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The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, a review by dfmorgan

The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus

Year: 2009
Director: Terry Gilliam
Cast: Christopher Plummer, Lily Cole, Tom Waits, Heath Ledger
Overview: Directed by visionary genius Terry Gilliam, The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus features Heath Ledger in his last role, plus a stellar cast including Johnny Depp, Jude Law and Colin Farrell. Dr. Parnassus (Christopher Plummer) is an immortal who leads a travelling theatre troupe. Their props include the 'Imaginarium' - a mirror doubling as a magic doorway into a world that makes your wildest dreams a reality.

Parnassus's immortality has come at a price however - he will lose his daughter Valentina (Lily Cole) to the Devil himself (Tom Waits) unless he persuades five more souls to lose themselves in the Imaginarium. "A wild and wonderful fantasy" - Alan Frank, Daily Star

Watched: 27th Mar 2010
My Thoughts: Ok a strange film but then again not. Terry Gilliam in a weird phase, been there before and will be again, but making an excellent film which in places was very Pythonesque, not too sure if that is good or bad. There will be nuances and depths that I have missed in this first viewing, one thing you can't do with a Terry Gilliam film is to remove your brain and let it rest on the side, but hopefully they will appear and clear when I rewatch this in future. The basic premise is the usual fight between Good and Evil represented here by Doctor Parnassus (Christopher Plummer) as the Good and Mr. Nick (Tom Waits) as the Devil. Both these came over well and with good support from Verne Troyer, Andrew Garfield and Lily Cole as Doctor Parnassus's troupers.

One of the main talking points about this film, also heavily touched upon by Terry Gilliam in his introduction to the film, was the fact that Heath Ledger died before his role had been completed. Three other actors, Johnny Depp, Jude Law and Colin Farrell, stepped in to save the film by taking on the uncompleted parts which luckily were those that involved Heath Ledger stepping into the Imaginarium. Did that work? I have to say that to me it appeared that yes it did work, I presume though that Terry Gilliam and his co-writer had to amend their original scripts to cater for this but it came over well.

My Rating: Overall a 4

Dave

(From Dave's DVD/Blu-ray Reviews on March 28th, 2010)

To Catch a Thief, a review by Dragonfire

To Catch a Thief My Thoughts I think this is the first time that I've seen all of this one.  I saw some of it before...probably less than half of it. This one is more lighthearted than the other Hitchcock movies I've seen.  I think it is more of a romantic comedy with just a touch of mystery added in.  The mystery is interesting, but it isn't that developed.  It seems more like a reason to get John to meet Francis.  I did figure out who the thief was fairly early.  Some of what happens is a little predictable, but that doesn't keep the movie from being entertaining and interesting.  There is really only suspense to one or two scenes.  The limited amount of suspense might bother some people.  I think the developing relationship between John and Francis is the main focus of the movie.  They are very flitry with each other and they have good chemistry together.  Cary Grant and Grace Kelly are wonderful in the movie.  Grace makes Francis a somewhat cool, sophisticated woman.  There is an elegance to her that fits the character perfectly.  The gorgeous dresses she gets to wear help to add to the elegance of the character.  She and Grant work wonderfully well together.  Their characters are interesting and likable.  Jessie, Francis's mother, is another very entertaining character.  She doesn't have all the elegance of her daughter, but she is very likable.  I did like John Williams as Hughson, the insurance man. The DVD version I watched - this one is one of my mom's DVDs - has a few interesting extras on the making of the movie.  It was only from them that I discovered that some of the movie was filmed in the studio instead of all of it being filmed on location.  There is also an interesting extra about Edith Head, the costume designer. Overall, I really enjoyed this movie.  It is fun and entertaining and definitely worth watching even though it isn't as suspenseful as other Hitchcock movies. I got a review posted on Epinions earlier tonight. To Catch a Thief

(From Alfred Hitchcock Marathon on July 6th, 2010)

Tom's TV Pilots marathon, a review by Tom

Friends: Season One (1994/United States) IMDb | Wikipedia Warner Home Video (United States) Length: 586 min. Video: Full Frame 1.33:1 Audio: English: Dolby Digital 5.0, Commentary: Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo Subtitles: English, French, Korean, Spanish

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Plot:
You can never have enough Friends. With this DELUXE 4-DISC SET OF THE COMPLETE SEASON ONE, you have more: each episode contains NEVER-BEFORE-SEEN MOMENTS every fan of Friends will savor. And for all loyal patrons of Central Perk, we've brewed up a fresh pot brimming with BONUS FEATURES. Revisit that first year in which Rachel (JENNIFER ANISTON), Monica (COURTENEY COX), Phoebe (LISA KUDROW), Joey (MATT LeBLANC), Chandler (MATTHEW PERRY) and Ross (DAVID SCHWIMMER) first charmed audiences worldwide. You'll be in fabulous company.


Friends
1.01 The Pilot
Writer: Marta Kauffman (Writer), David Crane (Writer)
Director: James Burrows
Cast: Jennifer Aniston (Rachel Green), Courteney Cox (Monica Geller), Lisa Kudrow (Phoebe Buffay), Matt Le Blanc (Joey Tribbiani), Matthew Perry (Chandler Bing), David Schwimmer (Ross Geller), John Allen Nelson (Paul), Clea Lewis (Franny), Cynthia Mann (The Waitress), Barry Hine (The Guy in the Coffee House)

I never missed an episode when this series originally aired. At first I saw the first few seasons on German TV (pre-DVD and pre-broadband internet era made it hard to be able to see anything in the original language). Soon I discovered English transcripts of the latest episodes on the net and found out this way, that the German translation was horrible compared to the original.
The pilot does a good job introducing the characters. But it is hardly one of the better episodes.

Rating:

(From Tom's TV Pilots marathon on June 20th, 2011)