DVD Collectors Online

Vertigo, a review by Tom

Title: Vertigo
Year: 1958
Director: Alfred Hitchcock
Rating: PG
Length: 124 Min.
Video: Anamorphic Widescreen 1.85
Audio: English: Dolby Digital 5.1, German: Dolby Digital Surround, French: Dolby Digital Mono, Italian: Dolby Digital Mono, Spanish: Dolby Digital Mono, Commentary: Dolby Digital Stereo
Subtitles: Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, Finnish, French, German, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Swedish

Stars:
James Stewart
Kim Novak
Barbara Bel Geddes
Tom Helmore
Henry Jones

Plot:
Set in San Francisco, James Stewart portrays an acrophobic detective hired to trail a friend's suicidal wife (Kim Novak). After he successfully rescues her from a leap into the bay, he finds himself becoming obsessed with the beautifully troubled woman.

One of cinema's most chilling romantic endeavors: its fascinating myriad of haunting camera angles shot among some of San Francisco's renowned landmarks. This film is a must for collectors; Leonard Maltin gives Vertigo four stars and hails it as "A genuinely great motion picture that demands multiple-viewings."

Awards:

Academy Award	1958	Nominated	Best Art Direction	Hal Pereira, Henry Bumstead (Art Direction); Sam Comer, Frank McKelvy (Set Decoration)
Academy Award	1958	Nominated	Best Sound	George Dutton (Sound Director, Paramount Studio Sound Department)
AFI	1958	Won	100 Years... 100 Movies (1998)
AFI	1958	Won	100 Years... 100 Movies (2007)
AFI	1958	Won	100 Years... 100 Passions (2002)
AFI	1958	Won	100 Years... 100 Thrills (2001)
AFI	1958	Won	100 Years... 25 Scores (2005)	"Composer": Bernard Herrmann
Directors Guild of America	1959	Nominated	Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Motion Pictures	Alfred Hitchcock

Extras:
Commentary
Featurettes
Production Notes
Scene Access
Trailers

I enjoyed this movie more than I had expected. Mainly due .
This time around it was mainly the story that kept me interested, not so much the actors. James Stewart was okay, but I didn't much care for Kim Novak. Part of that is not really her fault: I really hated the look of her bleached hair.
So overall I enjoyed this movie. So far it is one of the better Hitchcocks I have seen. But I am not sure if I will watch it again in the future.

Rating:

(From Alfred Hitchcock Marathon on November 8th, 2009)

The Counselor, a review by Silence_of_Lambs

Summary:
The Counselor (Michael Fassbender) but soon becomes entangled in a complex drug plot with a middle-man known as Westray (Brad Pitt). The plan ends up taking a horrible twist and he must protect himself and his soon to be bride as the truth of the drug business is uncovered and targets are eliminated.

My Thoughts:
A new film by Ridley Scott ... with an Allstar-Cast (Fassbender, Pitt, Bardem, Diaz, Cruz, ...) ... and even a Thriller, now how could this go wrong?

Don't know how, but it did. Being a film by Ridley Scott it did this with a certain grandesse though.
This film is like someone smashed a mirror, picked up the pieces and tried to re-assemble a mirror. Means: Even with all the shards being in the correct position the picture you will see will always be disturbed by the outline of the shards.
The film tries to tell its story with this fragments. The problem is: Many (important) fragments are missing, others are not placed in the correct position, some even seem to originate from another mirror.
Each fragment shows a beautifully photographed scene, they just don't add up to show a complete picture. And in this regard this movie is even worse than the original cut of "The Blade Runner" which at least had a Narrator to put the fragments into context.

An interesting concept, with some great acting, that sadly got messed up in the editing room.

My Rating: (out of possible 5)

(From Michael's random reviews on September 11th, 2014)

The IT Crowd: Version 3.0 - (mini) marathon, a review by Achim

"IT department. Have you tried turning off and then on again?"

1. From Hell
A great start into the third series, showing right away that Graham Linehan still has it in him (which he will hopefully keep proving throughout the next episodes). Was laughing at the opening credits (had forgotten about them) and then the laughs just kept coming.




(From The IT Crowd: Version 3.0 - (mini) marathon on July 31st, 2009)