Customer Reviews:
Peurile!.......2008-03-02
Fantastic cast, appalling script. I'll forgive Robert Carlyle's awful accent, but the script - no.
I thought this film would have been a great vehicle for some Liverpool wit, how wrong I was. The last time I cringed this much was during Kenneth Branagh's "Frankenstein".
This was no "Lock Stock & Two Smoking Barrels". There was no subtlety, in fact, it was pure pantomine.
LOVE IT or HATE IT.......2007-11-25
Forget what anyone writes about this film, good or bad. It is a film you simply MUST see for yourself. You will love or hate it, but then you will know where to file it in your collection.
My copy is at the top, being watched on average every 4 weeks, and I still keep seeing new things I missed before because I was laughing at the time.
The characters are ULTRA strong, giving a wide choice of personalities to follow on this mad adventure. And with great performances throughout, you can't wait to get to the next part to see what's going to happen next.
A great example of this is one of the lesser characters, a small-time thug who intends dishing out bodily harm wherever he goes. His frequent cameo appearances during the story always end in him being bashed by whoever he was threatening, with hilarious results.
Samuel L. Jackson is immense in most films I see him in, and this is no exeption. He makes you believe that you are actually watching the character from the story, not an actor playing the part. A pair of glasses, a small moustache, or in this film, a kilt and corn rolls, just seems to transform the man amazingly into the character.
The accents are so varied that some may have difficulty hearing the jokes first time around, or understanding the football references between Liverpool and Manchester United, but apart from that, this is a superbly well-presented story, acted and directed to deliver a thousand laughs.
[3.5 stars]-Samuel L. Jackson in a Kilt!.....now that's funny.......2007-07-05
This film is all about style, humor and pace and not about character or plotting. In this regard it is an enjoyable ride, albeit a silly and energetic one. The hyper directing from Yu really suits this and he does well even if he is not really very original in regards his shots etc. The editing fits with the formula set by Ritchie and is pretty much what you expect. What makes the film stand out from the rest of the copies is that it actually is quite good fun to watch (as opposed to some copies that are just cheap and nasty) - never hilarious but it is energetic enough to pull you along with it no matter how silly it gets. Of course it has weak points - a few characters are too daft and, whenever the overall plot is the main focus then it struggles.
Despite this the cast do well to keep things moving and they play a massive part in making this work. Jackson may not be doing anything new or wonderful here but he is key to the film working and he is worth every penny they must have paid him. He has great presence and he brings a lot of fun and energy to the film in a way that his lesser co-stars cannot. Carlyle is a good actor but he pales in comparison to Jackson in this - he isn't helped by the awful accent he is lumbered with and the fact that he is a little irritating. Mortimer is annoying as her character is just daft in the context of the plot, but not as annoying as Meatloaf who is easily the worst thing in the film. The support cast includes reasonable turns from Pertwee, Ifans, Tomlinson and Barber but this is Jackson's film 100% and it is difficult to imagine it being as enjoyable without him.
`Formula 51' a.ka.'51 States' moves fast, slick, and clearly had a bit of cash thrown at it and, apart from a handful of stupidly silly moments, is actually quite fun to watch - even if it is almost instantly forgettable. The cast includes quite a few well-known faces but it is the great presence of Jackson (who looks like he is enjoying himself in an undemanding role) that makes this worth seeing. If you are a fan of Snatch and Lock Stocking, you will definitely recognize the ingredients of this movie.
Is that it?!.......2006-07-11
Very forgettable. Somehow despite a strong cast, we have a comedy that isn't funny, an action film that's boring, and not much to take away with you.
I really can't see what there is to laugh at. They put Samuel Jackson in a kilt because he, er, isn't Scottish - ho ho. Lots of arguments about football. A ridiculous accident and some silly fighting.
You may enjoy the film, but if you have the alternative of having a wall to stare at for 90 minutes, think carefully before choosing the film.
The 51st State.......2006-06-01
This is my humble opinion is one of the greatest action comedies ever, and i'm not one to say stuff like that.
I was initially sceptical about the uses of cliche in this film and reading some reviews I wasn't sure whether to rent the movie or not. However what comes out it is a funny and action packed film. Samuel L. Jackson is perfect for the his role and does what he usually does, constant gags and beating people up, but its fair to say that no-one does it as good as he does. However for me the real star of the film is Robert Carlyle who is not only funny but believable as a Scouse low life.
Altogether this film is very good and comes highly recommended, despite some critics panning the film when it first came out this film is very enjoyable, it may not raise any serious questions about life, isn't very profound and isn't too sophisticated buy hey, its just damn good entertainment.
Amazon.co.uk Review
How can you hate a movie that features ninja Siamese cats wreaking havoc with their kung fu prowess? Cats & Dogs is an effects-laden family film that mystifies cat fanciers by casting dogs as the undisputed heroes in all-out warfare with nefarious felines. Hidden headquarters and high-tech gadgets are featured on both sides of this age-old battle. On the feline side, the long-haired Persian Mr. Tinkles (voice of Sean Hayes) plots to sabotage the efforts of Professor Brody (Jeff Goldblum) to discover a cure for human allergies to dogs. On the canine side, stalwart shepherd Butch (voice of Alec Baldwin) trains the mistakenly recruited beagle puppy Lou (voice of Tobey Maguire) to foil Mr. Tinkles's scheme--a mission that begins when Mrs. Brody (Elizabeth Perkins) adopts Lou for her son Scott (Alexander Pollock).
Using combinations of live animals, animatronic puppets and digital wizardry, Cats & Dogs has just enough imagination to match its effects, climaxing with a feline global-domination scheme involving mice sprayed with chemicals that will make all humans allergic to dogs. Goldblum and Perkins gamely play second fiddles to this menagerie of mayhem and, as madcap "realism" gives way to cartoonish fantasy, the movie escalates into utter chaos, burdened by lame jokes but highlighted by a furry supporting cast including a Saluki hound (voice of Susan Sarandon), a shaggy sheepdog (voice of Michael Clarke Duncan), and a Chinese hairless techno-geek named Peek (voice of Joe Pantoliano). Though never as charming as the Babe movies, Cats & Dogs is harmless fun--especially for dog lovers. --Jeff Shannon, Amazon.com
Customer Reviews:
A well made little tale........2008-01-20
Set in the Far North of Alaska in the 24 hour darkness of the winter which is an all-important thread to this story in a small town of some 250 or so inhabitants which are reducing in number all the time as the serial killer is on the prowl.Malcolm McDowell plays Dexter Mills the towns barber to whom all the menfolk tell their problems and all the latest gossip.The sheriff and his deputies are basically incompetent with this type of crime and the volume and it's not too long before the FBI come on the scene.But the murders continue and so do the ironies but to say more would spoil the story. Well worth a look.
A Claustrophobic Chiller.......2006-11-24
"The Barber" is a tale of a small Alaskan town that discovers a serial killer on the loose as they are stocking up and settling themselves in for a hard winter.
The story is told through the eyes of the local barber - who knows everyone, and hears each of their stories and opinions as he cuts their hair. As suspicion falls from one person to the next in the close-knit community, the FBI arrives. The film becomes a tale about the individuals in the community; gradually revealing their stories and their secrets, from the inexperienced and often incompetent local Sheriff's Department to lonely members of the community indulging in unexpected relationships with their trusted neighbours. And it's because of that community trust that innocent girls are beginning to fall prey to a bigger threat than winter, or the S.A.D disorder that afflicts the towns inhabitants because of it.
There are a couple of nice edges to this film, one being the genuine sense of claustrophobia, as if the viewers too are hemmed into a town in the far north, surrounded by a 24 hour darkness and cut off by heavy snows. Another is McDowell's portrayal as the local barber, the town's agony-uncle and diplomat, though one who occasionally slips up and shows his off-kilter side.
I got this film very cheaply on Amazon and because of that, didn't expect too much from it; but it was a nice surprise and a worthwhile purchase. Seasonal, too ...
Customer Reviews:
A different Production of Christy. But a nice One.......2007-09-13
This movie is not like the TV series that we all know and come to love.
It is in my view stand alone movies not relating to the TV series at all.
If you approach the movie not comparing it to the TV series, you might actually enjoy this movie and the other two that follow.
This might not be a 5 star production but in my view it is a wholesome production with reference to God and the Bible.
Amazon.co.uk Review
While not the adult-interest title that its moniker might suggest, Whipped is still a near-the-knuckle, extremely bawdy comedy of grown-up pursuits. Set in New York, it takes a less than flattering look at the games played by the single men and women of the city, in particular three young males--Brad, Jonathon and Zeke. Their lives centre around "scamming" women and meeting up once a week to brag about their exploits, that is until they all come across the woman of their dreams. Coincidentally, this happens at the same time. Less than coincidentally, it happens to be the same woman, Mia (Amanda Peet).
The machinations that follow their discovery of this strange turn of events form the bulk of the storyline, as each attempts to stab his friend in the back in order to win Mia's affections. The film fails, however, because its portrayal of the three desperate men is so uncanny that it's impossible to establish even the slightest empathy towards them. Consequently Whipped degenerates into a succession of base sexual jokes and charmless attempts at emotion before finally running out of steam after 90 minutes. Its denouement is doubtless intended to be seen as a pro-feminist statement, but merely indicates that women can be just as shallow and unpleasant as men. In the hands of an independent European filmmaker, Whipped could have been a comedy of style and panache but, as it is, the movie is a joyless experience.
On the DVD: Whipped on DVD has good, yet unremarkable, sound and picture quality. There are no extras aside from a trailer, which gives a fair indication of the less-than-stunning experience ahead. --Phil Udell
Customer Reviews:
Fantastic.......2002-04-30
Four men who meet regularly every Sunday to compare notes on their latest conquest all get in over their heads when they fall for the same woman (Peet). Little do they know that Peet is playing them all for fools, and their lives and friendships will never be the same. The film is absolutely hilarious with some floor-banging, jaw-droppingly funny moments. I highly recommend it.
Amazon.co.uk Review
With The Man Who Wasn't There the Coen brothers--those ironic geniuses of left-field bizarre--have pulled off another side-swerve into the unexpected. A movie "about a hairdresser who wants to become a dry-cleaner" as the brothers gleefully claim to have pitched it, it's set in 1949 in the small Northern California town of Santa Rosa (venue for Hitchcock's 1943 classic Shadow of a Doubt) and filmed in lustrous, deep-shadowy black-and-white--an affectionate, though never slavish, tribute to the great era of film noir.
Not only in its austere monochrome but in its tone, it comes as a total contrast to the Coens' previous film, the cheerfully picaresque O Brother, Where Art Thou?. Though they toss in plenty of surreal gags, including a whole running thread about flying saucers (this is Roswell-era America, after all), the overall mood is quiet, reflective and even--something quite new for the Coens--compassionate. Their protagonist, barber Ed Crane (Billy Bob Thornton, proving himself one of the great chameleon actors of our time), is a man trapped by his own impassivity--inside him, a seething mass of emotion that he's utterly unable to express. In true Coen style, his frustration leads him into a fatal move that spirals disastrously out of control.
Thornton is ably supported by a whole gallery of Coen regulars--Frances McDormand, Jon Polito, Tony Shalhoub--plus James Gandolfini (The Sopranos) and an amazingly assured turn from Scarlett Johansson (Ghost World). The dialogue, as you'd expect, is masterly, while the brothers' regular collaborators Director of Photography Roger Deakins and production designer Dennis Gassner work wonders of period evocation, and Carter Burwell contributes a haunting score.
On the DVD: The Man Who Wasn't There comes to DVD in a sharp, clean 1.85:1 anamorphic transfer that captures all the depth and subtlety of Deakins' superb photography, impeccably matched by the crystal-clear Dolby 5.1 Surround Sound. A lavish helping of extras includes a trailer and two TV spots, stills photo gallery, filmographies, a 16-minute "making of" featurette, an overlong (47 minutes) interview with Deakins, a batch of deleted scenes, and best of all, the voice-over commentary. This gives us not just Joel and Ethan, but Billy Bob as well, chatting and chortling and clearly enjoying every second of the movie they've made. Their enthusiasm is irresistible. --Philip Kemp
Customer Reviews:
Lovingly crafted work of pure genius.......2008-02-07
'The closer you look, the less you see', remarks the brilliantly Jewish lawyer in this film. Some have said the same about the typical Coen film script, but when it comes as multi-layered and intricate as this, as well as being shot in sublime film noir photography, who cares if the philosophy might not be as deep as it first appears? And every performance here is a delight, from the aforementioned sophisitic genius of a laywer who yet has to admit that this murder plot 'makes his head hurt', to the effortless beauty and charm of a teenage heartbreaker Scarlett Johansson. In fact, its hard to pick out any one above the others in this lovingly crafted work of genius, save perhaps for the magnificantly languid yet inwardly seething main character played to absolute perfection by Billy Bob Thornton.
a lacklustre Coen movie...well there's a thing!.......2008-01-20
The Coen brothers (Joel and Ethan, both of whom write, produce and direct this movie) have made some great films (Raising Arizona, Blood Simple, Fargo, Millers Crossing) and one or two not so good (the Hudsucker Proxy and their pointless retreading of the Ealing classic the Ladykillers spring to mind). However, it's a rare thing to find a Coen film that falls somewhere between these two points, but this is exactly where we find ourselves with the Man Who Wasn't There.
Billy Bob Thornton plays Ed Crane, a barber living a quiet life in small town California in the late 40's. Living up to the title of the film, Ed is a virtual non-entity, barely speaking to anyone around him and finding people constantly forgetting his name due to his lack of anything approaching a personality. However, Ed does not seem to mind this, happy it seems to go along with his quiet life. His wife Doris (Francis McDormand) is much more materialistic than Ed, and indulges herself thanks to her job at the local department store Nirdlingers. There, she and her boss "Big" Dave Brewster (James Gandolfini) flirt and arrange their little dalliances at a local hotel, confident that no one is any the wiser. However, Ed is aware of his wife's infidelity, and so when an opportunity to make some money and get "free and clear" as he constantly refers to it, Ed decides to blackmail Dave, anonymously of course, setting himself up as the innocent party. Needless to say, as this is a Coen brothers film, things do not go to plan, and pretty soon Ed's big plan is unravelling before his very eyes.
The film is best described as something of a tongue in cheek tribute to the classics of film noir, what with its heavy voice over by Ed, telling his tale, its fabulous use of light and shadow (particularly in one memorable scene in which hot shot lawyer Freddy Reidenschneider (Tony Shaloub) explains that by looking at something to closely one can often fail to see the bigger picture, whilst all the time his face is bathed in just enough light to obscure his features) and of course its stark black and white cinematography, except this isn't stark black and white, rather it is shades of grey (apparently the film was shot in colour and then altered to give it that film noir look), a useful metaphor for the feel of this film. Thornton gives a virtually unknowable performance as a man who simply doesn't fill the space he occupies, and no matter what happens to him fails to manifest any kind of true emotions. Coupled with a series of strange asides that occupy much of the film (including a very out of leftfield moment involving UFO's, which manifests itself again at the end of the movie, and may be a clue as to what's really going on with Ed, but could also be a spot of wish fulfilment) the film remains unengaging. It is not a bad film by any stretch of the imagination, but it is not amongst the best of the Coen's film's, which leaves the viewer strangely ambivalent.
great.......2007-05-10
I got this on the basis of the title and that's it. I've not been too impressed in general by the Coen Brothers and can't understand what the fuss is about The Big Lebrowski. Anyhoo this film has a great atmosphere built up with lovely visuals and an enigmatic anti-hero. Its all well acted and the story is very entertaining.
Clever but contrived.......2007-01-08
I just wanted to add a note of caution - I'm a fan of both the Coen Brother's work and Film Noir but felt let down by this production.
I hate to agree with Jonathan Ross about the weak story development, but the plot is constructed to suit the film rather than vice versa and as a whole it enables a stunning tribute to a past era of film making, with superb acting direction and cinematography, but I was left feeling somehow empty, having watched a contrived pastiche or hamage rather than a film which is substantial for it's own merit.
Watching this film was as unsatisfying as eating a banquet with the taste turned down low...it looks good, does the job but leaves me feeling that I've missed by the experience.
the film that wasn't there.......2006-12-01
After the success of their southern odyssey O Brother, Where Art Thou?, the Coen brothers once again proved themselves to be the most unpredictable filmmakers in Hollywood by serving up The Man Who Wasn't There, a dream-like, detached, languid neo-noir right out of leftfield, standing in stark contrast to the misadventures of Ulysses Everett McGill and co. Not least because the film is shot in black and white, but because it maintains an almost Zen-like air of quiet (although definitely not tranquillity) throughout, due in large part to Billy-Bob Thornton's stoic and enigmatic performance as Ed Crane, the nucleus of this mood movie.
Crane is a disenfranchised barber (he doesn't much care for the title) with a disenfranchised wife living in Santa Rosa, 1949. He cuts hair; she works in a department store. Their relationship is barely existent, they seem to just be one of those couples. Things start happening when Ed gets drawn into a business opportunity -as a silent partner no less- involving a dry-cleaning enterprise. He needs $10,000 to get in on it. Acting on suspicions of infidelity on his wife's part, he turns to blackmail, leading to murder, and wrongful imprisonment. If all this sounds like quite a ride, dash those thoughts now. Most of this is tied up by the hour mark, leaving the rest of the film to ruminate on isolation, wasted life and UFO's. Although quite a departure, even for the preposterously eclectic Coens, the film remains unmistakeably theirs. They imbue it with such a vivid visual style, thanks in part to Roger Deakins' austere cinematography, that the film does take on, fairly early, the feel of a dazed half-dream with Thornton's bone-dry voiceover your guide. some may see this film as style trumping substance, especially as it drifts away and disintegrates toward the end, but let yourself get swept up in Ed Crane's unusual story and you'll see that here it is no bad thing at all, but in fact an incredibly affecting experience.
UK DVD:
- The Blob [1988] (REGION 1) (NTSC)
- The Burning [1981] (REGION 1) (NTSC)
- The Cave [UMD Mini for PSP] [2005]
- The Changeling [1980]
- The Day Of The Triffids
- The Descent
- The Descent (2 Disc Special Edition) [2005]
- The Devil's Rejects - Special Edition [2005]
- The Entity [1982]
- The Eye (Collector's Edition) [2002]
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