Change Your Image
padsett
Reviews
A Sound of Thunder (2005)
Two Thumbs up!
A sound of Thunder.Well, what's it about, a big thunderstorm? No,it's much more exciting then a big thunderstorm. From a big Allosaurus to reptilian monkeys to a BIG excitement. A big, mean underwater snake serpent monster. Now THAT'S what I call exciting. It was like nothing i had ever seen before, but it looked really realistic. The CGI on it was great. All of the creatures had good CGI but especially the serpentine snake. I thought it had a pretty good storyline. I can't believe so many people thought it was a screwed up mess. I mean,it could have had more dinosaurs but you can't let that rip you off your feet! the only thing I did not get was the name. It should have been called something like 'Past Creatures of the present'. The only reason I can think of why they would have called it that would be when the time waves kept coming or the few times the dinosaur roared. Anyway, back to the setting. One thing I liked was most of the movie was at night and I thought that made it more suspenseful. The only thing I wish they would not have made at night was the bats attacking the car scene because you really could not see the bats. The last thing I really did not care for was the reptilian monkeys. They were not the best creatures of the movie. Anyway, over all I give this Two thumbs up!
The Magic Box (1951)
Terrific film for film collectors and film buffs
This is the 1951 feature made by the British film industry to celebrate the festival of Britain. The film stars a virtual who's who of all the famous British cinema actors of that time, and one of the fun things about this film is trying to identify all of them as they pop up in various cameo roles. The story is the biography of William Friese- Greene, who this film claims invented the motion picture camera and projector. Edison and Lumiere are casually acknowledged as also being motion picture pioneers, but Friese-Greene is claimed to have had the first intermittent mechanism (presumably the Maltese cross) used in today's cinema projectors. It also claims that he invented the biocolour process, where color motion pictures are produced by rotating two color filters in front of the camera and projector (KinemaColour). The lead role is beautifully played by Robert Donat as the quiet intense inventor obsessed with producing moving photographs, and his wife is competently played by Maria Schell. Also appearing in cameo roles are Michael Redgrave, Richard Attenborough, Peter Ustinov, Stanley Holloway, Michael Dennison, the great Dennis Price, the beautiful Glynnis Johns and her father Mervyn Johns, the eccentric Joyce Grenfell, the wonderful Margeret Rutherford, and a host of others too long to mention. The most famous cameo is by Sir Laurence Olivier, as the astonished policeman who witnesses Friese-Greene's first triumph, the projection of moving images of Hyde Park on an improvised sheet screen. This is the most remembered scene of the film, and Friese Greene's excitement at this event reminded me of my own excitement when I first turned the handle on my first Pathescope 9.5mm projector! The film is of great interest to film collectors and movie buffs, containing beautiful shots of old wood and brass magic lanterns and early movie equipment. There are many wonderful scenes, such as the Victorian photo studio where they show customers having to stand absolutely still for 30 seconds to get their photo taken! The film was produced by Roy Boulting, and the beautiful Victorian settings and costumes are sumptuously photographed by Jack Cardiff. My family and friends really enjoyed this movie, it is low key almost like a BBC period drama, but if you are a film collector you will love it. We take the showing of films in our homes for granted these days, and it easy to forget the real struggle by inventors such as Friese- Greene to achieve what seemed impossible at the time. American audiences will of course have to (at least temporarily) suspend their belief that Edison was the sole inventor of the motion picture camera ( in fact Edison was primarily a business man and entrepreneur who copied many of the motion picture concepts developed by Lumiere in France) This film is very rare indeed. I don't think it exists on VHS or DVD,(certainly not in the USA), however Super 8mm film prints do exist, so if you find an S8 print grab it! My particular super 8 print is a 2400 ft Agfa color print, pin sharp with beautiful rich colors and great contrast. The mono magnetic track sound quality is very good for a film of 1951 vintage. Highly recommended, if you can find it.
Meet the Fockers (2004)
Unfunny, crude and vulgar
Don't waist your time and money on this unfunny, crude, vulgar movie! Not even the talents of Robert De Niro, Dustin Hoffman, and Barbara Streisand can save this disaster of a film. They call this funny? The only people who will laugh at this movie are high school students, who will find the adolescent bathroom humor much to their liking. The only bright spot is Dustin Hoffman who plays the eccentric Focker with relish. Streisand is totally wasted in this movie, and Ben Stiller has the same blank non-expression all through the film. DeNiro's character gets tiresome and irritating after about the first 30 minutes. The title says it all. Absolutely awful!