Don Movie Reviews

The wonderful story of Roy Chon, friend and sometime lover of Hoover, died of AIDS. The movie was a little sketchy. It tried to seem dramatic and important but in the end the only thing this one has going for it is James Woods superior acting. Four stars just because Woods is in it.

James Woods gives a riveting performance of Roy Cohn, the lawyer at the center of the US communist witch hunts of the early 1950s. The spoiled brat and closet gay on whom Joe McCarthy so naively relied is shown in a series of flashbacks from his hospital bed in the 1980s. The pace is fast with characters such as Bobby Kennedy, Walter Winchell and Ethel Rosenberg popping up here and there to shed light on Cohn's selfish character. Cohn's habit of helping himself at meals to other people's plates, notably Cardinal Spellman's, sums him up precisely. Naturally, there are moot points. There is, for example, no real evidence Cohn was David Schine's lover and Cohn's relationship with his father was more complex than the comtempt shown in the movie. No matter. Cohn's ability to ruin other people whilst serving his own career and bank balance is succinctly portrayed in an excellently written script.

I don't know who they were giving oscars to in the year this movie came out but (as always) they fail to give them to the movie or the actors which deserve them and James Woods and the citisen Cohn sure deserved some oscar recognition for this masterpiece

For history buffs such as myself this movie is one of those you can watch again and again

5 stars out of 5

The animation could be better but the over-the-top fight scenes, that are a trademark of this series, make this tape a worthwhile diversion.

In This DVD feature, Cell, an android from the future, and Piccolo, the mighty Super Namek, meet up for the first time. With Piccolo fused with Kami, it gave him both strength and wisdom. But what's this? Cell using the Kamehameha Wave? How did that happen? You see, Cell Was created into a single entity from the cells of the most powerful fighters in the universe like Nappa, Gohan, Piccolo, Vegeta, Frieza and others. Piccolo devised a plan to regenerate his arm and learn more about Cell in the process. With Piccolo back in action, Krillin and Trunks show up to help out, but Cell escapes by using the Solar Flare technique and that's when everyone shows up and Piccolo lets them in on what Cell is about and what he's about to accomplish. Meanwhile, Krillin and Trunks go to Dr. Gero's laboratory and destroyed it. Gohan trains to get stronger than his dad while Goku is still recovering from the heart virus. Can cell be stopped? Will Goku recover in time? find out later on during the saga!!!

This video is as seen on Cartoon Network and contains three episodes; His Name is Cell, Piccolo's Folly, Laboratory Basement. This video is where Piccolo and Cell meet up for the first time and Piccolo learns of Cell's plans. Trunk and Krillin also search for Dr, Gero's lab to destroy it.

The DVD version is "R" and most of the totaly hot scenes are much edited. I emailed and called the company with no response. Stick to the unedited video version. You'll be much happier. Its totally hot.

This is actually a great, sexy movie. But these verions are rated R and delete about 5 minutes of hot scenes. Somewhere out there there is an older video version that is GREAT. This one is only okay!

I'm one of Diana Barton 's biggest fan so I had to own this movie. It's been a good surprise. "Sexual Malice" is so sensual. Diana is both a great actress and a magnificent lady. Some scenes are just hot, especially the beach one. The cinematogrphy is amazing and Diana' s performance is really impressive.

The DVD version is "R" and most of the totaly hot scenes are much edited. I emailed and called the company with no response. Stick to the unedited video version. You'll be much happier. Its totally hot.

This is actually a great, sexy movie. But these verions are rated R and delete about 5 minutes of hot scenes. Somewhere out there there is an older video version that is GREAT. This one is only okay!

I'm one of Diana Barton 's biggest fan so I had to own this movie. It's been a good surprise. "Sexual Malice" is so sensual. Diana is both a great actress and a magnificent lady. Some scenes are just hot, especially the beach one. The cinematogrphy is amazing and Diana' s performance is really impressive.

Isn't it funny how sometimes a film can mirror your life. I came across this movie on the Encore channel this weekend and tuned in because of the title. I stayed with it because Don Johnson looked so great, at his peak I would say. I finished it because of the story, touching, telling and true to life.

Wiley and Sandra Boon (Johnson and Sarandon) were high school sweet hearts, the ones who were admired and loved by everyone, the perfect couple. Some years and three children after, Wiley realizes how bored and sad he is because of what his life has become: boring and sad. At least that's what he thinks. He decides to leave the house to find himself, we could say that what he finds out is that that life was the one that he longed for, but that's simplistic as hell. So, while he is out there thinking how it was that he fell out of love, his best buddy Sam (Jeff Daniels) has finally found the one girl he's looked for all his life -or is she?. This 1988 film starred Don Johnson in the best work of his career (so far) and Susan Sarandon in some kind of post-Springsteen characters story (theirs was the idyllic marriage, they were the king and queen of high school) and they are now trapped in the routine of marriage. Bruce Springsteen wrote in one of his songs that heroes are the ones who raise children and make families happy, so, here it is, a great, well acted, better written heroic story that will show you what married life really is.

I just saw this movie and was blown away by the story line. The best acting I have ever seen, Don Johnson is perfect in this role and I was never a fan before. Great, gotta see flick.....

As an avid Stooge fan I feel this release is not very funny. Main gripe is that some of the stories are repeated from other episodes. Of all of the footage that Columbia has surely they could have included some that is not repetitive, and also more funnier! If you're a fan of Curly then you will definitely be disappointed that he is only on one of these shorts, and even then it is not one of his best. Shemp was underappreciated and he can be hilarious, but again, the story lines are just not interesting. Another big complaint, and it describes the entire series that Columbia has issued so far, is that after each episode you have to go back to the main menu and choose another episode to view. In other words, you cannot watch each one in succession, which is ridiculous.

I commend Columbia for releasing this collection and hope they continue this series for a long time, as I enjoy this kind of humor, and the quality of other labels' Stooges DVD's is just horrible. I just wish that more careful planning is put into future editions, where hilarity is stressed and not just a theme.

They finally did something nice for the DVD opening. There's a short series with still photos and sound effects that shows the boys "in action". They still should put many more shorts on one DVD, though. The ones that did make it are funny, of course. Shemp is a very underrated member of the team.

This is a great DVD. I don't mind the fact that there are five Shemp shorts and one Curly short. I like Shemp better.

CACTUS MAKES PERFECT (1942) is not a very great short, and this is it's third release. This is too slow paced and unfunny for me. I wonder why Columbia Tristar keeps releasing this one when they could be releasing some brand new shorts.

OUT WEST (1947) is an excellent short. I personally believe this is the best Stooge western short. This is quite possibly the best short on this DVD. I love this short. Highly recommended!

VAGABOND LOAFERS (1949)- I believe this is the strongest and funniest short on this DVD. I have to say this is my second favorite short next to HEAVENLY DAZE. This is a remake of Curly's classic A PLUMBING WE WILL GO. Shemp makes this short even better than the original. A MUST SEE! Shemp's maze of pipes is a highlight.

DOPEY DICKS (1950)- Another "top" Stooge short. This is an excellent short. There are many great moments while the Stooges are being chased thru the mansion. This is the best short here next to VAGABOND LOAFERS and OUT WEST.

PUNCHY COWPUNCHERS (1950) in a way, is too close to OUT WEST, but I like this anyway. I must say, this short must have the biggest supporting cast of all. There are some great moments and punches. This is a gem.

MERRY MAVERICKS (1951) on the other hand is horrible. This is a horrible remake of PHONY EXPRESS, which I wasn't fond of in the first place. Edward Bernds is usually a great director. Here, he makes the worst effort ever. This is quite possibly Shemp's worst.

A great DVD, worth adding to your collection.

How could anyone recommend a film that stinks? Easy. Its a funny film! And the best part is - its not supposed to be funny. My favorite scene is when Peter Graves introduces his lab assistant as the man who had the unfortunte accident working with radiation. And hes still there working with the same radio active stuff! I laugh out loud every time I see it. Its really bad. The quality of the DVD is the best I've seen to date. Image did a good job. Watch for the giant grasshoper getting thrown on the blanket of a picnicing couple.

I love this stuff! I love it because I know what the movie is about
and what era it represents. America was bombared with horrors of a
world gone mad in the Atomic age and Hollywood simply met the cause
by putting out b-movies by the truck loads to keep up with not only
teenage drive in crowd but that new invention call the television.
Bert I. Gordon was a special effects man turned producer / Director
tried his hand at the Atomic giant monster genre. We're not exactly
talking "Them" here, but what you having is a well round form of B-
movie quality entertainment. Of course the special effects are off
key and the acting is low brow at best but Bert.I took time to hire Music writer Albert Glasser to conduct the brass march theme
in which he has been crowned famous for in his films. A fun disc
in which Image took the time to find a great master print but I
was disappointed to find no original trailer attached but a nice
cover art kind of makes up it. Oh I almost forgot that while it
was nice to see the film minus most of the army footage, why was
the "grasshopper chasing the army truck" scene sliced out?

There is a level on which you have to admire the sheer audacity, not to mention the budgetary value, of putting grasshoppers on postcards of Chicago landmarks and filming them as images of giant mutant grasshoppers attacking the Windy City. Certainly there is no more enduring image in the cinematic career of Bert I. "B.I.G." Gordon, the shlockmeister who directed "The Amazing Colossal Man," "Food of the Gods," "Empire of the Ants," and even lesser efforts. If you can name another B-movie as noteworthy for superimposed monsters, then you go right ahead and knock yourself out.

The plot is standard B-movie fare. A couple of wacky teenagers are out in the lovers' lane of a small town in central Illinois when the chirping of the insects gets a tad louder and then there is screaming and stuff. The state police discover not only the wrecked and bloody car, but the fact that the nearby town of Ludlow has been completely destroyed and there are no bodies. The next thing we know intrepid girl reporter Audrey Ames (Peggy Castle) is hot on the story about giant mutant grasshoppers courtesy of an Illinois State experimental farm. This is where Dr. Ed Wainwright (Peter Graves) has been experimenting with the use of radiation to grow giant tomatoes the size of basketballs and thereby feeding the world. The good doctor tells the reporter that things have going pretty well except for the fact that his partner Dr. Frank Johnson (Than Wyenn) is now deaf and mute because of accidental exposure to the radiation and that grasshoppers have been eating the tomatoes.

Well, gosh, darn it, Ed feels just terrible about everything when the giant grasshoppers eat his partner and defeat the U.S. army troops sent out to try and keep things under control. Fortunately, General Hanson (Morris Ankrum) lets Ed tag along as his scientific adviser (think of it as the mob of townspeople asking Dr. Frankenstein for advice). When the grasshoppers decide that the agricultural expanses of America's breadbasket are not as appealing as the skyscrapers of Chicago, General Hanson fears the end of the world, or at least the beginning of the end, and orders up an A-bomb to save the day. However, Ed, who knows a little something about the deleterious side effects of exposure to radiation, things nuking Chicago is a bad thing and has to come up with a better plan pretty darn quick.

Ed's solution is too good to give away and despite it being so laughable it is indicative that the group of screenwriters responsible for this film were trying to connect all the dots with something scientific. Once again, the science might be suspect, but you have to admit that the solution is a lot easier and cheaper to film than an exploding atomic bomb. "Beginning of the End" is another example of the fact that size is always important in one of B.I.G.'s movies, as well as extending the giant mutant monster trend from ants ("Them!") to spiders ("Tarantula") to grasshoppers (I know, they are really locust, but grasshoppers sounds funnier). The idea of having a giant swarm of mutant monsters overwhelming a small town, the U.S. army, and whatever is put in their way is compelling. But carrying it off requires the CGE technology that produced "Starship Troopers" and instead we have a movie that Steven Spielberg could have made in 1957 (i.e., when he was only 11 years old and making movies in his backyard with his friends).

Once again, my rating for "Beginning of the End" is based more on the entertainment value of the film rather than its aesthetic quality. How can you not enjoy superimposed grasshoppers or Peter Graves suggesting doubts about the nuclear destruction of a major American city? I would not say this is the best of Gordon's films; indeed, I am loath to actually pick one under those conditions. But I would contend that this is the one of his films that I would give "must see" status to for those who enjoy 1950s black & white science fiction monster movies.

I suppose THE CARPETBAGGERS may hold the same cult-film appeal for some views as such awful movies as VALLEY OF THE DOLLS hold for me--but I've quite been able to see it. Loosely based on Harold Robbins' trashy bestseller which was itself loosely based on the life of Howard Hughes, the film gives us glimpses of such performers as George Peppard, Elizabeth Ashley, Diane Baker, and an aging Alan Ladd, but even their presence can't spark up the deadly dull script. Give it a miss.

--GFT (Amazon.com Reviewer)--

I just finished watching the "The Carpetbaggers" on AMC; I thought the 'C' part of that acronym was "Classic", but now realize that perhaps 'Cornball,' 'Contagious,' or 'Compelling' may substitute since this movie seemed to be all of this. But, hey, maybe that's just the gin talkin. It is one of those movies that you cannot wait to end, so you can find out just who these B-film actresses really were - yet you continue to watch. But when it does end, you are somewhat saddened that it is over. Partially sad because you have been drawn in by this charismatic yet utterly ruthless SOB Jason Cord (George Peppard), but mostly just sad because AMC DOESN'T GIVE YOU THE CREDITS! that's why I'm here...finding out that the actresses were Caroll baker (as Rina Marlowe, the not-so-lovable Hollywood star; and Elizabeth Ashley (as Monica Cord) - the impossibly forgiving ex/not-so-happily-ever-after-wife of the unmarriable-unlovable-unrelenting-insanely ambitious Jason. Bob Cummings gets accolades as the fiendishly charming scumbag who plays Dan Pierce - most probably a very typical Hollywood agent. Someone who would put a rattlesnake in your pocket and then ask you for a match if he could get 10% of your blood in doing so. Go ahead and watch the dern thing (4/5 stars) - You'll understand. But hey - don't forgit the gin.

C'mon. Admit it. Embarrasing though it may be, you probably have one. One of those films that by almost any standard of good taste is considered to be pure trash -- but you adore it just the same. Well, "The Carpetbaggers" is my source of shame and delight. Yes, it's cheap and tawdry, unintentionally laughable at times, and held together (barely) by a script with many a line in need of a rewrite. It sports hair styles and costumes that, although undeniably lavish, are often anachronistic to the 1920's and 1930's (those decades in which the story is set). Performances range from extreme and over-the-top to downright comatose. But this early 1960's contribution to the breakdown of the American cinema's once strict moral code never loses its ability to do what Hollywood does best -- to entertain. It's a film filled with a grand potpourri of characters ranging from an arrogant and ruthless Jason Cord (a wooden George Peppard) to a lushly lascivious Rina Marlowe (a questionably sexy Carroll Baker), from a charmingly unctuous (i.e., villanous) Dan Pierce (Bob Cummings) to a bubbling and bouncy Monica Winthrop Cord (a totally engaging Elizabeth Ashley). Classic character actors and actresses (e.g., Charles Lane, Tom Tully, Audrey Totter) abound. And Elmer Bernstein's jazz score boasts a main theme that is pulsatingly decadent. Yes, "The Carpetbaggers" is all flash and fire with very little substance. But I love it. Can't help myself.

The acting is good, however it does leave one guessing.

The actors are a delight and they do maintain the viewers interest. HOWEVER; The ending of this picture leaves one suspended above the play.
To me, this film is a fill in the blanks movie that leaves the viewer wondering if this is all there is. Still I found it a delight to watch and a very wholesome picture.

This short drama was satisfying to watch even though there wasn't much action. It was almost like a two-person play. It tells how an apparently strong person copes with the dramatic change in his life caused by the death of his dear spouse. Christmas traditions are not the same, so the widower adapts by renting a companion. Jason Robards and Julie Harris are delightful to watch, so professional.

This is a surprisingly good drama for a lazy, frosty, Christmas-season evening. It's well-acted, well-written, and well-crafted -- definitely sentimental, but without being fluffy or soppy. The cast is led by veteran acting greats Jason Robards and Julie Harris, which in itself should make the movie worth a consideration.

Robards portrays John Tanner, a recent widower who doesn't quite know what to do with the changes imposed upon his life. When the annual family trip to the cabin for Christmas is jeopardized, he attempts to rescue his traditions in a radical way: he finds a dating service and "hires" a woman to be his family and spend the Christmas weekend with him. Julie Harris is the sad, perceptive, and mysterious woman, Iris, who agrees to be his "Christmas wife" - but only if he will ask her no questions about herself.

This is a quality "G" movie (at least, the version shown on television). At the risk of sounding sexist, I would say this is a woman's movie, but some men may find it not objectionable. Children may not be interested in a character (as opposed to action) movie about middle-aged people, but if they are, their parents won't have to worry about what they're watching. Adults who have some experience with age or loneliness may discover a tale striking quite a responsive chord.

The acting is good, however it does leave one guessing.

The actors are a delight and they do maintain the viewers interest. HOWEVER; The ending of this picture leaves one suspended above the play.
To me, this film is a fill in the blanks movie that leaves the viewer wondering if this is all there is. Still I found it a delight to watch and a very wholesome picture.

This short drama was satisfying to watch even though there wasn't much action. It was almost like a two-person play. It tells how an apparently strong person copes with the dramatic change in his life caused by the death of his dear spouse. Christmas traditions are not the same, so the widower adapts by renting a companion. Jason Robards and Julie Harris are delightful to watch, so professional.

This is a surprisingly good drama for a lazy, frosty, Christmas-season evening. It's well-acted, well-written, and well-crafted -- definitely sentimental, but without being fluffy or soppy. The cast is led by veteran acting greats Jason Robards and Julie Harris, which in itself should make the movie worth a consideration.

Robards portrays John Tanner, a recent widower who doesn't quite know what to do with the changes imposed upon his life. When the annual family trip to the cabin for Christmas is jeopardized, he attempts to rescue his traditions in a radical way: he finds a dating service and "hires" a woman to be his family and spend the Christmas weekend with him. Julie Harris is the sad, perceptive, and mysterious woman, Iris, who agrees to be his "Christmas wife" - but only if he will ask her no questions about herself.

This is a quality "G" movie (at least, the version shown on television). At the risk of sounding sexist, I would say this is a woman's movie, but some men may find it not objectionable. Children may not be interested in a character (as opposed to action) movie about middle-aged people, but if they are, their parents won't have to worry about what they're watching. Adults who have some experience with age or loneliness may discover a tale striking quite a responsive chord.