DVD Collectors Online

Family Plot, a review by Achim

Title: Family Plot
Year: 1976
Director: Alfred Hitchcock
Rating: PG
Length: 120 Min.
Video: Anamorphic Widescreen 1.85:1
Audio: English: Dolby Digital: Mono, French: Dolby Digital: Mono
Subtitles: English, Spanish

Stars:
Karen Black
Bruce Dern
Barbara Harris
William Devane
Ed Lauter

Plot:
In his final picture, Hitchcock weaves together suspense and humor in this tongue-in-cheek thriller about a wealthy woman who innocently hires a phony psychic to find her missing heir. The unforgettable all-star cast, including Bruce Dern, Barbara Harris, William Devane and Karen Black, contributes to an enthralling merry-go-round of mayhem, mystery and murder.

Extras:
Scene Access
Feature Trailers
Featurettes
Gallery
Production Notes
Storyboard Comparisons

The Master's last film. It is very nice to see it didn't just play it safe on this one, but made some bold choices along the way. Not all works but it still produces a film other director's could only wish to make. Of course a lot rests on the fact that there was a solid script to work from, written by Ernest Lehmann (who he had worked with on North By Northwest), based on material created by Victor canning. The film deals with two sets of characters, two couples, whose fate is about to intertwine. I like how these two couples interact among each other and how different they are. Blanche and George are a poor couple who gets by driving taxi and scamming old ladies by pretending to spiritually contact their passed on loved ones. On the other hand we have Fran and Arthur who are quite active kidnapping people and collecting the ransom. As interesting it is to see both couples alternately, it makes it more difficult to connect with our heroes.

In typical Hitchcock fashion, the story is not about "whodunnit", but more about the people reacting in the situation they are in. That part works rather well though, as we learn early on who does what, yet we still anticipate where all that will bring our heroes towards the end. Here, again, I feel there is a missed opportunity, with the pacing of the end being a little too slow, emphasized by poor choice of music; which was already evident throughout the film (oddly enough this was scored by John Williams, who normally normally knows better )

In overall it's till a good film and is interesting to watch, although it could be a little shorter and cut slightly tighter (I hope it's not purely based on us being used to way faster pacing nowadays ) This being the first Hitchcock film I have ever seen, I have a soft spot for it, so here it goes:



(From Alfred Hitchcock Marathon on June 20th, 2010)

Scream, a review by Dragonfire

Scream



The smash hit that transformed the horror genre into a phenomenon, Scream also launched the careers of some of today's brightest stars!

After a series of mysterious deaths, an offbeat group of friends get caught up in a lively mix of thrills and chills! With hot stars Drew Barrymore (Ever After), Courteney Cox (TV's Friends), Neve Campbell (54), Skeet Ulrich (As Good As It Gets) and David Arquette (Beautiful Girls).

Now you can experience this edge-of-your-seat thriller like never before with the Dimension Collector's Series on DVD.

My Thoughts

I did get a review posted on Epinions last year.

Scream

(From Dragonfire's Halloween/Horror Marathon 2009 on October 14th, 2009)

Tom's Glee Marathon, a review by Tom

Glee
Season 1.21 Funk
Writer: Ryan Murphy (Created By), Brad Falchuk (Created By), Ian Brennan (Created By), Ian Brennan (Writer)
Director: Elodie Keene
Cast: Dianna Agron (Quinn Fabray), Chris Colfer (Kurt Hummel), Jessalyn Gilsig (Terri Schuester), Jane Lynch (Sue Sylvester), Jayma Mays (Emma Pillsbury), Kevin McHale (Arty Abrams), Lea Michele (Rachel Berry), Cory Monteith (Finn Hudson), Matthew Morrison (Will Schuester), Amber Riley (Mercedes Jones), Mark Salling (Noah "Puck" Puckerman), Jenna Ushkowitz (Tina Cohen-Chang), Jonathan Groff (Jesse St. James), Idina Menzel (Shelby Corcoran), Iqbal Theba (Principal Figgins), Stephen Tobolowsky (Sandy Ryerson), Naya Rivera (Santana Lopez), Kent Avenido (Howard Bamboo), Josh Sussman (Jacob Ben Israel), Keisuke Hoashi (Peter Gow), Brian McGovern (Brett Paxton), Tonita Castro (Imelda), Heather Morris (Brittany Pierce), Harry Shum, Jr. (Mike Chang), Dijon Talton (Matt Rutherford), Jeanine Anderson (Waitress), Taisha Monique Clark (Giselle)

One of my least favorite episodes in the first season.

Stupid storylines:
Will seducing Sue is a stupid storyline. And that it even worked, goes against the character of Sue.

Continuity:
The close friendship between Quinn and Mercedes established in this episode lasts for a whole of two episodes. It is forgotten like it never happened with the start of season two.

Notable music:
"Another One Bites the Dust" performed by rival Glee club Vocal Adreniline is okay, but nothing special.

The song which works best in this episode is Beck's "Loser":

I didn't really case about the other songs.

Rating:

(From Tom's Glee Marathon on September 22nd, 2012)