Bridge Movie Reviews

There are some memorable scenes in the film, most notably the urban combat scenes wherein a town is actually destroyed. However, there is far, far too much hollywood in this for it to be one of my favorite or even frequently watched war movies.

The capture of "The Bridge at Remagen" is among the highlights of the very late stage of the European war, and I was hoping this film would help get a better appreciation of the actual event itself. In a way, it does, but it's not a docudrama like "The Longest Day." Instead, it's your typical 1960s war picture, reflecting the domestic attitudes of that decade. Here, you see Americans pilfering from dead Germans, rather than giving war-ravaged children Hershey bars. And George Segal's character is difficult to embrace even though he's the film's protagonist. It's not until the very final minutes of the film that you understand that's the way it' supposed to be. These men have been through hell and back and they're very hardened by the experience of war. Unfortunately, you spend nearly two hours with them without finding them very likeable. If you like run-of-the mill war pictures, this will suit you. If you're hoping for a film about this event comparable to "The Longest Day" or "Tora Tora Tora," you'll be a little disappointed.

The Bridge at Remagen is an excellent World War II movie based on a true story. Set in the closing days of the war, the story is about a battle for the last remaining bridge over the Rhine river. The Americans want it intact so they can cross over into the heart of Germany while the Germans want to blow it up to prevent the Allies a foothold. However, the Major placed in command of the bridge won't blow it up because there are still 50,000 German troops on the other side that will be captured if the bridge is destroyed. This is an excellent movie that shows the battle from both the American and German side. Excellent action sequences and great characters make this a must have. As well, the movie succeeds in showing the chaos on the German side as the Allied forces began to close in late in the war.

George Segal stars as(get this) Lt. Phil Hartman, the leader of the American troops trying to take the bridge intact. He plays the role perfectly as the officer who refuses to see his men massacred in a pointless attack. Ben Gazzara is great as Sergeant Angelo, the soldier who picks valuable items off of dead soldiers for his own profit. Robert Vaughan plays Major Krueger, the German major placed in command of the bridge. He does a great job as the officer trying to buy time for the trapped German divisions. Also starring Bradford Dillman, E.G. Marshall, Peter Van Eyck, and Bo Hopkins. This is an excellent war movie that doesn't shy away from showing all aspects of war. Elmer Bernstein also gives an excellent musical score that at times sounds like The Magnificent Seven or The Great Escape. The DVD is a great buy with a collectible booklet, theatrical trailer, and widescreen presentation all included. Check out this great and true war tale set late in WWII!

For anyone who read David McCullough's excellent book, The Great Bridge, this film will be a disappointment. Obviously, there is only so much one can fit into an hour segment, but Burns could have done with more history and less noodling commentary from people on "what the bridge means to me." Unlike his excellent "The Civil War," "The Brooklyn Bridge" does not let the pictures and events speak for themselves.

Although parts of "Brooklyn Bridge" hint at the excellent work Ken Burns would demonstrate in later works, this particular film falters in its last twenty minutes.

The Brooklyn Bridge is many stories, but it's mainly the tale of how perseverance can make an almost impossible vision take form. The Bridge took many years and several million dollars to build. It faced political and social opposition. It weathered scandals and corruption. And when it was over, it stood as a monument to mechanical brilliance and soulful aspirations. Burns only spends forty minutes on the story of theBridge's construction. He spends the last twenty minutes focusing on what the Bridge means to various scholars, poets and citizens, and this is where the film lags. Admittedly, the Bridge is important as a cultural icon, not just for New York, but for America. However, if Burns was going to devote this much time to testimonials, then the film should have been at least ninety minutes, or better yet, two hours.

When the film concentrates on the Bridge's construction it shines. Burn has carefully selected photos, drawings, contemporary newspaper accounts and personal journals of key participants in the Bridge's construction to vibrantly tell this story. He just should have spent more time on his subject. The pace of this documentary is so hurried and awkward, you can tell where Burns is skipping key parts of the history to get to the testimonials. Now that Burns is an accomplished film maker, I wish he would go back to this subject and try it again. There's still more to tell.

When Ken Burns was starting to make movies for PBS, he started with a simple subject, the Brooklin Bridge. Based on the book by David McCullough, this movie was a great first entry in the Burns tradition of making good movies that can only be shown on PBS. Buy this DVD with pride and stay away from the cable and commercial networks. The only place left on the dial for good Television is PBS.

I love the old Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce adventures. Actually, I own all of them on VHS, so when they were going to be released on DVD I quickly placed an order. To say that this is a disappointment is to put it mildly.

First off, the movie quality is incredibly bad. Sound and visual is all a mess. And in the "restoration" they have edited key scenes! A great example is in Terror By Night when they don't introduce us to Watson's friend (Who plays an important part later).

The VHS copies I have of the old films show that there are prints out there of high quality. It's too bad they just didn't transfer those prints to DVD as compared to this mess they created from the old stock.... If you enjoy these films, avoid these DVDs and head over to the VHS editions released by Key Video.

Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce will be forever remembered as "Hollywood's Holmes and Watson". This DVD gift pack (one hopes the first of many) recaptures the timeless duo in four adventures.

In "The Woman In Green", Holmes finds himself wrapped up in Ripper-like murders of young London women. When he investigates a beautiful woman who is also a master hypnotist, he finds he may end up dead. Features Henry Daniell in a wonderful performance of Holmes' most famous nemesis, Professor Moriarty.

"Sherlock Holmes and the Secret Weapon" finds Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson fighting Nazis in World War II. Loosely based on 'The Dancing Men', Holmes must locate and reclaim the secret plans of a devastatig weapon before the Nazis use it for their own evil purposes. The WWII Holmes films are excellent documents of the times. Many people don't remember the militarization of Hollywood during the 1940s when every film had to pass the litmus test of "How will this help us win the war?" Every film from an American studio was used to a degree as propaganda to help in the war effort. The Sherlock Holmes film series was no exception, and thus we find our beloved characters unaged in the then present day - without explanation, but still an enjoyable film.

Getting away from the War, we come to "Dressed to Kill" where Holmes finds that a music box is the key to an elaborate counterfeiting scheme. Patricia Morrison is great in this film and Rathbone and Bruce have their share of moments as Holmes and Watson.

Finally, probably my favorite, "Terror By Night" is a great Holmes adventure which has as much comic relief as intrigue. A murder has been committed on a train, and Holmes must find the killer before the train reaches it's destination. It's high adventure at high speed where Holmes finds himself reunited with bumbling Scotland Yard Inspector Lestrade, who has just the right amount of comic timing.

This is the first time these movies have been available in a format that's worth watching; until recently you could only purchase them in the low definition EP VHS format. Plus, the discs also feature a rare interview with Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, making the set a must have for both Holmes enthusiasts and classic movie buffs alike!

These films of an earlier age are everything a good modern film should not be. They are campy, over-acted, cliche-ish, over dramatised and poorly dubbed (with a british actor's voice for background speech).

In spite of all of that, there is no one else who can play Sherlock Holms and Dr. Watson as can Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce. And the bumbling Inspector LeStrade is priceless. These are classic and timeless films - great fun to watch - one can almost put them in a category with Charlie Chaplain. Very good entertainment value in spite of their short running time (each film generally only ran about one hour in length) and obvious age.

I'd managed to tape all 14 of them from the late night movies a while back; and now watch them whenever I'm in the mood for light entertainment. I'm thrilled that they are finally being released in the DVD format -- hopefully we'll see the entire set re-published.

If you're one of those who turn up their nose at older films because of a lack of action, effects and the like, this collection is not for you. But if you enjoy films of the 40's and liked the exploits of the world's most famous detective, this is a set to get. Get your coat, Watson -- the game is afoot!

~P~

WARM WATER UNDER A RED BRIDGE (Home Vision Entertainment) is a comic fable about an unemployed architect who seeks treasure in a house near a red bridge. In the house, he encounters a woman with a most peculiar condition: she releases torrents of water when she has an orgasm. And much depends on this wellspring. The relationship becomes essential and explosive. Shobei Imamura's mature tale is seductive and confounding. In Japanese with English subtitles.

Not having any luck finding a job in Tokyo, an unemployed salesman named Yosuke promises an old, dying friend that he will claim a hidden treasure for him; a golden statue of Buddha. Yosuke travels to a small, seaside town and finds a house where the statue is supposedly hidden. Before he can step inside, he spies a young woman hurrying from the house located beside a red bridge and for some reason, follows her to the market. There, he watches her shoplift some cheese while she stands in a puddle of water.

When the two eventually meet, he learns of her secret affliction: that she fills with water. The only way to release the water is through sexual release. Soon, Yosuke abandons his treasure hunt, finds a job as a fisherman and sees more and more of the young woman.

I admit that I thought this an intriging story. A woman who fills with water and can only release it through sex. A great idea. But, this movie confused me. I didn't know if I were watching a comedy or a drama. It starts of very heavy, with the state of unemployment, Yosuke's wife who nags and demeans, the death of Yosuke's friend. but when Yosuke and the young woman have sex for the first time and the water bursts out, this funky Japanese music starts playing, giving the impression of a bad 1970s soft-core movie. I started laughing, though a bit self-consciously.

What I really disliked about this movie is that the relationship between Yosuke and the young woman is unbelievable. I felt no chemistry between them. Only later -- much later -- did I discover a real connection with her immediate taking to Yosuke, but it felt like a copout.

While the story has potential and Koji Yakusho gives a fine performance as Yosuke, I can't help but be a little disappointed with the results.

A sublimely skewered shaggy-dog sex comedy from Shohei Imamura that takes up where Edward Yang's sober 'Yi-Yi' left off, and pulls it into a completely unexpected direction. Like Yang's film, Imamura's protagonist, Yosuke Sasano, is a computer programmer in crisis (in this case his business has gone under); he now spends his time being insulted by his horrid, hectoring wife on the phone, and living with river-side tramps. Like Yang's film, Imamura diagnoses the spiritual void at the heart of Far Eastern super-corporate economic success - one very Yang-like shot views Yosuke attending an interview from behind a chillingly impersonal window; the distance between viewer and protagonist makes his desperate grovelling to the Kafkaesque manager all the more pathetic - but his prescription couldn't be more different.

Initially, the film seems as methodical and meticulous in composition and tone as we would expect from a severe Oriental master, with complicated, multi-level, multi-frame compositions (the geometry of character groupings imposed on the geometry of place - see the triangle of friends overlooking the corpse in his tent in the opening sequence) staged thoughtfully for a static camera that picks out only the essential elements of each image. This staticness doensn't mean each shot is devoid of internal tension - for instance, the opening tracking long-shot that follows the policemen in the direction of the hut, works against the movement of the river, and is a brilliant, if wrong-footing visual introduction of the film's themes (the disjunction and perversion of the natural in modern life etc.). But even startling comic upsets - such as the collapse of the makeshift roof under which his friends toast the dead man when one of them drunkenly knocks over a beam - doesn't prepare us for the bizarre sidetracks the plot will soon take.

The dead man, Taho, was an ex-con who spent decades in his river hut reading the world's classics; Yosuke shared many hours with him when he was supposed to be looking for jobs, with Taro encouraging him to ditch his cripplingly submissive conformity and search for true love. Just before he died, he told him that he had left a stolen treasure in the house of a former lover in a far-flung seaside town, which he was welcome to take if he could find it. Broke and unemployed, Yosuke sets off, and follows the lady of the house, Saeko, to a local supermarket, where she breaks water and shoplifts. It emerges she has a 'problem' with welling internal water that can only be vented by kleptomania or lovemaking. Yosuke takes a job with the local fisherman's son, and is on call for whenever Saeko needs him. But when he falls for her, is it for herself or the life-giving water which gushes into the adjacent river, attracting all the fish?

Yosuke's journey from the rather glum order of Tokyo to the weird logic of the seaside town is like the move from the Victorian age to Wonderland in Lewis Carroll's famous book. Yosuke wanders the town, populated by eccentrics whose actions seem more determined by whim and desire than the fixed expectations he's used to, like a bemused Alice, in his case being slowly sucked in by the town's seductive call, and suffering some very odd dream sequences. Imamura's tone changes completely - the music becomes circus-like playful, the staging of scenes, the clash between rigorous framing and nutty events, increasingly absurd (see the wonderfully coy **lla**o sequence). This mode undercuts what seems to be a very middle-aged male fantasy - the spiritual regenration through sex of a hen-pecked husband. And when you think about it, the town isn't that much of a haven - racist, riven with small-scale organised crime and the legacy of industrial pollution, and full of visual evidence of economic delapidation. But Imamura's eye for the meaningful image of location with which to frame his dense, ambivalent compositions never wavers, and his sensitivity to labyrinthine interiors, natural light or water (the deflection of dissolving light from the river onto buildings is particularly beautiful) or delicious colour-coding (those reds!) is as true as ever.

Rainbow Bridge on DVD is the same as on VHS. This movie is really weird alot of it makes no sense. Latter on in the movie you see Hendrix interview about his life which it sounds like he is acting. At the end Jimi Hendrix comes on stage with Mitch Mitchell and Billy Cox to perform Foxy Lady, New Rising Sun(Hey Baby), and In From The Storm also Red House. On this DVD they just give you short clips of the Hendrix concert its really too bad because the rainbow bridge concert was lost. If your a Hendrix fan then dont waste your time on this crazy DVD. Like I said it has nothing to do with Hendrix. Im sorry if there are no voting buttons but I dont know how to make them. ENJOY!!!!!!!!

if you're like me, you saw the title of this movie (JIMI HENDRIX Rainbow Bridge) and assumed it was a Hendrix concert film. Well, it isn't. Hendrix does play at the end, but the rest of the movie is really boring- and I love psychedelic, trippy 60s-era movies too. But this was just not good. Don't buy this if you want a Hendrix concert or a Hendrix documentary.

This is a cosmic surfing movie that reflects the 1970 psychedelic conciousness. It's acid soaked. It's highlights: (1) Jimi Hendrix in an outdoor concert; (2) David Nuuiwha surfing smoothly and sideslipping glassy H.B.; (2) Leslie Potts and B.K. surfing Maalaea, Maui; (3) Mike Hynson (of Endless Summer and downrailer(Phil Edward's design, only thin) fame taking the viewer inside the tube; and (4) special effects with the camera that create visual metaphors. Unfortunately, the film is filled with mindless babble about UFO's, astrology, drugs, sex, and ecology. Any real wisdom in the film gets lost among the flotsam and jetsam. Most people should fast forward to the Hendrix concert.

Rainbow Bridge on DVD is the same as on VHS. This movie is really weird alot of it makes no sense. Latter on in the movie you see Hendrix interview about his life which it sounds like he is acting. At the end Jimi Hendrix comes on stage with Mitch Mitchell and Billy Cox to perform Foxy Lady, New Rising Sun(Hey Baby), and In From The Storm also Red House. On this DVD they just give you short clips of the Hendrix concert its really too bad because the rainbow bridge concert was lost. If your a Hendrix fan then dont waste your time on this crazy DVD. Like I said it has nothing to do with Hendrix. Im sorry if there are no voting buttons but I dont know how to make them. ENJOY!!!!!!!!

if you're like me, you saw the title of this movie (JIMI HENDRIX Rainbow Bridge) and assumed it was a Hendrix concert film. Well, it isn't. Hendrix does play at the end, but the rest of the movie is really boring- and I love psychedelic, trippy 60s-era movies too. But this was just not good. Don't buy this if you want a Hendrix concert or a Hendrix documentary.

This is a cosmic surfing movie that reflects the 1970 psychedelic conciousness. It's acid soaked. It's highlights: (1) Jimi Hendrix in an outdoor concert; (2) David Nuuiwha surfing smoothly and sideslipping glassy H.B.; (2) Leslie Potts and B.K. surfing Maalaea, Maui; (3) Mike Hynson (of Endless Summer and downrailer(Phil Edward's design, only thin) fame taking the viewer inside the tube; and (4) special effects with the camera that create visual metaphors. Unfortunately, the film is filled with mindless babble about UFO's, astrology, drugs, sex, and ecology. Any real wisdom in the film gets lost among the flotsam and jetsam. Most people should fast forward to the Hendrix concert.

This movie is actually only worthy of 1 star. However, the Dolph-factor automatically adds another star to the tally. Without Dolph this movie would not be worth seeing @ all.

The film is about as low budget as low budget gets. The bad guys dress like [...], two white helicopters that look like they should be used for island tours are supposed to be helicopter gunships, and the film seems to minimize the use of just about everything.

The story is set in some small country where Caucasions and Asians live together. A despot has taken hold of the country and only a gorgeous princess can lead a succcessful revolution against his tyranny. Guess who gets to help the princess? That's right - our man Dolph!

Much like Arnie (COMMANDO) and Sly (RAMBO) Dolph is the only guy in the entire movie who can shoot straight. He escapes certain death with nary a scratch, even tho an entire army is firing at him at point-blank (ummmmm.......kind of challenges believability, but he IS Dolph!).

The redeeming factor of the film is that it does offer a couple of decent action scenes, the acting is decent and the soundtrack approaches semi-decent in a couple of places. If you collect action movies for a living, you may as well add this one to it. However, if you want to see a far better Dolph movie (and yet relatively unknown) I would recommend SHOWDOWN IN LITTLE TOKYO.

this is a good movie. I'm a Dolph Lundgren fan, and it's nice to see Dolph back in action against his old enemy (remember Showdown in Little Tokyo with Brandon Lee? Same villan.). It made the movie special just to see the old Japanese villan again. There's a good story and some violent action in this one, also. The part of the movie that I enjoyed the most was the love interest between Dolph and the princess. Because Dolph is such a masculine guy, it's believable that any woman would fall for him, and the princess is definitely the hottest lady he has shot a picture with since Tia Carrera in 'Showdown in Little Tokyo'. I'm a little disappointed that the relationship with them was treated in a [rated PG way]. This is a Dolph Lundgren film! In his old films the babes always stripped down!...
This is why I'm disappointed there was less sexuality in this movie, especially with Rachel Shane as the princess. Her body is covered up the whole time.
The princess likes to stick fight at local bars in this movie and that isn't believable. She's not even breathing hard after the fights, and she pushed Dolph to the limit in a stick fight. That was going a bit too far. Women doing men things.

This is a very good movie and I agree with th person who said the princess was hot because she was. Anyway this movie has everything it needs a plot, good acting, good fight scenes, and a reasonable length. This is a great film so go check it out.

This truly awful movie uses Thornton Wilder's name over the title so you will believe the story that unfolds is Wilder's. Not so! The film bears virtually no resemblance to the novel. Characters are changed beyond recognition, and the story line of the movie might as well have come from some potboiler written by a hack writer (and I'm certain some hack screenwriter wrote the film!). All the great ideas Wilder brilliantly dramatized in the novel have been jettisoned for lurid melodrama badly acted by an almost totally forgettable cast. That this travesty of a film should be released in any format when far more deserving films are left begging shows that someone isn't using their noodle. The first film of this great book was done in 1929 and won two of the first technical Oscars. That film (from MGM) is now unfortunately obsolete. This DVD version not only deserves no awards whatsoever, but should be made instantly obsolete. Don't even bother to rent this movie. Read the book instead.

This is the second of three film versions of the Pulitzer Prize winning novella (134 pages do not a novel make!). The third version is in post-production as we write. Neither of the first two were anything beyond potboiler status, and took liberties with the narrative. I am writing here to correct the negative review on this page from a person in Medford, Oregon. He or she is entitled to his or her opinion, but is not entitled to erroneous information. The 1929 film was nominated for only one Oscar (Art Direction) and won. There was no second nomination involved, let alone a second win.

When I was growing up, this was the first movie other than superficial entertainment that I ever saw. I was so impressed with all the moral implications and human emotions, that I never forgot it ! Seeing it again, after all these years, I found itevery bit as gripping, and the D V D made it even more enjoyable. Of special note is the acting of a great actor, Francis Lederer.

This Civil War era movie was very interesting as it tried to follow a generalized campaign of the very infamous Captain Quantrell, the Confederate leader of raiding party's into the North. This was not one of John Wayne's best pictures but it ranks up there as being rare and informative. A must see for true John Wayne fans.

Though this second film in the trilogy begins and ends with a martial arts tournament, the focus is mainly on the drama that develops from a corrupt government official's attempts to keep his opium smuggling schemes alive.
'Iron Bridge' Sam aids a secret officer charged with rooting out the wrong-doers and destroying their supplies of the drug. Sam's involvement is complicated by his feelings for the daughter of the corrupt official and his impending marriage to Tieh, his girlfriend from the first film.
The return of all the (surviving) main characters from 'White Lotus Cult' played by the same actors, along with a well paced storyline, are the films strongest points. However, the fight scenes, though well choreographed, are too short to have any real impact. The end face-off between Sam and the bad guy's kung-fu expert bodyguard is particularly disappointing.
A decent, dramatic film in itself, but one best watched only after seeing the first movie.