The plot is very entertaining.  The story is sort of a revenge story, but it isn't just a revenge story.  Mattie wants justice for her father, not just revenge.  Time is taken early in the movie to set up everything and introduce the characters.  It doesn't take long for more to start happening.  The movie really isn't that violent, but one or two scenes are very violent, with one even being a tad gory.  Rattlesnakes also turn up at one point..I really could have done without that scene. 

While things look a bit more dirty and bleak in this version of the movie, the cinematography is gorgeous.  The sort of bleak look fits perfectly with what is going on.  There are a few hauntingly beautiful moments in the movie. 

The characters are wonderful and complex.  Mattie is one of the best characters I've seen in a movie in a long time. She is a very determined young woman who can talk her way through just about any situation.  She handles some kind of trade deal so well that the poor man looks ready to cry when he figures out she wants to trade again.  Cogburn is a marshal, though he does use some questionable methods.  He isn't a villain, but he isn't completely a hero type character either.  He is quick to shoot and likes to drink.  In fact he drinks so much, he falls of his horse at one point.  He seems incompetent at times, but he has moments that are brilliant.  When he decides on something, he doesn't stop.  He is not a man to cross.  Jeff Bridges is amazing in the part.  Matt Damon does really well as La Boeuf, the Texas Ranger who tends to clash with Cogburn.  Josh Brolin isn't in as much of the movie, but he is really good too.

I loved True Grit and I could see myself adding the movie to my collection.  I may even see it in the theater again.

I did get a review posted on Epinions.

True Grit

By the way, my mom and step dad have also seen this one.  They really like westerns, and have seen the one with John Wayne a lot of times.  My mom fully expected not to like this one...she felt they ruined 3:10 to Yuma in the remake.  Anyway, both of them loved the movie too and my mom actually wants to see it again in the theater.  She has only done that like 4 times total.

(From True Grit - 2010 on January 4th, 2011)

Tom's Buffy and Angel Marathon, a review by Tom

6.14 Older and Far Away
Writer: Joss Whedon (Created By), Drew Z. Greenberg (Writer), Joss Whedon (Writer)
Director: Michael Gershman
Cast: Sarah Michelle Gellar (Buffy Summers), Nicholas Brendon (Xander Harris), Emma Caulfield (Anya), Michelle Trachtenberg (Dawn Summers), James Marsters (Spike), Alyson Hannigan (Willow Rosenberg), Kali Rocha (Halfrek), Ryan Browning (Richard), Amber Benson (Tara Maclay), Elizabeth Cazenave (Teacher), James C. Leary (Clem), Laura Roth (Sophie)

An average episode. Dawn behaves too childishly though.

Rating:



6.15 As You Were
Writer: Joss Whedon (Created By), Douglas Petrie (Writer), Joss Whedon (Writer)
Director: Douglas Petrie
Cast: Sarah Michelle Gellar (Buffy Summers), Nicholas Brendon (Xander Harris), Emma Caulfield (Anya), Michelle Trachtenberg (Dawn Summers), James Marsters (Spike), Alyson Hannigan (Willow Rosenberg), Marc Blucas (Riley Finn), Ivana Milicevic (Sam Finn), Marilyn Brett (Lady), Alice Dinnean Vernon (Baby Demon Puppeteer), Adam Paul (Skanky Vamp), Ryan Raddatz (Todd)

This episode is fanservice to the one Riley fan. Nothing special, but also nothing bad.

Rating:

(From Tom's Buffy and Angel Marathon on December 19th, 2010)