Ronin (Two Disc Special Edition) [1998]

Amazon.co.uk Review

Robert De Niro stars as an American intelligence operative adrift in irrelevance since the end of the Cold War--much like a masterless samurai, aka "ronin". With his services for sale, he joins a renegade, international team of fellow covert warriors with nothing but time on their hands. Their mission, as defined by the woman who hires them (Natascha McElhone), is to get hold of a particular suitcase that is equally coveted by the Russian mafia and Irish terrorists. As the scheme gets underway, De Niro's lone wolf strikes up a rare friendship with his French counterpart (Jean Reno), gets into a more-or-less romantic frame of mind with McElhone and asserts his experience on the planning and execution of the job--going so far as to publicly humiliate one team member (Sean Bean) who is clearly out of his league. The story is largely unremarkable--there's an obligatory twist midway through that changes the nature of the team's business--but legendary filmmaker John Frankenheimer (Seconds, The Manchurian Candidate) leaps at the material, bringing to it an honest tension and seasoned, breathtaking skill with precision-action direction. The centrepiece of the movie is an honest-to-God car chase that is the real thing: not the how-can-we-top-the-last-stunt cartoon nonsense of Richard Donner (Lethal Weapon) but a pulse-quickening, kinetic dance of superb montage and timing. In a sense, Ronin is almost Frankenheimer's self-quoting version of a John Frankenheimer film.There isn't anything here he hasn't done before but it's sure great to see it all again. --Tom Keogh

Amazon.co.uk Review

Customer Reviews:

probably the greatest film of silent era.......2006-11-17

Film-a masterpiece from(in my opinion)the greatest director of all time;this DVD edition-simply a must have.First of all,excellent print-perhaps even better than the Twenty Century Fox edition(even though they own the original master prints),secondly,a wealth of extra materials-more than on any other DVD edition i know-full length audio commentary,some scenes not included in the original film(real rarity for a work from this period),a 40 minutes long documentary about Murnau's Four Devils-another film he made for Fox,but now lost,150 pages of the original script with Murnau's annotations,and a wonderfully interesting and informative booklet,40 pages long,with ilustrations and texts by,among others,Lotte Eisner,perhaps the greatest authority on Murnau and German Expressionism.This magnificent Eureka edition will hardly ever be surpassed.I can also recommend their edition of Murnau's Faust-another triumph.Strongly recommended!!!

Customer Reviews:

Makes you feel the cold just watching........2007-12-10

Another great John Mills film this time as the explorer Robert Scott.The film was brillant great cinematography.The movie makes you feel cold just watching it.This badly needs to be restored it is highly watchable but picture does need a bit of a clean up.No extras here either.Still a great film to add to your collection

This is the version to get.......2006-12-23

If you're after a copy of Scott of the Antarctic starring John Mills, with the superb filmscore by Vaughan Williams, this Optimum Classic is the transfer to get. Given the age of the film (released 1948), the colour photography is vibrant, and the sound crisp and clear in this transfer. Don't make the mistake I made of ordering 905 Entertainment's cheaper but very inferior transfer available from Amazon.com (this looks as if it was trasferred from a video copy, with colours washed out - looking rather like coloured-in black and white - and a soundtrack that sounds both muffled and harsh).

Printing the legend.......2006-10-10

The Brits love nothing so much as their heroic failures, and Scott of the Antarctic is pretty much the poster boy for Imperial underachievers, thanks in part to the publishing success his very heavily edited diary (none of those crabby bits blaming everyone else for his own mistakes made the cut) and a neat bit of mythmaking from J.M. Barrie, who invented a fictional heroic death for him. Surprisingly, although it doesn't dare to criticize and does play down Scott's awkwardness and snobbery, Ealing's beautifully lensed color epic holds back from deifying him, offering a more sober portrait than you might expect. Amundsen is purely an offscreen presence here, despite proffering the sneaking suspicion that he's a bit of a bounder and a cad for getting there first by being competent (not the British way of exploring at all!), and legendary Norwegian Arctic pioneer Nansen only gets a brief look in (and no mention of his affair with Scott's wife: goodness, no!), but then this is more a film about stoic endurance in the face of `bad luck' (rather than bad leadership and bad planning) than the race for the South Pole. John Mills is surprisingly good casting for Scott, his slight awkwardness with others suggesting he'd done his homework (his gutted reaction to reaching the Pole second is convincingly bitter), and the supporting cast is full of welcome mainstays of the British film industry - Kenneth More, James Robertson Justice (without a beard for once!), Reginald Beckwith et al. Although the integration with the studio work isn't always entirely convincing, the location photography is genuinely staggering and Vaughn Williams score is impressively forlorn.

No extras, but a good transfer.

Average customer rating:

A triple dose of the "yellow peril"

Titles included

The Fu Manchu Trilogy

Manufacturer: Momentum Pictures
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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Similar Items:

Blood Of Fu Manchu / Castle Of Fu Manchu [1965]

Blood Of Fu Manchu / Castle Of Fu Manchu [1965]

Fu Manchu Tu-Fer: The Blood of Fu Manchu/The Castle of Fu Manchu

The Curse Of The Mummy's Tomb [1964]

The Fu-Manchu Omnibus : The Mystery of Dr Fu-Manchu, the Devil Doctor, the Si-Fan Mysteries: "Mystery of Dr. Fu-Manchu", "Devil Doctor", "Si-Fan Mysteries" Vol 1 (A&B Crime)

ASIN: B0000VJHVC
Release Date: 2003-10-27

Customer Reviews:

A triple dose of the "yellow peril".......2004-12-13

First of all let me express my thanks to the other reviewer who alerted me to which titles were included in this pack. Yes, the first three (and best) of the five Fu Manchu movies starring Christopher Lee ('The Face of Fu Manchu','Brides of Fu Manchu' and 'Vengeance of Fu Manchu') are all cased together here in what is admittedly a rather flimsy cardboard box. No matter though because the actual amray DVD cases cover art is stylishly designed with lots of color including on the back both shots from the particular movie in question as well screenshots of the DVD main menu and scene selections.

I had read some reviews that the picture and audio quality was rather poor on these releases but I noticed none of this on my 32" screen TV, with the picture being vibrant and colorful and the sound on par with what one might expect from features this old.

Unfortunately this set is rather lacking in special features, only offering a trailer for each picture. But for some nice documentaries on the movies one can check out the other two movies in the series ('The Blood of Fu Manchu' and 'The Castle of Fu Manchu') that are available in another 2-movie set.

Still, despite the lack of special features this set is a pure steal with three fun movies for one low price. It's another reason I (in the USA) can thank my lucky stars that region-free DVD players are so prevalent today.

Titles included.......2004-11-17

A great box set-for anybody wandering this contains the brides of fu manchu, the vengencance of fu manchu and the face of fu manchu. This is a great buy, much better value than each individual film. Great acting from Christopher Lee. A classic

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