Perfect Understanding (1933)

As a classic film enthusiast, I was somewhat surprised that I'd never even heard of the 1933 Ealing Studio release "Perfect Understanding." Not only does it carry the Ealing brand, it boasts a screenplay by the great Michael Powell and lead performances from Laurence Olivier and Gloria Swanson. Heck, that's all I need to know! Sign me up. Billed as a romantic comedy, I'm not sure the movie entirely succeeds under this description. With aspects that veer from slapstick to complete melodrama, the tone of "Perfect Understanding" veers all over the place. An unconventional domestic drama centered around infidelity (both imagined and real), there are some aspects of the movie that play deadly serious. These moments are (for my taste) the strongest in the film. When it plays for a lighter appeal, the manic energy can feel somewhat overdone and chaotic. At times, it seems as if two different movies are competing against one another. But despite these reservations, it's still a easy recommendation for fans of Olivier and Swanson! They make the picture worth a look!

Swanson and Olivier play a young society couple who don't want to fall into the same trap as their other married friends. They want a marriage in which they can retain their independence without all the baggage of traditional domesticity. It's a fine arrangement (a perfect understanding, if you will) in theory, but somewhat harder in practice. After a blissful honeymoon, the couple separate at the end of their vacation. With Olivier enjoying the festivities of Cannes, his old circle of friends and a former flame end up sharing time with the new groom. Can he withstand the temptation of another woman? Coincidentally, Swanson also has another suitor on the home front. When the couple reunite, how much honesty can their relationship bear? Between real offenses and certain misconceptions, this marital experiment seems doomed to failure. Can love prevail? Should it?

I really liked Swanson and Olivier together. Swanson was trying to establish herself in the talkies after being a silent screen star and she even produced this movie (the only film she ever made in Britain). Olivier was a stage star (a trained Shakespearean actor) newly into a film career. They have an easy chemistry and charm to spare. If you know them primarily from their later works, this more lightweight piece is an interesting counterpoint. Olivier, in particular, is downright dashing! I don't think "Perfect Understanding" is an essential classic, by any means, but it is definitely worth a look. The early scenes are especially jumbled with dozens of characters and relationships thrown at you rather haphazardly. Things start to settle, however, once we leave this extended opening. Again, I probably wouldn't classify this as romantic comedy (although some might). To me, it's more of a relationship drama with some lighter moments. KGHarris, 5/13.

I love classic films. Especially old black `n whites. I couldn't say why exactly. I think it's that they're a bit more primal about how they had to approach the filmmaking process. They didn't have all of the tricks and twists of special effects and fancy-pants editing, so they were largely confined to using dialogue that great, great form of communication to convey so very much of the story. Without good, snappy dialogue, those movies of old were destined to one day end up on the trash heap. Consequently, I think they produced better screenwriters folks who had a learned ear for what sounded right, what conveyed the proper sentiment, what captured a precise emotion for their audiences. Still, it's a shame that more of these `classics' don't get the treatment PERFECT UNDERSTANDING has; it's an impressive discovery, and I can only hope there's more to come from the folks behind the Cohen Film Collection.

(NOTE: The following review will contain minor spoilers necessary solely for the discussion of plot and characters. If you're the kind of reader who prefers a review entirely spoiler-free, then I'd encourage you to skip down to the last two paragraphs for my final assessment. If, however, you're accepting of a few modest hints at `things to come,' then read on ...)

Judy Rogers (played by the forever lovely Gloria Swanson) and Nicholas Randall (a young and thin Laurence Olivier) are socialites in love. However, they see couples all around them mired in one unhappy marriage after another. Hoping to `buck the trend,' Judy and Nick decide the best they can do to preserve their own relationship magic is to draft a "marriage agreement," one which promises they will never argue, they will always treat one another as lovers, and they will always respect one another's private happiness. What appears to be a perfect understanding only leads to the discover of one imperfection after another as Nick succumbs to the charms of a former lover (Nora Swinburne) and Judy almost falls into the arms of another (John Halliday). Can they find happiness again or are they now destined for divorce?

Wow. Talk about a real eye-opener! PERFECT UNDERSTANDING was way ahead of its time. In fact, the agreement fashioned by the two lovebirds in the opening could almost be likened to an `open marriage' by contemporary standards. In fact, his own personal guilt forces Nick to confess, and Judy appears perfectly willing to forgive him; that is until she divulges her marital woes to her old friend, Ivan. To make matters worse, Judy realizes she's pregnant while it's clear to her that the child belongs to her one and only true love, Nick's suspicions only serve to push the two of them further and further apart. What's amazing is how open and nonchalant the script by Michael Powell treats all of this, almost as if this were the status quo in marital relationships of the time. I daresay it wasn't this was 1933, after all though Hollywood socialites and debutantes were always `ahead of the curve' when it comes to social mores. That much hasn't changed.

The film is smartly directed from staging to cinematography by Cyril Gardner. Gardner made impressive use of some vast interior sets, and he moved the plot along briskly by making extensive use of some rather elaborate video montages to establish the passage of time as well as the build-up of marital tension. Also, it's exciting to see Olivier so fresh and new in his career (promotional materials provided to me with the release point out he was only but a few years along in film); and, even at this ripe age, he was a master at the witty banter establishing the high points of his love with Judy (Swanson). The two of them handle both ends of the scale with great skill the first half is punctuated by their constant repartee while the latter half is richly nuanced with desperate, longing expressions of their mutual torture.

Billed largely as a "comedy of manners," UNDERSTANDING may not be PERFECT, but it's pretty darn close, and it's pretty darn impressive.

PERFECT UNDERSTANDING was produced by Gloria Swanson British Productions (the only film she made in Britain). DVD distribution is being handled through Cohen Media Group. As for the technical specifications, the film looks and sounds very solid be aware this is a (standard) two-track audio, and there's some marked gaps in quality in the first fifteen minutes or so, but it clears up as the film progresses. The Blu-ray release is blessed with two selected shorts from the era (two Mack Sennett shorts "Husband's Reunion" and "Dream Stuff").

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED. Given the era, it's certainly an exercise in some curious morality. PERFECT UNDERSTANDING is a wonderful find from Cohen this is its Blu-ray and DVD debut. It's been longingly restored for this release, and who wouldn't want to experience this Gloria Swanson/Laurence Olivier rom-com now that it's available? The script captures the marked trend of the time to propel the narrative through the use of clever dialogue and it's brilliantly delivered by two masters of the craft. I'll admit it dragged a bit for me in the last fifteen minutes that's when the marriage is coming apart but rest assured there will be a happy ending for those who work for it most ... just like in life!

In the interests of fairness, I'm pleased to disclose that the fine folks at Cohen Media Group provided me with an advance DVD copy of PERFECT UNDERSTANDING by request for the expressed purposes of completing this review.

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This is a great little travelogue of a film, with great shots of various European locations, back before both WW2 bombing and later, globalization, had tampered with the scenery.There couldn't have been much international tourism in 1933, so these characters are indeed priveleged. Olivier seems very good here, not insufferably intense and hard to believe as he became after he returned to England in the 40's (though this is apparently an English film, with Gloria Swanson as a producer and other American actors it doesn'seem so.)

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El Mariachi / Desperado (Double Feature) (1995)

This is an excellent blu ray. El Mariachi's source is not without its flaws, and it looks it, but most imperfections can largely be attributed to the low budget nature of the film and it certainly looks better than any previous home video release. Desperado, which had a substantially bigger budget, looks splendid on blu ray. The colors are vibrant, the blacks are strong, and contrast is good. As with El Mariachi, Desperado has never looked better. Pick this up if you're a fan of these movies, you will not be disappointed.

Two movies for a great price. Now the movies: I have owned Desprado on DVD for a while and love the movie. I would give it more than five stars if I could. As for El Marachi surprisingly another fine Robert Rodriguez film. Frankly I never before had heard and believed that it was Desperado but in Spanish. I was wrong and found out what El's motivation for killing drug dealers came from. Thank goodness the film was transferred as is and was not ruined with a computerized enhancement. You see the grain of the film which added grittiness to the film. The only thing that I highly recommend that you turn on the English subtitles and listen to the original Spanish audio. The English dub track is Godawful you will enjoy the film much better. As an avid anime and Chinese Kung Fu fan I have heard worse dub tracks and this is the same. You will get more enjoyment and the translation of the subtitles give more depth to the story then listening to the dubbed audio. In wanting to match lips to dialog inevitably is butchered when English I'd synced to the film. All that said both films are trademark Robert Rodriguez movies. These are not masterpieces in need of an award, but they are great action films for guys to enjoy with humor mixed in with the blood and guts.

I am happy these were released together. Otherwise I most likely would have watched it on cable with the horrible English dub.

Even though it is said that Once Upon A Time In Mexico is the finale of the movies it does nothing but embarrass Robert Rodrigez. I am sure it was made with a bigger budget and they tried to make up for the poor script with some big named actors and blood and guts. These two are all you need to see IMHO

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Guitars and guns. What's not to like? Desperado looks and sounds great. El Mariachi is... well... El Mariachi. Rough, raw and unpolished.

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The two movies had different actors to play the same character as the same theme continued from one movie to the other. The Blu-ray version of El Mariachi had the lines spoken in English which the previous DVD (non-Blu-ray) did not the only speech for the dialogue was non-English (in Mexican). I propaply had more interest in Desperado of the two it had many of the same actors as were in Once Upon a time in Mexico. They are all movies I like to watch repeatedly.

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The copy of El Mariachi is really rather poor quality, but it's probably about as good as it can be. I gather it's a telecine of a film copy of the original hardly Bluray quality. It's interesting as the first film Robert Rodriguez made.

Desperado, by contrast, is much better quality. It is a sequel to El Mariachi, but clearly made with a much larger budget.

Having these two together is a much better deal than having El Mariachi by itself.

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Flight: The Genius of Birds

In the best sense of the word, FLIGHT is not so much an argument for intelligent design, as it is a picturesque, graceful tribute to the genius of birds, to honest sense and level-headedness. Let me name anything heavier-than-air that flies, and I'd expect you to show me an instrument designed and engineered--and here's the key--by someone capable of design and engineering.

Helicopters are made of materials found on earth. How long, one might suppose, would those elements need be blown about by wind and sea and time and chance before a helicopter emerged?

FLIGHT says little more than that. But in making the obvious more obvious, it reaches beyond blueprint to visual beauty, beyond execution to emotional ecstasy. Who among us hasn't wanted to fly? Flight's investigation of birds will both amaze and uplift. One cannot ask for more. The film puts our heads on alert and our hearts on the wing.

In February of 1969, a stunning, larger-than-life Boeing 747 rose on its maiden voyage into the sky above Seattle. No one watching its magnificent ascent or its poetic descent on its first glide path believed they were witnessing a mutation of assemblage. Find the current 747 online Wikipedia entry and note the key words of the outline: proposal, design, production, and development. These are not the monikers of accident and chance, whether for the 747 or the starling.

I am grateful to FLIGHT and its makers. It answers questions and dispels nonsense of all kinds. More, it inspires. Beauty and truth always do.

What an incredible film! The grandeur and design of God has never been so clearly evident as in a bird's feather. My husband and I were astounded by the intricate mechanisms and intricate details that enable a bird to fly . . . and we were equally impressed with the film Flight: The Genius of Birds. We can't wait to share it with the rest of our family.

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The photography is outstanding, making the video mesmerizing. We couldn't take our eyes off it. The film focused on only a few bird species in detail, which included the hummingbird, the arctic tern, and the starling. Each species has amazing features to ponder. We found the starling flocks containing many thousands of birds especially fascinating.

The details about the hummingbirds were super. How those little hearts could beat so fast, somewhere around 1200 beats per minute (going to have to watch it again soon) boggled me. The speaker said many birds' heart rates are over 500 beats per minute. I know how uncomfortable it feels when my heart approaches 150/min during a bout of atrial fibrillation, but the little guys and gals at the hummer feeder seem perfectly calm and content as they lap the extra concentrated nectar I make for them.

The evidence for intelligent design was clear and compelling. Birds are not glorified, flying lizards. The metabolism, musculature and skeletal systems of birds are perfectly adapted for flight. How all the required features for flight could develop by a long series of fortuitous accidents guided by natural selection requires blind faith, for there is no empirical evidence that birds evolved from some unidentified ancestor.

The presenters compared some human engineering accomplishments of well-designed flying machines, including a tiny, hummingbird like drone to the amazing designs found in birds. The design features in birds are far more elegant and effective that those designed by men. They talked about how evolutionary biologists insist students regard all the design features seen in organisms as development by mutation and natural selection over a nearly infinite span of time. The mantra is that "anything" is possible given enough time. A probability becomes a possibility, and that becomes a certainty. But when, the numbers are crunched, the probabilities are pooh-poohed by evolutionists because they are convinced with perfect faith that the universe and life was inevitable.

Evolutionists have speculated endlessly over the origin of birds, but birds are so unlike terrestrial creatures, that evolutionists cannot agree among themselves how it all happened. However, they insist with perfect faith that birds must have evolved from some dinosaur or lizard. The required structural and metabolic changes required to make such a transformation are outside the scope of science, yet evolutionists fill textbooks with ad hoc explanations how such transmutations might have occurred and then considered it virtual and incontrovertible fact.

The film referred to the development of the egg embryo without burdening the viewer with additional technical information concerning molecular biology and related fields. It did mention that the various cell types moved into their proper place as the bird embryo developed. Evolutionists say 97% of a species' DNA is junk because it doesn't code for protein. Clearly, most of a species' genome is involved in development, regulation, and other functions necessary to produce a viable organism.

I know crusading evolutionists are going to give this video a 1-star rating and put it down as stupid and made by ignorant creationists, but that goes with the territory. While atheists generally make up about 10% of the population, they often make up 50% of the reviews on Amazon--trying to stuff the ballot box. I've noticed that any book or film dealing with origins, evidence for God, or intelligent design is attacked by the same crew.

Enjoy the film. It is delightful and informative.

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This very colorful, informative, well-documented film is all about birds, focusing on a few examples including hummingbirds, starlets, and arctic terns. It also covers the design of the wing, feathers, and the muscle and bone structure, showing in excellent animation how birds are designed to fly as well as their development. At the end it covers some evolution theories as well as design arguments. Highly recommended.

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Awesome film! You've got to see I! Very impressive and great photography. Recommend it highly. This is something you need to see?

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Les visiteurs du soir (The Criterion Collection) (1942)

As a huge fan of the works of Marcel Carne and Jacques Prevert, it is unfortunate to learn that other than 'Children of Paradise', none of their works are available on DVD. However, it is at least some consolation when you find that they are still in print on VHS. Considering that one of the finest films of all time, 'L'Atalante' by genius Jean Vigo has gone out of print on video, and that no one has bothered to put it back on the shelves, I must say that for such old French classics such as this one to still be around is a fact worth commending.

'Les Visiteurs de Soir' literally translates into 'The Visitors of the Evening', but the English world has taken the liberty of calling it 'The Devil's Envoys'. This remarkable gem, a remnant of the early 1940s, is French romanticism at its best. While the original tale is a fable that children will delight in, the film-making team also saw the story as a way to make a point about the political establishment at the time. Marcel Carne has repeatedly won my respect as a film-maker, and though his crowning glory remains 'Les Enfants du Paradis', this little known film remains perhaps his most sly attempt at movie-making. Almost every sentence is a statement of political defiance, and every frame of the film is bathed in the unnaturally brilliant light that Marcel shot his movies in.

'Les Visiteurs de Soir' looks older than it actually is. Perhaps this has something to do with the horrendous transfer that this particular edition is inflicted with. There are patches where it seems the film has burned away gaping holes and scars are evident, which leads one to wonder what condition the master film is actually in. However, that minor technicality apart, the entire story reads like an adventure worth taking, although the actual transfer from page to screen is something that works in a way quite unexpected.

This is a much slower film than 'Children of Paradise'. To be honest, the only thing the two films share in common is Arletty. Here, she plays one of the Devil's Envoys, sent to a town to teach/convert/berate/observe/spoil its' inhabitants. She arrives with a male partner, and is soon dining with lords and baronesses. The dialogue is simply stunning. Arletty's performance as an androgynous being is played up and she remains a cool and aloof creature for much of the movie. However, it is the other envoy, the man, who is more affected by his new surroundings. Played by the beautiful Alain Cuny, the male envoy is a being who has never experienced the love of a human being, and his desire for the lovely Marie Dea is what forms the crux of the film.

It is at this stage that the devil enters. Played by Jules Berry as a crass old ugly sort of monster, he is an exaggeration of everything evil. He finds pleasure in the unhappiness of others, he is thrilled when people relinquish their control to him. When Marie Dea's pure and unblemished love for the male envoy seems beyond his control, the devil is not pleased. He does everything in his power to win her soul, and this becomes his prime challenge.

As I had mentioned before, this entire storyline is filled with political innuendo, and it doesn't take an expert in European history to figure out what is actually going on. When the devil, in rage, finally turns the lead couple to stone, another shock awaits him. Needless to say, the film ends with the devil being defeated, but the lead couple pay a price as well. And the point is made that even though the couple has lost the battle, they have won the war. Very much like the ending of 'La Vita E Bella'.

Characters are very well etched. The Devil plays the face of Germany and the German Occupation. The Devil's envoys play the young German soldiers who go in with a policy, yet return with different ideals. The French play the french, all for liberty, equality, and fraternity, and the neverending struggle to achieve all of these goals.

I especially liked Arletty's character, even though she almost disappears for the second half of the film. The most visually appealing thing about this movie is the lighting. Every frame could be an exercise in film-making the bright hues of the French morning are all lovingly captured, and the close-ups of the lead characters are so beautifully filmed. The screenplay is flawless, though at times you wish they could be a little less obvious in their message.

'Les Visiteurs de Soir' will probably never be as important as 'Les Enfants du Paradis' or the other Carne classic 'Le jour se leve'. It had its own time and place, and its' meaning was probably more relevant in the 1940s than it is today. However, there is also something timeless about its' texture and quality. This is a movie I could sit through over ten times and never be bored. As with every Carne film, it helps to be a native or taught French speaker to truly appreciate the nuances of the dialogue the yellow subtitles on this edition are especially hideous, both in the way they've been translated and their appearance but it doesn't take much to be swept in by this delightful treat of a film. I would highly recommend it to anyone who loves old French movies, and in particular, the works of the masters such as Carne and Francois Truffaut.

If you liked this, you'd love 'L'Atalante' by Jean Vigo, 'Le fille sur le pont' by Patrice Leconte, and Carne's 'Les quai de brumes'. I'd also like to bring your attention to the fact that many of Carne's works are now available on DVD from Amazon's French website, although this catalog does not yet include 'Les Visiteurs de soir'.

A relatively little-known but fascinating movie. Made during the German occupation of France, the film is set in the Late Middle Ages and deals with two envoys of the devil, Gilles and Dominique (Alain Cuny and Arletty, wonderful both) that arrive posing as wandering minstrels at the castle of a Baron where preparations for an upcoming wedding are being made. Their intention is to create havoc by breaking the hearts of all involved. These envoys have extraordinary powers to achieve these goals, like slowing time to a stop so that they can work on their targets at ease. Eventually, the very devil shows up at the castle in disguise. One can argue that the devil in the movie stands for Hitler and the Nazis and so forth, but the film works even if you don't try to watch it as a metaphor for the contemporary events of the time. The movie is memorable and evocative, with many great scenes and a great ending.

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Forget the inferior VHS version that Marc Cabir Davis describes in his 2002 review here. The now 70-year-old film has undergone a meticulous digital restoration for its debut on DVD. One can again fully appreciate the superb black and white cinematography. The soundtrack has had an impeccable 24-bit remastering, and the new English subtitles are well translated and easy to read on the screen. Also included in the new DVD package is an informative 2009 French documentary on the making of this film in 1942 under Nazi occupation and the Vichy government. In addition, there is a booklet with seven pages of text by film critic and author Michael Atkinson and seven pages of photographs from the film.

As for the film itself, see the aforementioned Davis review. I had to dock it a star because it so obviously suffers in comparison to its successor, Carne's ultimate masterpiece, "Les Enfants du Paradis" ("The Children of Paradise"). After a brilliant start (through the whole banquet sequence), the film gets progressively bogged down in its convoluted plot (that takes too long in resolving itself), becoming overly talky and a bit tedious in the process. However, the ending is so iconic that much of this can be forgiven. Also worth noting is the comment by the great French film critic Georges Sadoul, with which I would concur, that some of "the fantasy is rather forced." However, for appreciators and students of French cinema, this is a film that should not be missed, given its historical context. It launched a trend of other notable French films under the Occupation that, beneath a veneer of ostensibly escapist fare that eluded the Fascist censors, contained a subversive subtext of a yearning to be free from the forces of oppression.

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"Could you be the cause of all these troubles?"

"What do you expect? No-one loves me. I amuse myself as best I can."

Overshadowed outside France by both that other Medieval romantic fantasy and its director's Les Enfants du Paradis but revered in its homeland as one of the great films of the war years, Marcel Carne's Les Visiteurs du Soir has been particularly hard for non-French speakers to see for years: not released on video and unseen on UK TV for three decades, it's only with Criterion's largely unheralded DVD and Blu-ray release that many will have got the chance to finally see his tale of demons and marvels. While it doesn't cast as magic or as poetic an ethereal spell as Cocteau's La Belle et la Bete, it's still an impressive fable whose added resonance for a Nazi-occupied population is easy to see even if Carne and co-writer Jacques Prevert always insisted that no anti-Nazi subtext was intended, the Medieval setting simply the easiest way to get around the German censors.

The plot is simple: two minstrels arrive at a castle, whose occupants are celebrating the betrothal of the Baron's daughter initially unaware that the two visitors (Arletty and Alain Cuny) have been sent by the Devil to sow discord by loving and destroying them and leaving the Devil to pick up the tab. Not that they don't have plenty of raw material to work with: despite the jollity of the banquets and the lack of work for the executioner, the castle is almost underpinned by sadness. The Baron (Fernand Ledoux) is still mourning his lost wife, the servant girl all too aware that her plainness ensures the page she loves won't even look at her and the groom (Marcel Herrand) is more interested in songs of hunting and killing than of love, confused by his bride-to-be Marie Dea's kindness towards unfortunates and dismissing her dreams because "Dreams are dangerous and useless. I never dream myself." For all the elegance and fairytale settings, it's a cruel world where love is a weapon to make people tear themselves apart: "It isn't worth a single tear. It's nothing but a story invented to amuse the Devil." It's a game the envoys have played so many times they're working from the same script, telling each new victim "As soon as I saw you, I knew why I'd travelled so far. I thanked Heaven for leading me to you."

Yet the envoys aren't ethereal symbolic figures but have their own tortured dysfunctional relationship of recriminations and mockery, revisiting their failed and false romance on their victims. Arletty enjoys her work, particularly if it means leading men to their death or to the very place she has come from, but Cluny is increasingly tortured by the deal he has made with the Devil, even more so when he genuinely falls in love with the bride-to-be. From then on the film becomes a battle for hearts and souls as Jules Barry's Devil enters the fray, appearing everywhere at once to mislead, corrupt or gently scold the mere mortals. It's easy to see why so many saw him as Hitler incarnate, making empty promises and offering those who collaborate with him every comfort but never able to still the pure hearts that defy him. He's a cheerful soul, certain of his eventual victory and uncomprehending of the notion of resistance, but thanks to Jacques Prevert's dialogue he doesn't get all the best lines most of those, surprisingly, go to the lovers, true or false.

It's a surprisingly lavish production for a French wartime film, Trauner's design and Roger Hubert's photography giving it a deceptively simple and attractive look for a film filled with betrayal, hopeless longing and torment. It generally favors simpler special effects than you might expect from a period fable, but at their best, such as when the envoys stop time to steal a tryst with the groom and bride-to-be, they're quietly effective. At times the film threatens to lose its grip and some of the dungeon scenes with a distressed Cluny stray perilously close to bad acting, but the spell is never broken and its easy to see why the film found such a special place in French cinema with its own brand of dark magic and cruel love. Oh, and look out for a young Simone Signoret and Alain Resnais as extras in the banquet scene.

Aside from the customary booklet there's also a 37-minute talking heads documentary with friends of Carne and Prevert and film historians that provides much information and anecdotes about the film's tortuous development Carne had been having trouble finding a project that would pass the German censors after getting out of his contract with the German-backed Continental Films while Jacques Prevert and composer Joseph Kosma had been collaborating on an unrealised version of Puss in Boots and its difficult production, which was complicated by wartime shortages (fabric for the costumes was almost impossible to find while the food in the banquet scenes had to be sprayed with toxic chemicals to stop the starving extras eating it), Vichy bureaucracy (because it was shot in both Occupied and Unoccupied France), anti-Semitic laws (both Kosma and production designer Alexander Trauner had to use fronts because it was illegal for Jews to work in French films) and scheduling (Jules Berry was making three films at the same time, shooting one in the morning, one in the afternoon and another in the evening and couldn't remember his lines), and surprisingly rapturous reception from both right and leftwing critics.

It even covers the problems of exhibiting films in wartime newsreels were shown with the lights on and a gendarme in attendance to stop the audience booing the Nazis, while only a limited number of tickets were sold to ensure that the nearest air raid shelters didn't get filled up, making it's hugely successful run it was the biggest French hit of the war years all the more remarkable. The documentary is not particularly strikingly made, but it tells the stories in a pleasingly straightforward fashion and puts the film in its historical perspective even if the transfer is obviously taken from a video master. The film's original French trailer fares worse in the picture quality stakes, looking like it was mastered from a juddery dialup internet download, but the transfer on the film itself is a beautiful restoration job with clear, sharp detail, plenty of depth and no obvious signs of digital tinkering. However, do be aware that the Blu-ray version is Region A-locked.

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Les visiteurs du soir (titled The Devil's Envoys in America) was the fourth collaboration between director Marcel Carné and screenwriter Jacques Prévert, released a few years before their masterpiece Children of Paradise. Being a big admirer of that film, as well as their other collaborations Port of Shadows and Le Jour se Lève, I had eagerly awaited this film to receive a proper release and was pleased when Criterion added it to their collection this month. With the Nazi's occupying France during this timeframe, it's said that Carné set out to make a straight-forward film that would avoid any trouble with the censors. Upon its release the film was met with acclaim with many seeing it as an allegory for the Occupation, a charge Carné fervently denied. While memorable and beautiful to look at I find Les visiteurs du soir inferior to their other collaborations, possibly because of the constraints they imposed on themselves by purposefully and carefully making a film that wouldn't upset the censors. As a result, there seems to be less freedom than in their earlier and subsequent collaborations. Their films fall under the category of poetic realism, with the poetic nature coming largely from Prévert's knack for writing beautiful, poetic dialogue. Much of the poetry here comes from the images in the film rather than words.

The story opens in May, 1485 where the Devil has sent two of his envoys to drive humans to despair. The envoys Gilles (Alain Cuny) and Dominique (Arletty) arrive at the castle of Baron Hughes (Fernand Ledox) dressed as minstrels as the castle celebrates his daughter Anne's (Marie Déa) engagement to Renaud (Marcel Herrand). The two wreak havoc by enticing those in the castle; Gilles first seduces Anne, while Dominique entrances Baron Hughes and Renaud. Things go according to plan until Gilles actually falls in love with Anne, provoking the Devil's wrath and causing him to appear at the castle to ensure that the happiness of those in the castle is truly destroyed. The Devil, as played by Jules Berry, arrives halfway through the film and this is when it really gains traction.

Shot in Nice, with uncredited art direction by Alexandre Trauner (a Hungarian Jew, whose involvement was hidden by Carné); the sets are a grand achievement. In creating a storybook world Trauner really captures a far away time and place. Of course the film is also gorgeously shot by Roger Hubert, who would go on to beautifully shoot Children of Paradise as well. The acting is terrific, with Berry giving the stand-out performance as the Devil. His maniacal energy towers over the latter hour of the film and he outshines nearly everyone in his wake. It's a mannered yet showy performance that is tremendously effective.

As stated earlier, I found the film slightly inferior to Carné and Prévert's other collaborations and much of this stems from the script that Prévert co-wrote with Pierre Laroche. Much of the dialogue revolves around declarations of love and chit-chat about love and there are times when it grows repetitious. Children of Paradise featured dialogue in the same vein and Prévert succeeded at crafting much more beautiful and memorable dialogue about that subject in far fewer words. This opinion may reflect more on my own bias than the actual quality of the film, but I was slightly let down by how unscathed I was by the dialogue here when their other films have affected me so profoundly. It was the poetic beauty of the dialogue in addition to the beauty of the images that made their other collaborations so compelling.

Regardless, Les visiteurs du soir is another triumph from Carne and Prévert's magical partnership and it's presented here in all its glory with a beautiful transfer from the Criterion Collection. The crisp elegance of the black and white photography was enough to make me swoon even when the dialogue and story failed to. Those who already deeply appreciate Carné's films will probably rank this highly, but those who are unfamiliar with his work should familiarize themselves before trying this film. Still, for any complaints I may have, it's hard to deny what a breathtaking film it is.

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The Naked Kiss (The Criterion Collection) (1964)

"EMOTIONAL VIOLENCE!" shrieks the trailer to Samuel Fuller's 1964 B-movie extravaganza "The Naked Kiss," and you'll believe that claim eventually even though it initially causes a snicker. Fuller, arguably more than any other American director of the time, helped push Hollywood far beyond the staid, cookie cutter studio productions of the 1930s, 1940s, 1950s, and early 1960s. Here's a film that is a real envelope pusher, a film that deals with themes that must have absolutely shocked audiences of the 1960s to the core of their being. Heck, "The Naked Kiss" still has the power to shock today, and that's saying something about a black and white film that is now forty years old. Fuller, who had begun challenging film audiences much earlier with such films as "Pickup on South Street" and "Shock Corridor," went on to produce, write, and direct other notable films. Before watching "The Naked Kiss," the only Fuller picture I knew about was his homage to the fighting men of World War II, 1980's "The Big Red One." According to information gleaned during several Internet excursions, the French in particular embraced Fuller even as American audiences forgot about him. The recent DVD explosion is sure to rekindle a love for the man's films on this side of the Atlantic.

We see a good deal of that emotional violence--as well as a dose of physical violence--in the opening scenes of "The Naked Kiss," as an aging yet still attractive harridan named Kelly (Constance Towers) pummels her pimp senseless with a high-heeled shoe. She's striking out on her own, taking a sum of money from her now prostrate boss in order to make her escape. Kelly feels that the years of abuse and degradation have rendered her useless and decrepit, and she hopes a new start will restore a modicum of her youthful zest for life. Two years later, we see our heroine stepping off a bus in Grantville, U.S.A., a place that makes "Leave it to Beaver" look like South Central Los Angeles. This town is so saccharine, so picture perfect in that 1950s Hollywood way that you start to wonder exactly where Fuller is taking us. Not to worry. Kelly immediately runs into police detective Griff (Anthony Eisley), a man who hangs around the bus station all day picking up women like Kelly. We also learn that Griff exploits these women by first luring them into a physical encounter before sending them off to a brothel owner named Candy (Virginia Grey). Kelly knows none of this at the start, but she learns quickly after Griff slips her a twenty for the time they spend together. Our woman is appalled at her lapse, so much so that she swears off the life forever and takes up work as a nurse at a local hospital for disabled children.

Things start looking up for Kelly after she takes her new position at the hospital. The hapless souls in her charge buoy her flagging spirits, making her feel as though she's really contributing something to the world. She also gets the opportunity to help out a few women, Dusty (Karen Conrad) and Buff (Marie Devereux), caught up in similar problems she once faced. But the best aspect of Kelly's transformation from harridan to hospital hero is the attention she receives from Grant (Michael Dante), Grantville's primary philanthropist and a beloved figure around town. This guy heaps praise on Kelly, wooing her with his fancy friends, gifts picked up in foreign lands, and his forgiving nature. Even after Grant learns about Kelly's past, in no small part due to Griff's interference, he still offers to marry her. Things couldn't seem better, right? It's around this point that Fuller drops the cinematic equivalent of a nuclear bomb into the proceedings. Towers's character discovers a shocking secret concerning Grant and the town's children, a secret so devastating that she lashes out at her fiancé and accidentally kills him. Her new life shatters as every enemy, and even every friend, she has comes out of the woodwork to excoriate her. It's only through a few lucky breaks that Kelly clears herself of a murder charge, but she must leave Grantville with her reputation in tatters.

I watched "The Naked Kiss" with my girlfriend, and we had a grand time with Fuller's seedy film. We roared, guffawed, and giggled through roughly the first hour of the film. How could we not? The dialogue is hilarious, those children singing in the hospital will make you howl with pain, and Kelly's hard as nails behavior is a real hoot. You simply must love the scene where she charges into the local brothel in order to batter a squawking and squealing Candy into submission. Go get 'em, Kelly! And that mannequin in her room where she stays after first arriving in Grantville! Oh brother! Yep, "The Naked Kiss" is a real trashy laughfest--until Fuller drops the bomb. When Grant's true nature comes to light, my girlfriend and I quit laughing in a hurry. From this point until the end of the movie, you could have heard a pin drop in my living room. As the credits roll, it becomes abundantly clear that Fuller made a masterpiece. Any film that can change gears so effectively, essentially turning cinematic conventions of the time on their head in the process, deserves our praise.

The Criterion Collection again performs miracles bringing a screen classic to DVD. The picture quality looks amazing for such an old film. Unfortunately, you'll need to pick up Criterion's version of Fuller's "Pickup on South Street" if you want plenty of extras, as the only bonus included here is the EMOTIONAL VIOLENCE! trailer. "The Naked Kiss" is a must see film, and one that will stay with me for some time. I'm grateful to an online friend who really knows cinema for inspiring me to check this marvelous gem out.

Produced, written and directed by Samuel Fuller, THE NAKED KISS is a little jewel. Constance Towers, in a " à la Gena Rowlands " role, gives a performance you won't forget easily. A great thanks then to Criterion which allows us to rediscover this wonderful movie.

Samuel Fuller, from his 1940 debut in Hollywood until his last movies in France, deserves to be considered as one of the great american directors of the last fifty years. He mainly visited the western, war movies and film noir genres and gave us such masterpieces as FORTY GUNS, SHOCK CORRIDOR and UNDERWORLD, U.S.A. With no big stars but with a style of its own. Raw, violent and provocative, for the eyes and also for the intellect.

THE NAKED KISS is a movie destined to shock the audience. An emotionally ultra-violent first scene prepares us to a journey through Cinderella Land and the Garden of Evil. Samuel Fuller won't let anybody unharm. The Charming Prince, the Hooker with a heart big as the world, the Cop blasé : everybody will suffer in front of Fuller's camera.

It's the third time I watch THE NAKED KISS, the first time on DVD, and I like it even more now. Its atmosphere is one of the strangest you can find on film. Remember Charles Laughton's NIGHT OF THE HUNTER ? One can feel a bit of this dreamy atmosphere in Fuller's movie. The child song Constance Towers sings with the handicapped children will give you the chill.

Image is great, a few white spots now and then coming from a non-perfect copy. The sound is good but you'll have to turn your volume control. Scene access and theatrical trailer as bonus features.

A DVD for your library.

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I had never seen the film, but had heard about it for a long time. I wanted to see it, but was reluctant to spend the money on the Criterion version without seeing it first. The price of this Miracle edition is so low, I had nothing to lose---even if I buy the Criterion later.

This is a facinating film--read all the reviews for all the editions. But it IS a low budget production. This Miracle disc, while not being in the same league with Criterion is really pretty watchable. It's no demonstration disc, but it's a way to own a movie you may not want to watch very often.

If you are a serious collector, go for the Criterion. Otherwise, this one is a lot better than one has any right to expect for something that's being sold for a few cents plus shipping.

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A couple reviews on here give this film low marks, even as far as Fuller films go, which is silly, like saying Plan Nine from Outer Space is bottom shelf Ed Wood. What? Fuller's style is ragtag and raw, like Weegee meets a commie spy in a dark alley and slugs out a newspaper singlehanded. No one ever accused Fuller of being subtle or smooth. Thank God for it. You have to see this film with the same respect for low budget simplicity and ragged editing you'd grant to 60s nouvelle vague like Breathless and Les Bonnes Femmes or early Cassavettes. Otherwise, y'all might as well go back to watching Malibu CSI or whatnot. NAKED KISS is prime Fuller, standing tall with classic pulp like KISS ME DEADLY.

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This is one of the great, cult, Fuller films. Notable for its trashy blend of noir fatalism, stereotypical American settings and characters, and subversive anti establishment amoralism.

However, save yourself $30.00 and buy a used VHS copy of the film, this Criterion edition is an absolutely AWFUL print, and looks to be no better than the cheapest VHS tape in quality.

Criterion continues to push the envelope -the limit of how much people are willing to pay for what are frequently sub standard prints and transfers of classic films. They have had some wonderful remasters and reissues, and deserve credit for those. But they also won't hesitate to use their name and reputation to hustle poor quality copies.

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The Fast and the Furious (Blu-ray + Digital Copy + UltraViolet) (2001)

Dominic Toretto (Vin Diesel) rules the streets with his "team" in the world of illegal street races. Running a luncheonette and a garage, Dominic makes money to pay for the mortgage on his house, and keep his sister (Jordana Brewster) in school, but that money alone is not enough so he resorts to the illegal ways to keep the cash flowing. Vowing to kill himself before returning to prison, Dominic stays one step ahead of the police until he meets Brian (Paul Walker), an undercover cop investigating a series of bizarre truck heists.

The FBI believe Dominic and his crew are behind the robberies, and it's Brian's job to find enough evidence against, but putting together the case against this crew will prove to be difficult because Brian becomes friends with Dominic and starts to understand his difficult life, and at the same time he is falling in love with his sister. To make matters worse, Dominics rival Johnny Tran drops in to settle some old scores, and the list of suspects in the robbery case is growing larger.

`The Fast And The Furious' is top-notch entertainment. Containing serious action sequences, and a thrilling mystery of the robberies, `The Fast And The Furious scores on many levels. The action scenes are some of the best filmed racing sequences I have ever scene, and the pulsing soundtrack keeps things at a high energy level.

The performances from Walker, and Diesel are right on the money, and the supporting cast of Brewster, Michelle Rodriguez, Chad Linberg, Johnny Strong and Ted Levine bring life to the characters they play.

Great action, and a pulsing soundtrack will keep you glued to your seat for two hours of entertainment.

Look. I know that most who've seen this movie (especially the teeenage boys) will automatically tell you "Yea man! It rocked! It's the best movie ever!"

Personally, I'm a tunerhead. I love suped up cars, and the whole street racing scene. I can't say how this movie can relate to the real midnight street racers, but I'm sure it's been Hollywooded up enough to go overboard a little.

But, I was expecting to see terrible acting, a bad script, a bad plot, but cool cars. In reality, the acting is very well done. The script isn't corny, the plot is entertaining, and, well...the cars speak for themselves. (Vin Diesel's Mazda RX7 in the movie just went up for bid on Ebay!) This movie, whether you're into cars, or not, is a must-see. My friends who get bored even when I mention cars and racing still loved the movie for its other aspects. I thought it was awesome, but, hey, to each his own. Why don't you go and see it to check it out?

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This movie is so far the best movie I've seen all summer. But, most may not agree.

The people that won't like it: People who don't know a thing about cars/engines. (i.e. People who think a TUNED Toyota Supra can't beat a "Mid-life crisis" Ferrari) People that are expecting more from the movie than just fast and furious driving, which it delivers! and delivers well.

People who will like it: People who have a passion for cars and the technology behind it. People who appreciate high tech DOHC horsepower rather than the "bigger is better" approach that powers most OHV American vehicles. Oh, and any girls who like Paul Walker.

So if you are looking for a intense, fun, highpowered ride of your life, see this movie. But if you are looking for a wonderfully scripted Oscar winning drama, go rent "The Piano" and try to keep from falling asleep.

Read Best Reviews of The Fast and the Furious (Blu-ray + Digital Copy + UltraViolet) (2001) Here

Who doesn't like to drive fast? I'm pretty sure everyone does. Those guys in the movies are crazy, but it makes me want to drive like they do, and not get killed. Vin Diesel is his best in the movie. It's a very moving and interesting movie to watch.

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Lifting the plot directly from Point Break (1991), The Fast and the Furious is a turbo-charged ride with hot women, outrageous stunts, loud cars, and an equally loud soundtrack. Director Rob Cohen seems to be playing it safe relying on the sure-fire formula of said girls and cars after the critically-mauled The Skulls(2000). And the film indeed does work well with all the elements that make a no-brainer movie like this a winner with audiences. Vin Deisel makes a stand-out performance as the main man of the late-night drag racing, and Michelle Rodriguez provides enough eye candy for all the pre-pubescent boys. The story, as it is, is basically the same as Point Break, with Paul Walker as an undercover cop attempting to infilltrate the late-night speeders, then joining theit unique culture. The sub-plot involving gangsters fells like it's been tagged on to create more of a plot, but who cares? Rob Cohen knows what audiences want in an action flick like this, and it suceeds admirably. Turn up the volume, set your brain to half-mode and this is a winner.

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Pitch Perfect (Blu-ray + DVD + Digital Copy + UltraViolet) (2012)

If you read a synopsis of Pitch Perfect, it just sounds like your typical rom-com, coming-of-age, singing movie; but I swear to you it's not. After being forced to see it by my stepbrother and his girlfriend, I was very, very pleasantly surprised. Pitch Perfect is probably one of my favorite movies ever now. As soon as the credits started rolling I knew I was in love and I needed to see it again. So I did, a week later. The music was aca-mazing! The soundtrack is absolutely off the charts! I am obsessed! My favorite song from it is the Bellas finals. The plot was a bit cliché, but good. The acting wasn't fantastic, but the goal here clearly wasn't to try and get nominated for an Oscar. They just wanted us to like the movie, and I more than liked it, so they succeeded.

Anna Kendrick played Beca, an amateur DJ who wants nothing more than to leave college and move to Los Angeles, causing her to be miserable all the time and shutting out everyone who cares about her. Her main love interest Jesse, played by Skylar Astin (Ugh, I just melted when I said his name), is everything a charming college boy should be. Plus, he can sing. He tries to bond with Beca and sweep her off her feet, but she just shuts him out. This causes Jesse's heart to break and every girl in America to get tears in their eyes. Needless to say, I fell in love with him. Brittany Snow and Anna Camp were hilarious as the Bella's head voices; and Elizabeth Banks and John Michael Higgins were scene-stealers playing the commentators for the competitions. But, no one (not even Skylar) stole the show like Rebel Wilson did as Fat Amy. I won't say anything else. Go see Pitch Perfect!

Definitely a PG-13 flick, this over-the-top story of a talented DJ who discovers the Accapella Diva within is well worth adding to the DVD library. Crazy talented men and women, some sweet relationship development and just enough raunchiness from the ladies to to keep any viewer on their toes, this is a movie that one will watch over and over and over again. Sure, it's a movie with a bunch of pretty people set at a college that looks nothing like reality, but hey . . . stranger things have been made believable on the silver screen.

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I loved this movie soo much. The songs were great, probably even better than the original artists themselves. I am going to buy this movie and watch it all the time. I gave it 5 stars because I loved every part of it, and it was hilarious and almost made me pee myself, it was so funny. I love the voices and the story and the cute guys and this movie is just amazing. It was 'pitch perfect!'

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I'm not a Ron Swanson, but I am a beer drinking, boot wearing, steak eating Die Hard loving guy. In other words, I was pretty much not the target audience for this film. But enough of my lady friends convinced me to give it a shot. I got these girls into Sons of Anarchy and Spartacus: Blood and Sand respectively so I figured I owed it to them to take their word.

I loved this film for a variety of reasons. I remember seeing the trailer and rolling my eyes and assuming it was some kind of terrible Glee era product trying to capitalize on the success. And honestly it could have been, but that still didn't detract from my enjoyment.

First, so far as I can tell this is an original script/film etc. And whether that's good or bad doesn't detract from my appreciation. So already points for being something new, even if the story is as predictable as you can kind of guess it is. But I've seen Die Hard tons of times. It's about the journey not the destination.

And Pitch Perfect's journey is great. You all know the story, Beca (Anna Kendrick) joins a fledgling college Accapella group and they go to finals. But it's charming, sweet, witty, and the music is actually pretty good. Special mention again to Anna Kendrick who is a FANTASTIC singer, I was very blown away. Gorgeous voice.

It's a very fun and enjoyable film and I actually wanna see it again. I'm not the target audience but it still hit a home run in my book. Great film that leaves you in a good mood.

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Laughs is what sets this "misfit saves the day" singing movie apart from other teen and/or singing movies. Laughs and a satiric wit ably presented by an engaging cast. KIDS FIRST! Film Critic Victoria B, calls it "surprisingly really funny" and says she intends to watch it over again which is also surprising as she shares that this type of movie is not usually one that's for her.

Pitch Perfect

Reviewed by Victoria B

Video reviews may be found at kidsfirst dot org

I went to see Pitch Perfect and it is surprisingly really funny. I do not usually like musical types of movies, but this one was one of the best.

At first I thought that this movie would be one of the ones with random outbreaks of song, but this movie has a nice storyline and it is funny. The singing is amazing. Plus, since the move is about an a capella group, it is interesting and kind of impressive to see the actors make the track to the music with their voices.

This movie is about Beca (Anna Kendrick), a girl who wants more than anything to be a music producer but her dad makes her go to college first. Finally, her dad says that if she goes to college for a year, joins a club and really tries her best, he will let her drop out and go to California. This gives her some incentive to do well in school and join the Barden Bellas, the school's all-girl a capella group.

The Bellas' arch rival is the all-boys group, the Trebles. Beca starts to fall for a member of the Trebles, Jesse (Skylar Astin), which is forbidden by the Bellas' uptight leader, Aubrey (played by Anna Camp). The Bellas are old-fashioned and Beca is tired of it so she quits, then she rejoins and makes the Bellas better than ever, new, and ready to win. Whether they win against the Trebles is a mystery that you'll have to watch to find out.

I love this movie, and the characters are very eclectic to say the least. My favorite character is Fat Amy because she's hilarious and says whatever is on her mind, and it shows because she calls herself "Fat" Amy. I absolutely love this movie and will definitely be watching it repeatedly.

I give it five out of five stars because I like that the actors can sing well, and the way that they make the music track with their voices is amazing. I recommend this movie for anyone who likes music and comedy, because together it is a great combination. I like that the movie is not just about the singing and that it has a good storyline as well. I recommend this movie for ages mature 12 and up because the movie has some foul language but overall is a good movie.

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Home Run Showdown (2011)

This is a great family movie! Not sure why it didn't get a wider theater release! Story was sweet, the kid actors are incredible! Especially Kyle Thomas, he's a very cute kid and his potrayal is tender and sweet! Very convincing. I will definitely be giving this as a gift this Christmas!!

Highly recommend!

This was a fun family movie that reminds me some of the bad news bears (at least in some ways), but really is a story of determination to overcome adversity not only for the character of Lorenzo, but also for Joey DeLuca. Both have a journey that as a viewer of the movie you get to see and experience and it is through this journey that they grow and learn. The movie was fun, but also had a number of meaningful messages within it that brought out some great conversations within my home after we watched it as a family, and it can do the same for your own family. Good acting and character development throughout, which led to a movie that I am proud to have shared with the family!

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So hard to find a movie for kids that is directed to them that has an enough

content to keep adult interest. Great Job on the movie!

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Story about two brothers who have competed against each other their whole life. The lead character (boy) played a great role in pursuing his dream of being on TV so his father in prision could see him play was a good storyline.

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This is a good kids movie. Shows them what can be accomplished with determination and the right push. It shows how good wins in spite of the circumstances. The two Coach brothers eventually mend their differences and it ends well. I didn't find much bad language any more tah they hear at school. I prefer it when Dean Cain plays the good part but he still did great in his part.

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Halloween (1978)

Halloween. What a perfect title for a Horror movie. It's hard to believe back in 1977 that there had never been any movie, let alone a Horror film, that incorporated that title. And what good usage it got. Written, directed, and even musically scored by John Carpenter (with great assistance by then girlfriend Debra Hill), this was truly a film that brought Horror to it's roots, leaving an impact that only George Romero's Night Of The Living Dead did ten years earlier. Showcasing a deranged killer by the name of Michael Myers who in childhood murdered his sister in cold blood on Halloween night, only to escape his asylum to return to his Illinois home to hunt down babysitter (and eventually known little sister) Jamie Lee Curtis 15 years later, was truly an amazing film that never exploited the genre, keeping the imagination and terror flowing within the viewers mind rather than blatantly on the screen. For it's time it was the number one profitable independent film ever made, and after almost thirty years, it still terrifies and never grows old. A true classic film. Every single DVD collector should own it....

But which one?

Not in the sense of sequels, but rather in which version of the original should you add to your collection. You see, this film has had the DVD distribution rights by Anchor Bay Entertainment (now known as Starz), and they have re-released this classic now a total of six times. So I would like to compare the two most popular versions to see which one should be for you, the "Restored" or the "25th Anniversary"

Starting with the "Restored" version, this DVD was authored way back in 1999. However, it was personally restored by Halloween original cinematographer Dean Cundey, trying to preserve as much of the look of it's original theatrical run. This version has been released a whopping three times. But for the film's "25th (2003) Anniversary", Anchor Bay remastered the film yet again for another release "Halloween 25", this time taking the remastering process in their own hands, something of which Cundey was not happy with. You see, comparing the two's video, you'll notice that each are different. One point is brightness and sharpness. In the Cundey version, overall picture is dark and not as sharp while for 25 the white levels have been raised and it's overall color saturation has been lowered. To me, while the original with it's dark blue hue running throughout looks good, at times it's hard to see certain shots in the dark. The 25th version has fixed that, even going as far as making the film look more natural. As for sharpness, the 25th beats it by far. Audio wise, each film seems on the same level, so a tie there, but it's the video that should be considered when purchasing: the Cundey-more true to the original film/the 25-a sharper, more realistic picture.

Next would be the use of the disc space. Restored is one of those discs that wanted to cater to the early 2000's audiences of giving them both a widescreen and a fullframe on the same disc. Because of this, the bitrate is pretty small for both presentations. However, the 25th is a 2 disc set that only offers on Disc One the Widescreen presentation, and it's Divimax as well. But to be honest, it's bitrate isn't up to say Superbit quality. It's better, but with a total of four audio tracks to choose from, the entire dual layer disc is only used by 75%, and that other 25 could have went to more video bitrate, but alas it's not. But to me, the bitrate still is higher on the 25, not to mention it's compression is four years younger than Restored, so 25 wins again.

Finally is Extras, Restored has a 30 minute documentary called Halloween Unmasked 2000, narrated by Twisted Sister's Dee Snider. Why is he on here than just being a popular fan, beats me. But on 25's second disc is a whopping 87 minute documentary called A Cut Above The Rest which expands on the original and gives much greater detail on the film. 25 also includes another ten minute featurette called On Location, going back to view all the houses and such that were used in the film that Restored does not include either. And if that wasn't enough, 25 has the original Laserdisc commentary by John Carpenter with additional vocals with Jamie Lee Curtis and Debra Hill. This might be the best extra 25 has over Restored, because it's got to be one of the most personal commentaries I've ever heard. Carpenter doesn't hold anything back, a must listen. And sure, both have the same trailers, TV Spots, and such, but again to me 25th Anniversary wins this one too.

But the main reason why I'm writing all this is because back in 2007, Anchor Bay decided to stop releasing the 25th Anniversary and instead re-issue the Restored version. Why, I'm not sure. Dean Cundey was never happy with 25, and maybe his name on the back of Restored's box was a selling-point, I don't know. Maybe the 25's cover was confusing buyers because it looks a little like sequel H20's version? But I do know for your money, the 25th Anniversary is still the best way to go. What's sad is to celebrate the 30th Anniversary of the classic film, Anchor Bay is yet again double-dipping it's audience by releasing a six disc collection featuring Parts 1, 4, 5, the NBC-TV edit, the 25 Years Of Terror special and a Blu-Ray version of the original. But again, both the DVD and Blu-Ray (BD version rumored to be a video-hybrid of both) are from the 1999 Cundey master (but the Blu does have the Cut Above special and commentary too). It would have been nice if the DVD was the 25 so fans could have both versions, but no, 25th Anniversary seems lost now.

In conclusion, if you want the best overall 1978 Halloween package, go with the 2003 25th Anniversary Edition. More extras, a more realistic picture, and a commentary to die for. Ratings-wise then from me is:

Restored: (8.5/10)

25th Anniversary: (9.5/10)

Thanks for reading,

RedSabbath

This new, Extended version of Halloween is something no fan should be without! 12 minutes of additional footage (4 scenes) has been put into the original version, and the result is awesome. These scenes were not deleted. They were really shot in 1980, when the film was released on cut TV. The scenes were shot using the cast and crew of Halloween II (another must see!) and directed by John Carpenter, himself. These scenes include:

#1 A very well made scene where Dr. Loomis (Doneld Pleasance) has an intense conversation with two sanitarium officials. He begs that they move Myers to a maximum security ward, saying that the boy is dangerous and has an instinctive forsce within him. The officials are unimpressed by what Loomis says, and simply keep Myers in the minimum security ward.

#2 A scene directly following the previous added scene. Loomis walks into young Michael's cell. For about 1 minute he simply stares at the boy, who stares out the window. Loomis then says "You've fooled them, haven't you Michael? But not me!"

#3 This scene is after Myers escape. Loomis walks with a nurse into Michael's room, which is completely trashed. The nurse shows him that the word "Sister" is carved in the door. (If you've seen Halloween II, then you know what this means).

#4 This final additional scene is my personal favorite. In this scene we get a bit more of Jamie Lee Curtis, a bit more of PJ Soles, and a bit more of Nancy Kyes/Loomis. Lynda (Soles) comes over to Laurie's (Curtis) house, and they have some girl chat. Then, Annie (Kyes/Loomis) calls and asks (unsuccesfully) if she can borrow some of Laurie's clothes.

I really love this new version of Halloween. It just feels more complete. I know that these scenes WERE NOT in the original version, but it's way better off with them in there. John Carpenter has said he hates these scenes (as some other reviewers may tell you) but that is HIS opinioun. I love these scenes. They make the movie make a bit more sense. For example, the scene wher Loomis fights with the officials really shows how hard he tried to get them to move Michael. Later on he talks about how much he tried to get them to move him, and this added scene shows you how right he is. The scene with "Sister" really helped connect this to the 2nd (making a great double feature). And the scene with Lynda, Annie and Laurie shows a bit more of their personal lives. Awesome. This version was only available on either the two tape Special VHS editions (where they were AFTER the movie) and on the THX Two Disk Anchor Bay Limited Edition (which is 150 bucks to buy on Amazon used!). I tried really hard to find that two disk limited edition, but I was to late. So this here DVD is like a dream come true. Thank you Anchor Bay! I suggest (unless you have the two disk version) that you buy one now, before it, too, goes out of stock!

Halloween is Rated R for Small Violence, Brief Nudity, and brief Language. The new scenes contain nothing to offend parents who were OK with their kids watching the other version.

If you found my review helpful, be sure and give me a vote! Thank you!

Buy Halloween (1978) Now

The original Halloween is one of the greatest horror movies of all time and my personal favorite. Even though I've seen it numerous times I can't get enough. On Halloween night in 1963, six year old Michael Myers brutally murdered his sister in the small town of Haddonfield Illinois. Now, 15 years later, he has escaped from a mental institution to reek havoc amongst the trick or treaters. Jaime Lee Curtis stars in her first role as Laurie Strode and is pursued by Michael Myers throughout the entire movie. Donald Pleasance plays Dr. Sam Loomis (Michael Myers doctor) and warns Haddonfield Police of Michael's return. Hesitant to believe the wild accusation Dr. Loomis must hunt Michael down before he can do anymore harm. Halloween will scare and delight you at the same time. The music score for Halloween is still creepy almost 25 years later and is synonymous with the movie. If you only see one horror movie in your lifetime, see this absolute classic, Halloween.

Read Best Reviews of Halloween (1978) Here

On October 14th Anchor Bay/Starz Entertainment will release a Halloween 30th anniversary edition of the film. I, for one, being a longtime Halloween enthusiast, haven't been this dissapointed since Rob Zombie got to cash in on and destroy this classic film with one of the worst renditions ever made.

Again, and in typical Anchor Bay fashion, consumers are being offered the same Halloween product in a new package. Look closely, every single DVD disc included in this set has been a prior release from Anchor Bay.

Even the Blu-Ray disc has been out for months. This is disgraceful and Halloween fans deserve better.

The original Halloween was released thirty years ago, so why is Anchor Bay releasing Halloween 4 and 5 with this set? They were filmed in the late 80's. The answer is greed and laziness. Anchor Bay is jumbling every Halloween release they've ever produced into one pathetic boxset in order to cash in yet again.

This has to be the laziest attempt at a Halloween special edition ever. Thirty years of triumph deserves so much better and this company is just slapping together a lame Halloween boxset at the last minute and calling it a thirty year editon.

Even the Micael Myers mask included in this set is cheap and has been available for years at any local Spencer's gift shop. It has no resemblance to the original mask what-so-ever. Nothing in this boxset is worth spending money on.

This was the perfect opportunity for Anchor Bay to release some of the "lost Halloween footage" found a few years ago burried in boxes. All of John Carpenter's Halloween footage that was not used in the movie was found and Halloween fans have been long awaiting to see just a few frames from this holy grail of unused film stock.

Will any of this footage be available on this boxset? Nope. Just the same tired releases from a company that doesn't know how to show this classic film the proper respect it deserves.

Want Halloween (1978) Discount?

Another milestone or anniversary, another re-packaged film. One wonders how many more times this 1978 classic will be released onto the public. If they keep making the DVD treatment with great special features like this one, then more the merrier. What could they possibly do with another re-issue?. Outdo themselves. That's what. This is a great 25th anniversary edition of the film with special features that every hardcore fan will devour. As a fan who has three different versions of this film, I can't wait for this. This edition features the film looking and sounding incredible, but what really makes it is the extras. As usual, there are radio spots, trailers, bios, and a still gallery. What makes it fantastic is that there is audio commentary from writer/director John Carpenter, Jamie Lee Curtis, and producer/writer Debra Hill. There is an all new 87 minute documentary with interviews with Carpenter, Curtis, Hill, and dozens more. There is also a 10 minute special with Hill and actress P.J. Soles(Lynda) re-visiting the original Myers house used in the film. Plus there is a 16 page booklet!!. How can any fan refuse?!. You can't. Apparently, the one star review below doesn't know what's going on. I've seen the TV version and it definitley wasn't 104 minutes. 13 extra minutes?. I doubt if the deleted scenes totaled 10 minutes. Anyways, this is a great set with plenty of new stuff to offer. The story takes place in a quaint little town of Haddonfield, Illinois. 6 year old Michael Myers brutally murdered his sister in 1963, and was then sent to a mental institution. While there, he was observed by Dr. Sam Loomis(Donald Pleasence). 15 years later, in 1978, Michael manages to escape the place and head back to his hometown to reak terror and vengeance upon the unknowing little town. Loomis, with the help of the town sheriff, Sheriff Brackett(Charles Cyphers), tries to track down the cold blooded killer before a body count happens. Enter virginal Laurie Strode(Jamie Lee Curtis). She is the unlucky target, as Michael stalks her and two friends Annie(Nancy Loomis), and Lynda(P.J. Soles), while they are babysitting across the street from each other on Halloween night. This was supposed to be a creepy, scary, suspenseful film, and that's exactly what it is. No gore or blood and guts. It's a very simple, basic movie that tells a very simple, basic story, and is done in a very basic, simple way. If only future sequels were made that way. What makes it even more chilling is how real it is. It takes place in a nice little town, in a charming, family type neighborhood. It shows that this kind of thing can happen to anyone anywhere. The realisticness of the film and characters lost some credibility in later films, but this one is what's out there in the real world. Scary to think. Curtis is wonderful as Laurie. She gets the shy, awkward, gawky thing down pat. She makes Laurie a real fleshed out person, instead of just another pretty face actress trying to seem innocent and pure when we know she isn't. Pleasence is teriffic. Loomis is a classic screen character that gets even madder as the films go on. Carpenter knows how to scare us. What's so amazing about it is how easy it is to do it, and how easy it was for him to accomplish it. While other films try too hard and create ridiculous circumstances with gore and effects to try to scare you, this one just relies on what is real. What could be outside your door, or under your bed. This is one of the scariest movies ever. The theme, also done by Carpenter, is another classic. All in all, "Halloween" is a monumental film classic that should be cherished by all. This special new edition is chalked full of nothing but goodies and every fan should rush out to get it when it is available. Happy trick or treating.

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College: Ultimate Edition (1927)

Comparing this new Blu-ray release to the old Art Of Buster Keaton DVD shows much improvement.

1) A significant amount of picture has been added to all sides! The old DVD was heavily cropped on all sides! But this added picture comes with some downsides, there was a framing problem in the master film and at times there is a lighter grey-tone bar at the bottom of the picture. This was cropped off in the old DVD.

2) The new High Definition transfer is sharper and does add details to the grass on the ground and the ivy on the buildings. Even the grainy replacement section at 24:51 looks way better here.

3) The old DVD was a little too bright, some of the whites seemed to wash out. This new transfer lowers the white levels to correct this. However it gives the film the look of being shot on a cloudy day. Some may like the brighter look of the old DVD, others will like this less washed-out presentation. I prefer this version, but find the old DVD acceptable.

4) Image stabilization has been used in this new transfer. The most noticeable improvement is in the opening titles, they are rock steady (but not a freeze frame).

5) The original DVD had some of it's dialogue cards replaced with black background cards. Here in this new transfer, all dialogue cards have the same curtain background. They look original, not recreations.

The downside: Soms shots are still soft here and there as inferior prints had to be used where footage was missing fromt he original 35mm master. But that is the nature of watching old films originally filmed on Nitrate film.

This 1hour and 5 minute film has the same John Muri musical accompanyment as the old DVD, but it sounds crisper here.

There is also an optional COMMENTARY TRACK by Slapsticon founder and film historian ROB FARR.

BONUS MATERIAL:

The old DVD included Buster's shorts that are now on the Buster Keaton Shorts Blu-ray, but no real bonuses.

This Blu-ray has two bonus features:

a) Silent Echos (9:55) a then & now look at the shooting locations of "College".

b) The Scribe (29:25) a 1966 Construction Safety Associates of Onterio COLOR industrial film starring Buster. This would be Buster's last appearance on film before he passed away.

Buster is a new reporter who visits a construction site to report on construction accidents. However the biggest cause of accidents on this site is Buster himself.

Buster doesn't speak in this sound film, he only points to a list of safety regulations and a narrator recites the regulation. This pantomime separates him from reality and makes it easier to watch this now elderly man get bounced around. This late example of Buster's work is a good indication on how the world sadly ignored this talented man since the 1940's.

AS FOR THE FEATURE FILM, College has never been one of my favorites. Buster is attending college (which was a new concept in Los Angeles in those days as their universities were just being built). After giving a speech on how important studies are over athletics, Buster's girlfriend tells him he must re-think his ideas if she is going to stay with him. So Buster enters that athletic world (in real life Buster is an athlete). Buster's thrill of athletics is apparent here, but 15 minutes of him blundering around on the Track & Field Stadium doesn't make good cinema. This happens right in the middle of the film, it feels like the pace grinds to a halt. We smile at his blunders, but they are not genuinely funny. The film picks up again and Buster is in top form during the boat race finale.

***PC WARNING*** Buster does apply for a job asking for "Colored Waiters" and goes in black-face for the job.

Any Buster Keaton film is still enjoyable, and if you are thinking of upgrading to this Blu-ray, I would suggest it

The new Blu-Ray version of "College" from Kino will please any Buster Keaton fan and most others too. The story finds Buster as a smart high school grad with difficulties fitting in with the popular crowd. He follows his sweetheart to college and has to compete with the "big man on campus" for the attention of his high school sweetheart, the very attractive Anne Cornwall. Buster's attempts to fit in at college and with the popular crowd are thwarted in some very funny ways. Buster tries to hold a job as a "sodajerk" at the local ice cream parlor but fails in funny fashion.Later he tries to impress the girl by being a college baseball player but fails at that too. Then it's on to track and field where he tries to emulate other teammates in all the events of the day(1920's). These include some field events that are no longer used. All of this leads to some very funny bits and eventual failure. He finally becomes the hero of the day as the coxwain for the rowing crew. Of course he finally defeats his rival, wins the hand of his beloved and all ends happily.

Many of the college scenes were shot on the campus of the Univ.of Southern California and in the Los Angeles Memorial

Coleseum built for the Olympics.Over-all a very funny film.

The only down-side is the unfortunate use of some "black-face" comedy scenes in which Buster tries to work in a restaurant as a waiter with disasterous results.

The disc includes a nice addition of John Bengtson's "Silent Echoes" in which he traces Buster's actual locations in the film through historical photos he has researched.

The disc also includes a short film that is believed to be Keation's last filmed performance. It's an industrial film promoting saftey at construction sites. It's a sad end to a remarkable career as one of film's greatest comic actors.

On the down-side, I could not get the disc's audio comentary by Rob Farr to operate. It may be a problem with the disc that I will investigate further. The musical setting by John Muri, though-out the film, was adequate.

Over-all, I give it four-stars.

Buy College: Ultimate Edition (1927) Now

College may not be Keaton's best, but it's still Keaton AT his best, if that makes any sense. The story is very simple and is clearly just there to hang gags on. But what gags! Many of them are sports gags (baseball, track and field, etc.) and Buster was clearly having a great time with them. The Blu-ray looks very good and is noticeably better than the DVD though it's not as nice as The General or some other silents out there. Given how old the film is, and the overall history of Hollywood and its film prints, it's understandable. But College has never looked as good as this on home video, and I have it in every incarnation all the way back to a VHS bootleg in the late 80's. I wish there was an alternate score with organ. I don't know why, but I prefer Keaton with organ scores. Maybe it's from seeing his films so many times in Los Angeles at the Silent Theater in the 90's with organ accompaniment. Still, this disc is highly recommended.

Read Best Reviews of College: Ultimate Edition (1927) Here

For those who are not familiar with the name Buster Keaton, it is sufficient to say that, along with Charlie Chaplin and Harold Lloyd, he was one of cinema's early and most famous masters of comedy. Joseph Frank "Buster" Keaton (1895-1966) made his mark in silent movies, as an actor, director, writer and director, and was able to carry on successfully to the talkies. One is his best and most memorable a classic -film is, without a doubt, "College," now available in the glorious Blu-ray format thanks to Kino.

The story of "College" is quite simple and straight, yet humorous thanks to Keaton's physical comedy. He stars as "a son," who just graduated with honors from high school. However, he is not admired by his classmates. That privilege, of course, belongs to "a rival" (Harold Goodwin), who is the athletic star. At the same time, Keaton is also attracted to "the girl" (Anne Cornwall); she likes him, but is kind of undecided. Soon after, all of them attend Clayton College, where Keaton decides to get into sports, so that he could win the girl's heart for good. Or, as he tells the school dean, "I took up athletics because the girl I love thinks I am a weakling." He tries everything baseball, football, track and field... Because of this, his grades take a plunge, and the dean, who really likes him, tries to help him and find a solution.

One of the things that I enjoy about watching Keaton's films, in addition to the humor, is the locations. Many of them are still around today, and one of the extras in the Blu-ray is, precisely, a visual essay of the film's locations by John Bengston. There are also audio commentaries by film historians, as well as "The Scribe," a 30 min 1966 film believed to be Keaton's "Great Stone Face," as he was nicknamed --last filmed performance. Quite a Blu-ray, as you can see one for collectors. "College" can also be obtained in Kinos's fantastic collection "The Art of Buster Keaton," available both in DVD and Blu-ray. (USA, 1927, B&W, 64 min plus additional materials)

Reviewed on May 23, 2013 by Eric Gonzalez for Kino Blu-ray

Want College: Ultimate Edition (1927) Discount?

I have puchased many of the Keaton Ultimate Edition blu-rays. The films are great, but the scores by Kino are usually dreadful and detract greatly from the experience of watching these great masterpieces. Please, Kino, do the right thing and provide some alternate scores which will add to the experience rather than detracting from it.

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City of Ember

I was looking forward to this film after having seen the trailer, but it came and went quickly. While the story is a bit slight, and the last portion of the film plays out like an adventure game, I would recommend at least renting this one. I liked the fact that none of the kids were smart-alecky stereotypes and there was none of the usual pandering to popular culture that destroys so many other young adult films and renders them to the dustbin of history ten minutes after their release. Furthermore, it was refreshing to see a film that doesn't require main characters (especially children) to fight a war or kill something in order to succeed. Instead, the kids rely on their ingenuity to overcome obstacles. I don't necessarily assume "wholesome" means "worthwhile," but City of Ember retains a kind of innocence in its adventure while still remaining watchable and interesting.

This is a movie which barely made a ripple at the box office, before apparently sinking without a trace, only to emerge in DVD release. Which is a pity, as it is eminently watchable, not least for the detailed visualization of the underground city of the title. It is based on a very popular series of `tween novels; I imagine that if you don't have children of an age to be entranced by the books, it would have been very easy to escape any knowledge of them at all.

The set-up for the story involves an unspecified disaster on the surface of Earth, and the setting up of a refuge city deep under the earth; an entire city, completely self-contained in a vast cavern, supplied with enough food for 200 hundred years, powered by an enormous water-powered electrical generator. The civil authority, in the form of the Mayor of Ember is supplied with a small metal box, with a set of crucial instructions and a timer which will go off when supposedly it will be safe enough to emerge from Ember and live on the surface again. But there has been a break in the chain of mayoral authority; the box has been lost and forgotten, sitting on a dusty shelf. The current Mayor is a corrupt and manipulative fool, willing to see all decay around him, if he can hold onto power and privilege for a little longer. More than 200 years have passed, and the electrical generator is breaking down. Blackouts are coming more often and lasting longer, and the only people who seem to have an interest in doing anything about it are a pair of teenage friends. Lina works as a messenger, relaying personal messages among the inhabitants of Ember, since any electrical messaging system has long since decayed. Doon works in the `pipes' repairing and maintaining an infrastructure tottering on the edge of collapse. Everything in this world has an authentic look of something worn out, used-up, patched and repaired many, many times. The movie works and works well, right up until the very, very end the escape from Ember by Doon and Lina, and Lina's little sister, which apparently seems to involve a wild water-ride and an abrupt ending which leaves a number of questions unanswered; like, what actually happened on the surface so many years ago, and what was with the monstrously huge beetles and moles in the outlaying caverns? And what would happen to everyone else, left behind in the crumbling city? The ending seems quite rushed, and unsatisfactory as if the budget didn't allow quite enough time for a satisfactory wrap-up. Not having read the books themselves, we were left more than a little puzzled. But up until that point, it is an excellent movie, in comparison to some of the others which target the youth market. Lina and Doon are likeable, responsible teenagers, not a pair of bratty, spoiled know-it-alls.

Buy City of Ember Now

When a film boasts a cast list comprised of some of the most talented Hollywood actors in Bill Murray, Tim Robbins, Martin Landau, and Toby Jones, not to mention newcomer and extraordinary talent Saoirse Ronan, it will most likely go one of two ways: Either the film deserves such a fine cast and will be a great film (take 'The Departed' (2006) for example) . . . or the cast is set in a subpar piece to make up for the film's lesser elements (like 'Valentine's Day' (2010)). Luckily, 'City of Ember' falls in closer with the former instead of the latter.

The film, adapted from the novel by Jeanne Duprau, tells the story of a small city named Ember that, over two hundred years prior, was locked away by the city's founding builders. The city is run solely on the power of its massive generator that lies beneath like a beating heart. However, the old generator is slowly falling apart, casting the city into short periods of darkness. Doon Harrow (Harry Treadway), a young boy recently assigned to work on the pipes of the city, is convinced that only he can fix the generator and help the city. During his explorations of the piping systems, he finds a mysterious room that is unmarked on his maps. With the help of Lina Mayfleet (Saoirse Ronan), the two teens discover the secrets of Ember and the answers that may help save the townspeople from eternal darkness.

When 'City of Ember' was released into theatres, it seemed to have gone by the attention of most people without much notice. With a production budget of over $50 million, the film only raked in about $8 million domestically. But, why was this film such a tremendous bomb? From the looks of it, it had little to do with the film's quality. It has a very solid cast behind it, the story is entertaining, kids movies at this level typically do well, and the trailers made it look to be very beautiful (which it was). It would seem, then, that the film was simply just undermarketed. Very little attention was given by the marketing team for this one and that's what killed it.

Had 'City of Ember' been given a proper marketing campaign, it could've been very successful. The film is really quite good. The acting, as expected, is fantastic. The cast of legends like Bill Murray & Martin Landau were fantastically chosen; and, the 'Lovely Bones' star Saoirse Ronan is quickly becoming one of the best actors of her age group, not to mention a definite for a few Oscars in her lifetime. The story is very entertaining, even if it isn't the most original or mysterious. The set design, however, is really what sets the film apart. Ember is built into a fantastic and beautiful city, from the underground and above. One issue that many seem to have deals with the CGI effects in the film, especially some of the scenes towards the end. While some of the CGI is spotty, it's hardly distracting enough to remove from the overall beauty of the film and no one should allow such small issues to detract wholly from an overall good film.

While book purists appear not to love the film for the oversimplification of the adaptation, those who have not read Duprau's novel should have a good time with it.

Final Verdict: 8/10.

-AP3-

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Mar2011: Being a sci-fi/fantasy junkie, I devoured all four books in the series after my 10yo read the first one for a book report recently. Although some details are implausible, they are an easy read (I read the 2nd one in half a day), entertaining and thought-provoking. So it was with great interest that I rented the movie to see how much was changed. I liked the fact that it was good, clean family entertainment. My kids enjoyed the movie because it had more style than substance. Overall, however, it was just OK: not great, not bad. Off the top of my head:

The food shortages and absolute terror of being stranded in a permanently black environment from an unreliable generator could have been effectively conveyed visually, but what's up with the giant (not mutants) bugs and star moles? Adding a bizarre element of normally benign nocturnal creatures to the storyline where the former would have sufficed was unnecessary, to say the least. Since surface books were not allowed to encourage curiosity about the outside world, I was surprised to see Doon so casually refer to an old printed bug book to identify the beetle.

Paper and pencils are also a rare commodity, thus the need for verbal messengers. Yet the movie doesn't explain why there are messengers when paper appears to be in abundance.

The key changes to the escape methods were also strange, to say the least. The lockers/row boats were a clever design, but how was the rest of the city was going to escape if Lina and Doon activated the row boat conveyor belt without people to jump in as the boats went by? And the escape route via the paddlewheels and generator by flooding the river room didn't quite mesh together well at all with the locker/boat system if there's no one to catch the boats.

There wasn't a clear explanation for the fact that the Emberites had no knowledge of how the generator works, nor how to create portable light without electricity (no fire, no batteries, no candles), so instructions on how to light a match towads the end of the movie was a weird introduction to this fact.

Finally, the signs on the cave wall indicated they were there for the original inhabitants to follow when they arrived, but they really wouldn't make sense to anyone that hadn't read the books. Especially the one sign that showed someone carrying a baby DOWN a flight of stairs.

All in all, I had a hard time reconciling some of the changes I felt were unnecessary. The plot was rushed and the characters weren't as fully developed. I'm not sure I would have enjoyed the movie more if I hadn't read the books, but if the Harry Potter movies can stand alone regardless of the books, then it shouldn't be so hard to make this movie work on its own without relying on cheap effects and one-dimensional characters.

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I do have to warn you that you cannot watch this film half-heartedly if you want to know what's really going on or if you want to get the full effect of the film. My son is a multi-tasker. He tried to watch the film, for the first time, while playing his computer game, W.O.W., like he usually does and found himself having a difficult time getting into the film. Once he sat down to actually watch the film, and could see with his eyes the cinematography, everything began to fall into place and he found himself captivated with the storyline.

I received a complimentary copy to review.