DVD Collectors Online

The Falcon And The Snowman, a review by KinkyCyborg

The Falcon And The Snowman



Title:The Falcon and the Snowman
Year: 1984
Director: John Schlesinger
Rating: R
Length: 131 Min.
Video: Anamorphic Widescreen 1.85:1
Audio: English: Dolby Digital: Dolby Surround
Subtitles: English, French

Stars:
Timothy Hutton
Sean Penn
Pat Hingle
Joyce Van Patten
Boyce Children

Plot:Extras:
Scene Access
Closed Captioned


Captivating true story about a young, privileged man who lets his idealistic views and discontent towards his government lead him to impulsively sell secrets to the KGB. Bringing his loose cannon, drugged out friend along for the ride, they quickly find themselves in way over their heads.

Second or third time watching this now, I've always liked this movie. Showing how the CIA would (and probably still does) coerce and manipulate foreign governments, it fascinates me how they feel it incumbent to stick their noses into everyone's business. For Timothy Hutton's character, Boyce, selling out his country was his way of protesting this political interference.

Hutton was great. He was thriving in the 80's as a hot young actor in demand but like many other young actors from that era, re: Brat Packers, his relevance has waned mostly, playing in mostly low budget straight to video movies now, although he has seen a bit of a resurgence in his new TV series Leverage.

Now Sean Penn on the other hand who, in my opinion, gave his best ever performance in this movie despite his young age, was giving us a taste of things to come in his brilliant, if not turbulent career. Daulton Lee was immortalized by Penn's role as the shifty, fast talking, drug dealing spy wannabe. Dealing in espionage which already breeds paranoia, his constant cocaine and heroin use just compounded his troubles and brought him precariously close to being terminated. Penn is masterful in portraying troubled, desperate men and this was a grand performance.

Great movie. This should be mandatory in anyone's collection!

KC

Rating:

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

High Sierra, a review by Antares

High Sierra





Year: 1941
Film Studio: Warner Bros. Pictures, First National Pictures
Genre: Crime, Classic, Drama
Length: 100 Min.

Director
Raoul Walsh (1887)

Writing
John Huston (1906)...Screenplay
W. R. Burnett (1899)...Screenplay
W. R. Burnett (1899)...Novel

Producer
Mark Hellinger (1903)
Hal B. Wallis (1899)

Cinematographer
Tony Gaudio (1883)

Music
Adolph Deutsch (1897)...Composer

Stars
Ida Lupino (1914) as Marie
Humphrey Bogart (1899) as Roy Earle
Alan Curtis (1909) as 'Babe'
Arthur Kennedy (1914) as 'Red'
Joan Leslie (1925) as Velma
Henry Hull (1890) as 'Doc' Banton
Henry Travers (1874) as Pa
Jerome Cowan (1897) as Healy

ReviewHigh SierraHigh Sierra, but also The Maltese Falcon that same year, and of course Casablanca (both film roles rejected by Raft) in 1942.

       In High Sierra Earle. Instead of only portraying Earle as an unrepentant and incorrigible criminal, he allows Bogart to add a little compassion to his ruthless character. It is this bit of humanity that will bring an end to his lawbreaking life and serve up a heaping helping of the doctrine of the day that . The anti-hero would become more popular in the counter-culture of the sixties and most of the credit for this twist in storytelling would be lauded upon the directors and actors of that time, even though this was the first film to feature this departure from the norm.

       High SierraRatings Criterion4 Stars - Historically important film, considered a classic.

(From High Sierra (1941) on January 17th, 2010)

Pete's Pilots, a review by addicted2dvd

The Brady Bunch


The Honeymoon
Mike Brady (Robert Reed), a widower with three boys, marries Carol Ann Tyler Martin (Florence Henderson), a widow with three girls. But just as the knot is tied, chaos breaks loose as the family pets wreak havoc on the ceremony. Mike and Carol admonish their children for the chaos - and then spend a fretful wedding night feeling guilty about their overreaction.

My Thoughts:
While The Brady Bunch was never a favorite sitcom of mine... it is a big part of my childhood (there was no way not seeing this back then) so it does hold some nostalgic value... even to me. The kids are definitely too goody goody for my taste... and everything was almost always (other then 2 part episodes) solved within the half hour episode. But it is kinda fun sitting back and watching it again now... just for kicks and to make fun of. Like in the pilot episode here... during the wedding the dog gets out of the car by stepping on the automatic window control. Only problem... right above his paw is the window crank where the car didn't have automatic windows. And that is just a minor blunder. I am not even going to go into the problems with the storyline. But as I said... it is fun to watch just for laughs when I am in the mood for something silly and nostalgic.

My Rating:

(From Pete's Pilots on November 9th, 2009)