Don Movie Reviews

An exciting newcomer hits the big screen! Dan Kobb stars as ill-fated C.I.A. operative Stevens in this gripping tale of intrigue and love set in steamy Jakarta. Mr. Kobb's portrayal of the caring yet naive agent brought tears to my eyes, as I'm sure it will to yours.

The powerful chemistry of martial arts superstars Richard Norton
and Cynthia Rothrock gets another successful work-out in "Rage and Honor 2." Rothrock is reunited with Norton in Jakarta where
their characters target a banker who is laundering millions in
drug money. Patrick Muldoon delivers an effective supporting
performance as the banker's suspiciously naive son. The movie's
intrigues reveal a struggle for a diamond fortune and unravel a
maze of traps designed to sidetrack the heroes. Plot twists and
skillful combats make "Rage and Honor 2" a must-see sequel and a
worthy addition to the remarkable Norton-Rothrock list of colloborative movie ventures.

When I was a wee lad steeped in Conan Doyle's original Sherlock Holmes stories, this movie struck me as plain awful. It was painful to see Sherlock as a tourist in a wildly inappropriate DC milieu (the back-projected crazy quilt of Washington monuments on his drive around town makes it seem the chauffeur is on crack), spouting pax Americana patriotism and even paying tribute to the crime-fighting superiority of the FBI (??!!). Nigel Bruce was a particular affront as a doddering Dr. Watson, noisily sucking down ice cream sodas and struggling to read 30 pages on a 10-hour transatlantic flight.

But time has been kind to "SH in Washington." This was the first of these movies written by Bertram Millhauser, who always came up with witty dialogue for Rathbone and Bruce and snarky bits of malice for the supporting cast. Basil Rathbone gives a hopped-up performance as Holmes, barking out ludicrously improbable deductions and even reprising his Louis XI imitation as a limp-wristed "eccentric" collector. There is a small gem of a performance from Gerald Hamer (unbilled, sadly) as the master spy who sets the plot in motion -- he gives the movie a few whiffs of danger, intrigue and poignance. And it's hard to dislike a movie with two Moriartys: silky sadist Henry Daniell and glittery-eyed psycho George Zucco. By the way, the suspense hinges on the fate of a fast-dwindling book of matches, so if you're trying to quit smoking, this is not the movie for you.

I am writing this pre-review to express my Great Expectations and excitement over the upcoming DVD release of the 14 Sherlock Holmes movies made by Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce.
For those of us who have loved and worn out our VHS versions of these films, I am sure that I speak for many of us in expressing incredible anticipation and near shock that someone has finally recognized the need to release a "restored version" of these timeless classics.
We are told that they have been "Preserved and restored in 35mm by the UCLA Film and Television Archive." This is marvelous and I have already pre-ordered Vol. 1 and Vol. 2 from MPI Home Video.
I so hope that the entire 14 movies, are ultimately released in restored condition. Especially the rarest of them, "The Scarlet Claw" which has rarely been shown on televison and only been available on VHS sporadically.
To me and many others I know, Basil Rathbone is the definative Holmes. Not just because he looks alarmingly similar -as much as is humanly possible- to Sidney Pagets drawings of Holmes from the Strand Magazine illustrations, but mostly we love Rathbone because he portrayed the same Holmes that we as readers get through the buffer of Dr. Watson explaining away not magnifying Holmes' shortcomings.
Jeremy Brett chose to amplify every negative aspect of Holmes' personality that in the written versions Watson explained away. Rathbone's Holmes has been demeaned visciously over the past years and hopefully the respect and dignity that he gave his portrayals will be seen in all their accuracy and glory with these new digitally restored releases. ... these will have to be the best quality versions of these classics ever released...so for all of us who have cursed the incomprehensibly awful releases of these films over the years...our time has almost come. Show your support for this effort by ordering a restored version of American Film Histroy.
Much Thanks to UCLA, MPI, and Whoever was ultimately responsible for the idea of doing this!!!!

Did you grow up watching the Three Stooges with Sally Starr? Or Officer Joe Bolton? Were you there for Batmania with Adam West? How about Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In? If the answer is "yes," THE OUTLAWS IS COMING! (1965) is for you.

The Stooges' Curly-Joe era gets a bad rap, but I think it's unfair, as demonstrated by this fun & funny western starrring Moe Howard, Larry Fine, Joe DeRita, Adam West (BATMAN), Nancy Kovack, Henry Gibson (LAUGH-IN), Emil Sitka, Don Lamond (Larry's son-in-law), Mort Mills... and a group of children's show hosts from around the US, the same ones we grew up with, as the OUTLAWS! Despite their ages, the Stooges hilariously generate an ample amount of slapstick, director Norm Maurer (Moe's son-in-law) directs in a casual yet narrative style, and veteran Stooge screenwriter Ellwood Ullman delivers clever & topical gags. Henry Gibson spoofs the '60s as a hippie native American. And, one year before he [climbed] to stardom as the Caped Crusader BATMAN, Adam West costars as the film's hero. For adults, it's a nostalgic trip back. For kids, it's a fun comedy. For everyone, it's Stooge entertainment!

As a bonus, Columbia throws in the funny western spoof GOOFS AND SADDLES (1937) starring the original Curly, Curly Howard.

This DVD is the WIDESCREEN transfer> It features: A FEMALE CATFIGHT, Curly Joe in a BIKINI TOP, politically incorrect native Americans, a nod to The Beatles, and Curly Joe and Larry having fun with semi-naked SLEEPING SHOWGIRLS. What more can you ask for, other than a Curly short featuring some of the same gags (included!).

One classic episode of "The Twilight Zone" is included on Volume 35 of the DVD series. Dean Jagger turns in a wonderful performance as Ed Lindsay in "Static," written by Charles Beaumont and based on an unpublished story by OCee Ritch. Lindsay cannot stand television and retrieves his old radio set from the basement of his boarding house. He discovers that he can receive radio programs from the past--but only when he is alone. Vinnie Broun, an old maid who was once engaged to Lindsay, thinks he is losing his mind. "Static" represents nostagia with a Twilight Zone twist. "Four O'Clock," written by Rod Serling and based on Price Day's short story, stars Theodore Bikel as Oliver Crangle, a hateful little man who keeps files on people that he considers evil. Somehow, Crangle has decided that at Four O'Clock he will shrink every evil person in the world down to two inches tall. Want to guess how this one ends? Bikel's performance is wasted on Crangle, an over simplified caricature who gets his just deserts. Finally we have "The Parallel," an hour-long Zone written by Serling. Robert Gaines (Steve Forrest) is orbiting the Earth when his space capsule suddenly disappears. Gaines wakes up in the hospital, told his capsule landed 46-miles from where it lifted off for space. Although it looks like he has returned home, Gaines discovers that things are not the same and becomes convinced something is terribly wrong. An interesting premise, but like most of the Zones from the fourth season, "The Parallel" simply drags on too long. So what we end with is one classic episode of "The Twilight Zone" and a couple of lesser efforts. Sure looks like a marketing ploy to me.

Six episodes of the "Twilight Zone" were recorded directly onto videotape instead of film. STATIC is one of those episodes. It was written by Charles Beaumont and directed by Buzz Kulik. It starred veteran character actor Dean Jagger as a cantankerous old man tired of the mundane quality of television. Confined to a boarding house full of idly comfortable couch potatoes, he longed for the simplistic days of his beloved radio broadcasts and for a fellow boarder whom he once loved but was never able to express his feelings for. This is one of the best episodes of the "Twilight Zone" and is a companion piece to KICK THE CAN. Because it was recorded direct to videotape it suffers from the technical shortcomings from that era and loses all its dramatic impact. I never realized how good this episode was until I watched this DVD. STATIC should have been the classic episode it was meant to be right up there with WALKING DISTANCE. I recommend this one from the heart.

FOUR O'CLOCK is a tour de force for actor Theodore Bikel as a man bent on exposing all evil at 4 o'clock. I believe that this is Rod Serling's commentary on the McCarthy era. This is a very memorable and important episode.

THE PARALLEL is a fourth season hour episode written by Rod Serling. Steve Forrest gives a very good performance as a returning astronaut whose life seems to contain very subtle changes. I read some criticism about Steve Forrest's "wooden performance." On the contrary, Steve Forrest is the professional United States Marine pilot who remains cool headed and objective while trying to analyze the dilemma he is now in. This is a good episode.

..."Of Late I Think of Cliffordville" is the reason for this DVD to be sought after...Julie Newmar of course steals the show, though Albert Salmi is not without interest (but it is his weakest TZ episode...see "A Quality of Mercy" for his best TZ performance [there were three total]). Unfortunately "Hocus-Pocus and Frisby" and fifth season "Mr. Garrity and the Graves" are not as commendable. However, like almost all TZ episodes, they are of great merit in comparison to the vast majority of things being aired on television then or now. The hour long episode DVD's are especially valuable because these fourth season episodes are rarely shown at all in syndication (and of course TZ is always cut in syndication anyway).

Rod Serling adapts a trio of short stories for "The Twilight Zone" on Volume 37 of the DVD collection. "Hocus-Pocus and Frisby," based on an unpublished story by Frederic Louis Fox, features Andy Devine as Frisby, a blowhard whose boasts attract the attention of aliens who want to take them to their zoo as an example of the ultimate human. One of the funniest Zones every. "Of Late I Think of Cliffordville," adapted from Malcolm Jameson's short story "Blind Alley," tells of William Feathersmith (Albert Salmi), who is bored having reached the top of the financial world. When he is given the opportunity to go back in time, remembering everything he knows, and start over. If this sounds too good to be true, it is. This is one of those hour-long episodes from the Zone's fourth season that almost invariably seemed padded too much. Finally, "Mr. Garrity and the Graves," based on an unpublished story by Mike Korologos, the title character (John Dehner) has promised to resurrect all 128 of the dead in Happiness, Arizona. Since all but one of those dearly departed died by violent means, the townspeople end up paying Garrity off to reverse the resurrections. Put you can imagine how con games work in the Twilight Zone. I know none of these three episodes qualify as classics, but I happen to like all three of them. This is one of those 4.5s that gets rounded up.

I, the instant I saw an episode of the Zoid series, thought that it was completely awsome!!! Zoids is 100% better than "Yu-Gi-Oh!" or "Pokemon" or "Digimon." It is totally cool. Once you see, it you'll love it.

One afternoon, I was minding my own buisness and thought about watching Cartoon Network, not knowing at the time that what I would see would change my life forever. I had already heard about ZOIDS but didn't exactly know what they were. That afternoon, I tuned into the episode where Naomi Fluegul was introduced. Ever since that day, I watched every episode I could. I don't have this DVD yet, but I've seen the episodes on it. This is an awesome series!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

There was no reason to make this movie because it did not advance anything. The characters are just as confused as they were before. The X-Files is actually one of the great tragedies of American television. What was once an original and innovative show became stupid and pretentious. It was like a spider that got caught in its own web.

The X Files: Fight the Future is so great. I'd give it 5 stars except I wish they had more characters from the show. But still worthwhile.

I am a HUGE fan of The X-Files TV show, and this movie was definitely NOT a disappointment!! It added so much to an already ASTONISHING television series. There was tons of action, suspense, emotion, and comedy in this movie. My favorite scene would have to be the famous one in Mulder's hallway... well I won't spoil it!! Everything about this movie is SUPERB and BREATHTAKING and X-tremely COOL. I can watch it again and again without getting bored!! That's definitely a plus!! Anyway, this DVD is ABSOLUTELY a must-buy. It should be the FIRST item on your Christmas List!!!!!!!

There was no reason to make this movie because it did not advance anything. The characters are just as confused as they were before. The X-Files is actually one of the great tragedies of American television. What was once an original and innovative show became stupid and pretentious. It was like a spider that got caught in its own web.

The X Files: Fight the Future is so great. I'd give it 5 stars except I wish they had more characters from the show. But still worthwhile.

I am a HUGE fan of The X-Files TV show, and this movie was definitely NOT a disappointment!! It added so much to an already ASTONISHING television series. There was tons of action, suspense, emotion, and comedy in this movie. My favorite scene would have to be the famous one in Mulder's hallway... well I won't spoil it!! Everything about this movie is SUPERB and BREATHTAKING and X-tremely COOL. I can watch it again and again without getting bored!! That's definitely a plus!! Anyway, this DVD is ABSOLUTELY a must-buy. It should be the FIRST item on your Christmas List!!!!!!!

David Wagner (Tobey Maguire) is an high school kid obsessed with the 50's TV series "Pleasantville", which seems an ideal place, far from his girlless, nerdlike life with feuding divorced parents. He is mysteriously transported, with his sister Jennifer (Reece Witherspoon) into the black and white world of Pleasantville. At first eagerly adopting the mode of life there, he and Jennifer soon bring change--and color--to Pleasantville--both good and bad changes.

Well cast, with William H. Macy doing wonders as the kids' "father" in Pleasantville, Joan Allen as their "mother", and Jeff Daniels as the owner of the malt shop who, as things change in Pleasantville, develops a long-suppressed interest in Allen. Jane Kaczmarek does a nice small part as the kids' real mother, one quite different from "Malcolm".

In some ways nicely thought out ("Bud" is gone an hour, the time of two weekly episodes in Pleasantville (and it is pretty clear what the episodes would have been about, until the kids change things)) but it seems like two weeks in Pleasantville, in others not so well thought out (How could Bud and Bill paint a mural in the dark? If the Pleasantville basketball team is undefeated, and there is no other school, who do they play?). Still, quite thought provoking.

Well shot, with scenes in a bowling alley evoking "Patton" and at Lovers Lane evoking "The Shawshank Redemption".

I withhold a fifth star due to the heavyhandedness of the messages that Gary Ross gives us in the second half of the movie. It could have been done better, more subtly. Also, Maguire's acting isn't directed quite as well as it could be by Ross. Maguire is made to come out with these profound statements ("Maybe it isn't just the sex" "There is no right house. There is no right car") in the same offhand, almost squeaky manner. It becomes a bit tiresome.

The DVD features are quite good, including the trailer, audio commentary, and being able to watch the movie with just the music, by Randy Newman and very nice.

Recommended.

"And every one of those things is in you all the time, if you just have the guts to look for them." -David/Bud Parker (Tobey MacGuire)

I got this movie because I am a fan of a majority of Reese Witherspoon's work. I was presently surprised with this movie.

The movie opens with statistics about the bleak future (AIDS, famine, over population, etc.). It come to what appears to be (with line eye match) David (Tobey MacGuire) asking a girl out. Only when the camera pulls back you see he wasn't really talking to her.

After a sibling spat over who gets to watch TV downstairs, Jennifer (Reese Witherspoon) and David are transported into the black and white TV world of "Pleasantville". Jennifer is now Mary Sue and David is Bud Parker.

Mary Sue is up to her act being the 'bad girl' on her date with Skip (Paul Walker). The rose is the first thing in Pleasantville to be in color. After Skip tells his friends about hit date with Mary Sue, more colors start to appear.

I don't want to give away the whole movie, but it is a good movie.

Fiona Apple's rendition of the Beatles' song "Across the Universe" is a great way to end the movie.

The 1998 film "Pleasantville", written and directed by Gary Ross (who also directed, & wrote the screenplay, for the 2003 film "Seabiscuit"), is an exploration of conformity versus individuality. Two teenagers, David Wagner (Tobey Macguire, who played the lead role in the 2002 film "Spider-Man") and Jennifer Wagner (Reese Witherspoon, who played "Elle Woods" in the 2001 film "Legally Blonde" and its 2003 sequel), are catapulted into the world of a fictitious 1950's television sitcom called "Pleasantville" following a visit from a very odd television repairman (played by the very well known Don Knotts). Upon entering the world of "Pleasantville", David and Jennifer (who have taken on the roles of the show's characters Bud & Mary Sue Parker) become black and white like the rest of the characters and the show itself. However, as time passes, David and Jennifer's modern ways begin to transform the people and town of Pleasantville: things and people begin to acquire color, books that have always been blank contain printed words, high school teams that always won begin to loose, etc. Some people are very excited by the changes, but others aren't.

The two most interesting regular Pleasantville characters are Bud & Mary Sue's mother, Betty Parker (Joan Allen, who has received three separate Oscar nominations for her roles in the films "Nixon" in 1995, "The Crucible" in 1996 and "The Contender" in 2000) and Bud's boss: soda-shop owner Bill Johnson (Jeff Daniels in probably one of his best roles). Bill finds the ability to express himself through art, and Betty discovers many new things about herself. Other memorable characters in the film include Bud & Mary Sue's father George Parker (William H. Macy), David and Jennifer's Mom (Jane Kaczmarek, of "Malcolm in the Middle" TV-series fame), Bud's friend Skip Martin (Paul Walker) and Big Bob (J.T. Walsh, 1943-1998, who played John Ehrlichman in the 1995 film "Nixon").

Overall, I rate "Pleasantville" with a resounding 5 out of 5 stars. It's superb cinematography, special effects, plot, dialog and acting make the film completely engaging; and its underlying message is beautifully illustrated throughout.

Make no mistake: this is hardly a faithful adaptation of the novel by the same name. Not that that's an entirely bad thing, though... as a young teenager, I absolutely LOVED all of Lois Duncan's novels, with one or two exceptions... including _I Know What You Did Last Summer_. The storyline lacked the kind of intense, suspensful pace that made her other novels flow so well, and I just never connected with the characters.

So, not exactly the kind of story you could make a deep, provocative movie with. Perhaps wisely, the screenwriters chose to make this a horror movie. But I honestly believe they could have done better.

IKWYDLS is your typical teens-make-mistake-that-bites-them-in-the-arse slash-em-up horror flick. Hardly original, but you know, Hollywood is driven by money, and it's not like this film did all that terrible considering what it probably cost to make.

Which isn't to say that they deserve any slack for making a bad movie, because that's more or less what this is: a bad movie. It's only worth sitting through if you're curious, and even then, you might be sorry. Aside from a completely unoriginal story and script, the acting, to say the least, leaves something to be desired. Jennifer Love Hewitt is unquestionably babely, and may be a sweetheart, but she's not a great actress, so the fact that she played the main character of Julie only makes it more difficult to connect to this movie. Sarah Michelle Gellar, on the other hand, is an AMAZING actress, but is unfortunately confined to a rather stereotypical supporting role (and, if you've seen enough horror movies, I don't think I have to tell you how her story arc goes). Don't feel too sorry for her, though; even if Gellar *had* ended up playing Julie, she probably couldn't have done much with the script and wouldn't have won a Blockbuster Award for her performance in this movie. Still... she deserves a lot better than what she gets.

Bottom line, this movie walks the line between mediocre and bad. Granted, it didn't have much to go on, but it could have been better. See it at your own risk.

It has the same premise as Scream did, a killer who slashes up teenage kids because they did something to the person. not that bad and not that better then Scream but it does have some surprising results, basically when Sarah Michelle Gellar gets hooked, I mean come on, I wanted Hewitt to get the hook(beep) her man, Gellar should of lived. highlight though would have to be Gellar in that bathing suit.

In the early 1980's slasher films were all the rage. Everybody was making them. Well, in a true case of history repeating itself, the same thing happened in the late 90's and everybody wanted to make a slasher film. Based on the cult novel of the same name by Lois Duncan, I KNOW WHAT YOU DID LAST SUMMER was put on the fast track once writer Kevin Williamson landed gold with SCREAM.

In I KNOW, a group of high school seniors, led by the ever so lovely Jennifer Love Hewitt, are celebrating their last days before they all ship out to different colleges. Well, as you might guess, one fatal mistake of hit and run changes all that.

Although rather trite as of 2003 standards, I KNOW is one of the more remembered to come out of the 90's resurgence of teen slasher films. Packed with all kinds of "Stupid girl, why are you running that way" moments, and a sort of who cares whodunit plotline, something about I KNOW WHAT YOU DID LAST SUMMER still really clicks. The film boasts some genuinely scary moments here and there and the cast (Hewitt, Anne Heche, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Ryan Phillipe, and Freddie Prinze, Jr. in the only role I've ever liked him in) really pulls off what needs to be done rather flawlessly. Though nothing here is very surprising and anyone who doesn't like slasher flicks going in probably won't change their minds after seeing this one, fans of the genre are almost sure to get a kick out of the movie at least here and there.

C+