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On The Waterfront, a review by Rick

On The Waterfront



OverviewMy Thoughts:
Perhaps it was because of Elia Kazan's infulence but to me this movie could be in the film noir category. No, I didn't know the director by name but when I looked him up I saw he directed Panic in the Streets and Boomerang. Both of which I watched and enjoyed. The look and feel of this movie certainly seems to fit other Film Noirs I have watched. Perhaps because it was more about the main character's internal struggle with what to do on a personal level then solving the crime or getting out of whatever situation the character was put it that keeps it out of this category.    Maybe one of you more in the know can tell me why it's not considered as film noir. 

As I said, it was about one man's struggle of what to do and how to deal with the morality of his decisions. This is one of those must see movies for any true film buff. Fortunately for me it lived up to the hype (many don't). Brando was phenomenal, but he wasn't alone. Personally I found Karl Malden's acting just as riveting and filled with passion. He took command of every scene he was in. I'm not taking away from Brando, just pointing out there were other noteworthy performances too.

Being a dues paying member of the Sheet Metal Workers Union (local  15) I couldn't help but compare the union bosses back then to what we have now. Unfortunately I feel some of the corruption we see in the movie still plays out today. Not so much telling people daily if they can or can't work (although that has happened in my family - my father was blackballed sometime ago) but the greed that was there then seems to be there now as well. (I mean no offense to anyone who may happen to be in a union or supports them - I am speaking in generalities here - I also don't want to get into a political debate about the pros or cons of todays unions...). I'll just leave it at this. Corruption has evolved but it is still there.

I loved the cinematography in this as well as the locations in general. They transported me to a time where you could see someone sitting in front of a fan trying desperately to cool off on that hot summer's evening. Kids playing stickball in the street. Baseball game playing on the radio while drinking a glass of homemade lemonade. The rooftop scenes were very cool. I don't know if you can go from rooftop to rooftop like they showed in the movie now. Most likely not. If you can I'm guessing it is these rooftops where a lot of crime would go on today and somewhere you would probably be better off avoiding!

The story itself was pretty predictable I felt, but everything else made the movie great. It certainly proved you don't need the best story ever written to have a great movie. Take a good story and tell it with great performances and you will have a winner.   

My Rating


(From Rick's "Vowels Only" Marathon Reviews on August 2nd, 2010)

The Ghost Breakers, a review by addicted2dvd

The Ghost Breakers (1940/United States) Universal Studios (United States) Director: George Marshall Writing: Walter DeLeon (Screenwriter), Paul Dickey (Original Material By), Charles W. Goddard (Original Material By) Length: 85 min. Video: Full Frame 1.33:1 Audio: English: Dolby Digital: Mono Subtitles:

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Stars:
Bob Hope as Larry Lawrence
Paulette Goddard as Mary Carter
Richard Carlson as Geoff Montgomery
Paul Lukas as Parada
Willie Best as Alex

Plot:
After intrepid working girl Mary Carter (Paulette Goddard) becomes the new owner of a reputedly haunted mansion located on Black Island near the Cuban coast, a stranger (Anthony Quinn) phones to warn her to stay away from the castle. Undaunted, Mary sets sail for Cuba with a stowaway in her trunk -- wise-cracking Larry Lawrence (Bob Hope), a radio announcer who helps Mary get to the bottom of the voodoo magic, zombies and ghosts that supposedly curse the spooky estate.

Extras:

• None

This one is also more of a suspense/thriller... though not quite are good as the previous one. The story just didn't grab my interest as much. I did still enjoy it. I just prefer "The Cat and the Canary" over this one.



(From November Movie Marathon: Classic Comedy Greats on November 22nd, 2017)

Tom's Random Reviews, a review by Tom

Ah! My Goddess: Season 1
Kosuke Fujishima's unforgettable story of every hapless college boy's dream comes to life! Keiichi Morisato is an engineering student, top driver of his campus racing club, and not very lucky with the ladies. While calling for take-out food one evening, a wrong number puts him in contact with the "Goddess Hotline." One misplaced wish later, Keiichi find himself blessed with Belldandy, the perfect girlfriend and a goddess in every sense of the word. Unfortunately, she doesn't have any idea how to act in the human world, and her presence quickly gets Keiichi kicked out of the dorms. Fortunately for Keiichi, his troubles have just begin!

My thoughts:
Finally I have seen the complete first season of this series (24 episodes + 2 OVAs). I had seen the first few episodes a while ago on YouTube after I had watched the old OVA from 1993 and the Ah My Goddess movie. Then I thought it looked interesting but didn't think it could hold up for a complete 26 episode season. Boy was I wrong. This is a great series, which got better and better with each episode! And the 2 bonus episodes were a great conclusion to this season after the Lord of Terror story arc. I came to love the humor of the series "Adventures of Mini-Goddess" with the meddling of Urd and Skuld which was also true for this series. As a matter of fact, this season has me put again in the mood for anime series (which the last few months was not the case). Probably some of my next reviews will focus on those.
Currently I am rewatching the old OVA and I noticed something which I didn't know before: In the second episode there is a little cameo of Gan-chan 
For those of you knowing this new series: Is it true, that Gan-chan will appear (maybe in the second season). In the Wikipedia article he is listed as appearing in this series with the same voice actor as in Mini-Goddess. I loved his character in Mini-Goddess. But I couldn't find any evidence at all on the net about this. First I thought it was supposed to be the spirit who transformed himself into a rat early in this first season, but it is a different voice actor.

I was couragous and switched to the English dub for a few minutes to see how it is. But I must say: Horrible! Especially Belldandy is totally off. I will continue to stick to the original audio tracks.

Rating:

(From Tom's Random Reviews on December 28th, 2007)