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Burn!, a review by KinkyCyborg

Title:Burn!
Year: 1969
Director: Gillo Pontecorvo
Rating: R
Length: 112 Min.
Video: Anamorphic Widescreen 1.66:1
Audio: English: Dolby Digital: Mono
Subtitles: English, French

Stars:
Marlon Brando
Evaristo Márquez
Norman Hill
Renato Salvatori
Dana Ghia

Plot:
In this riveting and powerful story, Marlon Brando is sent to an 1800s Caribbean Island for a three-part mission: trick the slaves into revolt, grab the sugar trade for England...then return the slaves to servitude.

A Caribbean island in the mid-1800's. Nature has made it a paradise; man has made it a hell. Slaves on vast Portuguese sugar plantations are ready to turn their misery into rebellion - and the British are ready to provide the spark. They send agent William Walker (Marlon Brando) on a devious three-part mission: trick the slaves into revolt, grab the sugar trade for England...then return the slaves to servitude. Gillo Pontecorvo, the acclaimed director of The Battle of Algiers, explores colonialism and insurrection in the searing epic Burn!. Both visually and narratively stunning, Burn! glows with the fires of Pontecorvo's unique filmmaking genius. Genius is also evident in Brando's complex, intelligent portrayal of a man who is both gentleman and scoundrel, revolutionary and colonialist. And Ennio Morricone's (The Untouchables, The Mission) haunting music memorably underscores the almost overwhelmingly powerful story.

Extras:
Scene Access


Such wicked manipulation and beautiful chaos! How nations can rise and fall with a few well placed words. A classic example of how sometimes in order to preserve something you have to destroy it.

Marlon Brando is quite the slick talking scoundrel in this movie and he showed me a side of him I've never seen before. His demise, while expected, was still so shocking in it's simplicity.

For a movie I had never heard of before I was thoroughly impressed. After some discussions about this movie I've had Gillo Pontecorvo's The Battle Of Algiers highly recommended to me and it's now on my wish list. If you have never seen Burn! before and you have the opportunity... Watch it! 

KC

Rating:

(From KinkyCyborg's Random Reviews 2010 on June 5th, 2010)

Shakespeare in Love, a review by Antares

Shakespeare in Love





Year: 1998
Film Studio: Universal Pictures, Miramax Films, Bedford Falls Productions
Genre: Comedy, Drama, Romance
Length: 124 Min.

Director
John Madden (1949)

Writing
Marc Norman (1941)...Written By
Tom Stoppard (1937)...Written By

Producer
Mark Cooper
Donna Gigliotti (1955)
Julie Goldstein
Marc Norman (1941)
David Parfitt (1958)
Bob Weinstein (1954)
Harvey Weinstein (1952)
Edward Zwick (1952)

Cinematographer
Richard Greatrex

Music
Stephen Warbeck (1953)...Composer

Stars
Joseph Fiennes (1970) as Will Shakespeare
Gwyneth Paltrow (1972) as Viola De Lesseps
Geoffrey Rush (1951) as Philip Henslowe
Tom Wilkinson (1948) as Hugh Fennyman
Imelda Staunton (1956) as Nurse
Colin Firth (1960) as Lord Wessex
Ben Affleck (1972) as Ned Alleyn
Judi Dench (1934) as Queen Elizabeth

ReviewShakespeare in Love in 1997, I was not one who beat a path to my local cineplex in eager anticipation.  Fresh from viewing the 1996 debacle Romeo + Juliet Shakespeare (Joseph Fiennes) is suffering from the bane of all authors; writers block. Being a lusty young man who needs carnal diversion to awaken the creativity that has become dormant, he goes in search of a willing wench to be his new muse. He has promised and has been paid for, a new play to be performed by two rival theatre owners. is slated to be a comedy that will put Shakespeare back into the hearts and minds of the London public. As auditions are undertaken, the search for the lead actor becomes quite fruitless as every person who performs is stilted and unmoving. As all hope is fading, an unknown Saving Private RyanCombat!.


Review Criterion4 Stars - Historically important film, considered a classic.

(From Shakespeare in Love (1998) on June 17th, 2010)

2016 TV Pilot Reviews, a review by DJ Doena

This Is Us Website
This Is Us @ Wikipedia
This Is Us @ IMDb

It's all about family. Brothers, sisters, children, fathers.

One happy pair is expecting triples, about to burst into this world.

The other pair are siblings; she's heavily overweight and struggling with it, and he's Mister Hardbody and an actor playing a stupid role in a mindless sitcom.

And the last one is a man looking for his biological father who left him at the entrance of a firehouse when he was born.

What they do share, is their birthday. Their 36th birthday to be exact. The triplet-father, the twins and the fatherless man. And by the looks of it, the triplets will share their birthday.

I did enjoy the acting, it is an interesting cast and it could be an interesting story, especially after you learn how all the people are connected to one another.

I particularly found it hilarious how Justin Hartley's (Smallville) character was against taking off his shirt in every scene for the sake of being eye-candy. Why did I find that to be funny? Well, because that was basically his job for all his episodes on Smallville. I don't think there was a single episode on that show where he didn't take his shirt off. He was even shirtless in the opening credits.

But in the end the show is going to be a family drama and that's not exactly my favourite TV food. As I said, the story could be interesting, but it's just not a genre that I personally prefer.




(From 2016 TV Pilot Reviews on September 24th, 2016)