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Roman Holiday, a review by Tom

Roman Holiday (1953/United States) IMDb | Wikipedia Paramount Home Entertainment (Canada) Director: William Wyler Writing: Ian McLellan Hunter (Screenwriter), John Dighton (Screenwriter), Dalton Trumbo (Story By) Length: 118 min. Video: Full Frame 1.33:1 Audio: English: Dolby Digital 1, French: Dolby Digital 1 Subtitles: English

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Stars:
Gregory Peck as Joe Bradley, Correspondent
Audrey Hepburn as Princess Ann/ Anya 'Smitty' Smith
Eddie Albert as Irving Radovich
Hartley Power as Mr. Hennessy, Joe Bradley's Boss
Harcourt Williams as Ambassador

Plot:Roman HolidayAwards:
Won:

Academy Award (1953)		Best Actress (Audrey Hepburn)
Academy Award (1953)		Best Costume Design, Black-and-White (Edith Head)
Academy Award (1953)		Best Writing, Original Story (Ian McLellan Hunter (1993 corrected to Dalton Trumbo))
AFI (1953)		100 Years... 100 Passions (2002)
BAFTA (1953)		British Actress (Audrey Hepburn)
Golden Globe (1953)		Actress in a Leading Role - Drama (Audrey Hepburn)
Writers Guild of America Awards (1954)		Best Written American Comedy (Ian McLellan Hunter, John Dighton)

Nominated:

Academy Award (1953)		Best Art Direction, Black-and-White (Hal Pereira, Walter Tyler)
Academy Award (1953)		Best Cinematography, Black-and-White (Frank Planer, Henri Alekan)
Academy Award (1953)		Best Director (William Wyler)
Academy Award (1953)		Best Film Editing (Robert Swink)
Academy Award (1953)		Best Picture (William Wyler (Producer))
Academy Award (1953)		Best Supporting Actor (Eddie Albert)
Academy Award (1953)		Best Writing, Adapted Screenplay (Ian McLellan Hunter, John Dighton)
AFI (1953)		100 Years... 100 Laughs (2000)
BAFTA (1953)		Film And British Film
BAFTA (1953)		Foreign Actor (Gregory Peck, Eddie Albert)
Directors Guild of America (1954)		Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Motion Pictures (William Wyler)

Extras:

• Closed Captioned
• Featurettes
• Photo Gallery
• Scene Access
• Trailers

A great movie. Always fun to watch. And the two hours running time fly by fast. Audrey Hepburn has deserved her Oscar for her work here.
Even though it has been over ten years since I have been to Rome and the movie being almost 50 years old, it is still nice to recognize a lot of the locations used in the film as places I have personally visited.

Rating:

(From Tom's Random Reviews on November 21st, 2010)

The Great Gatsby (2013), a review by Silence_of_Lambs

Summary:
An adaptation of F. Scott Fitzgerald's Long Island-set novel, where Midwesterner Nick Carraway (Tobey Maguire) is lured into the lavish world of his neighbor, Jay Gatsby (Leonardo DiCaprio). Soon enough, however, Carraway will see through the cracks of Gatsby's nouveau riche existence, where obsession, madness, and tragedy await.

My Thoughts:
First of all I haven't read the novel by Fitzgerald, so this review will not be about the adaptation of the original material, just about the film itself (with a little comparison to its predecessor from 1974).

Sometimes Directors (and casting bureaus) are lucky because they can hire the best possible cast for their project. This was correct for the 1974 version (Redford / Farrow) and is so even more for Baz Luhrmann's attempt.
DiCaprio is not playing Gatsby, he is Gatsby. Maguire has it easy, since he even looks (a bit) like F. Scott Fitzgerald, and is definitely on his way to becoming a great actor that has more to offer than his boylike, astounded face. I was a bit skeptical about how Carey Mulligan would do as Daisy, but what a performance she delivers. Joel Edgerton, who for me up to now was more something like the ante-type of a second-row supporting actor with muscles,  as Tom Buchanan, he too is giving us an outstanding performance.

Luhrmann doesn't limit himself to simply re-doing the 1974 version, he is adding and re-interpreting to each and every role and thereby is making the persons and their backgrounds more realistic.
Just like the 1974 version this is a slow-paced movie, and this is good because the story and the characters deserve and need this.

I think it is time to read the novel too.


My Rating: (out of possible 5)

(From Michael's random reviews on November 4th, 2013)

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine - Marathon, a review by DJ Doena

Synopsis: When a bajoran man and his adopted - cardassian - son come to the station, Garak becomes interested in the two of them. The boy was raised to hate all Cardassians and to hate all that is cardassian. But he is also not really a war orphan, he's the son an important cardassian politician and enemy of Gul Dukat's, the former prefect on Terok Nor/Deep Space Nine.

My Opinion: The end was a bit unsatisfying. While the main scheme was revealed and Dukat was exposed the writers didn't really manage to explain why Sisko chose to return the son to his biological father. Sure, he mentions it in his log entry but as I said - a bit unsatisfying. But I really liked the way Bashir and Garak have been working together and Garak's "explanation" of why he knows the things he knows.

Synopsis: DS9 gets a new crew member, Ensign Melora Pazlar. She comes from a low-gravity world and needs to use a wheelchair unless she's alone and can lower the artificial gravity. She calls it "the Melora problem" that everybody but she creates and she reacts very hostile to any attempt to help her.

My Opinion: This was an interesting mix of two different problems. The first would be the interaction with disabled persons, especially when they don't want any help. I really liked Paul Hogan's character's solution to that problem in Almost an Angel. But I found the second problem more interesting: Am I willing to make a change that will prevent me from ever going home again? It's a hard choice and I couldn't say now what I would have done.

Synopsis: The Grand Nagus Zek assigns a task to Quark: He is to purchase 10,000 vats of tulaberry wine from the GQ-based Dosi. The negotiations are already hard but suddenly Zek wants not only 10,000 vats but 100,000. Luckily for Quark, one of his new waiters has an ear for business. But Pel isn't what he appears to be.

My Opinion: I like Ferengi episodes (have I said that already?) and I think it's funny that things like unknowingly working with a Ferengi female always happen to the more conservative Quark who only tries do earn an (dis-)honest living. This was also the first time that there was a new force in the GQ mentioned: The Dominion.

Synopsis: After Quark has been attacked and nearly killed, Odo has to re-open a five-year old murder case. Back then he was an arbitrator for minor differences between the bajoran workers aboard Terok Nor. But Gul Dukat gave him the task of solving this murder and he encounters a certain Ferengi barkeep and a young bajoran woman by the name of Kira Nerys during that investigation.

My Opinion: This was a very noir episode with a lot of flashbacks to the time of the occupation. It was also the first time that we learn that Quark's brother Rom might not be as dumb as he seems to be. I really liked it, especially when Quark learned that his brother had access to his money vault. 

(From Star Trek: Deep Space Nine - Marathon on September 29th, 2008)