Collecting Movie Reviews

If you're looking for charming eleguence this is you're stop.Three great class movies in exceltn color.I love all three of them.There witty and amusing.So much fun to watch.Not a wasist of money at all.

Audrey Hepburn has been remembered all throughout her career for her beauty, poise, and exceptional presence. Though she did other romantic movies, and other comedies, these three are the most alike in tone -- happy, funny, sad and always, always sweet.

"Roman Holiday" features young Princess Anna (Hepburn) who is being taken through Rome on a boring round of interviews, tours and appearances. After being given a sedative, she wanders out (intoxicated by the drug) into the Roman streets and is found by a struggling American journalist, Joe Bradley (Gregory Peck). The next morning he realizes that the intoxicated schoolgirl is the missing princess. The two of them go on a tour of Rome, where he takes a series of unique photos. But when they begin to fall in love, what will Anna choose -- her duty or her love?

"Sabrina" is perhaps the best of the three. Sabrina Fairchild (Hepburn) is the naive daughter of the Larrabee family chauffeur, hopelessly in love with the playboy David Larrabee (William Holden). But after a few years at a cooking school in Paris, the ugly duckling becomes a swan: She's beautiful, confident, poised, and David instantly falls for her. However, his family has affianced him to an heiress, and so David's brother Linus (Humphrey Bogart) tries to distance her from him. The problem is, Linus is starting to fall for Sabrina himself.

"Breakfast at Tiffany's," while not particularly faithful to the original story, is nevertheless a sweet story. A writer/kept man named Paul Varjak (George Peppard) moves into an apartment building, and befriends a party girl named Holly Golightly. He begins to fall for Holly, though he soon discovers that she has an obsessive older ex-husband, and is planning to marry an extremely rich man. But Paul can see through the gold-digging and commitmentphobia to the woman underneath -- but will she be willing to love him back?

In all three movies -- no matter the character -- Hepburn embodies sweetness and a kind of innocence. No matter how worldly the girl, she always seems to have that wide-eyed innocence. She sparkles, in a way that few actresses can. Her costars Peck, Peppard and Holden play off her wonderfully, with amazing chemistry; Bogart less so, probably because he disliked Hepburn in real life.

The movies are definitely romantic -- one theme they share is love that doesn't come easily, whether the problem is one of the people involved, parents or overprotective staff. There's also slapstick comedy (like David sitting down on champagne flutes and injuring his butt), and more sophisticated comedy (like when Anna and Joe pretend that they were speeding on their way to get married).

Hepburn did a lot of other movies -- some of them theoretically better, like the frightening "Wait Until Dark," the sizzling "Charade" and suspenseful "Children's Hour." But these movies are what people think of her as, and they remain funny, sweet, romantic and thoroughly enjoyable. A must-see for fans, romantics, and those with a sense of humor.

This is one great set. It has two of my favorite Audrey Hepburn Movies (Roman Holiday and Breakfast at Tiffany's.) I would of preferred My Fair Lady over Sabrina, but I am not complaining. Three great movies[at a great price], what a deal.

Gulley Jimson is an unappreciated painter, loopily passionate about his art, and defiantly inured to the rigors of poverty & the fear of giving offense.

"The Horse's Mouth" wears its 45 years effortlessly. We are fortunate that Alec Guinness poured his unique talents into imagining the genius of this comic character, getting it down as a screenplay, and rendering so inspired a performance. The result defies imitation. Intelligent viewers will find the comedy as delightfully quick as it must have been when it was first shown.

The Criterion Collection DVD has preserved the Technicolor gorgeously. We are spared the customary tedium of "DVD filler" but given a wonderful short interview with director Ronald Neame.

If a film buff askes you to name a classic film you realy like you can do no worse than to answer "The Horse's Mouth". Try to suppress a smile as the buff looks at first puzzled and then cautiously admits that they have never heard of let alone seen that movie so can it be that good?

Well actually yes it is explain to them then casually mention that it is the only film that Alec Guinness ever wrote a screenplay for and that he gained an Academy Award nomination for his trouble and that in his "Parkinson" interview in 1977 he almost (but not quite) admitted that it was his favourite film in his long career.

Then you can go on to tell that it is one of the few films from the 1950's that shows London in colour and the music adapted from Sergei Prokofieff's "Lieutenant Kije" gives the film a touch of class and a unique sense of style not to be found in other films of the period.

You may then mention that the acting is superb; as well as Guinness' faultless study of an obsessive and slightly desturbed artist Gulley Jimson. Kay Walsh(Mrs. David Lean)adds humour and pathos as Miss Coker the comugenly woman who none the less has a soft spot for Jimson and music hall turn Renee Houston as Sara Munday (Gulley's ex-wife) adds a bit of bawdy fun to the proceedings. Young actor Mike Morgan gives an energetic perfomance all the more sad because he died before the film's release.

As the discussion continues you may point out that there are a few technical problems; the original three strip Technicolour camaras were so heavy, with their sound blimps, that the camera doesn't move that much during dialoge shots but that makes the actors move more especially when Gulley and Coker are escaping from the police . Also because the film was assembled onto one roll of negative (a common practice in British films until the 1960's )the dissolves are a bit klunky. But any discerning viewer will forgive such imperfections like the bullet holes in a Jimson painting.

You can then round off your discourse by stating that the end of the film, when Jimson sets sail in his wreck of a boat (a metaphor for his own body?), to find something new to paint is sublime.

Then if the film buff is still a bit bemused you can tell them that there is an excellent DVD of the film including an interview with director Ronald Neame and a D.A. Pennebacker Short that accompanied the film on it's original release from Criterion and that no serious DVD collection should be with out it and that comes, as they say, from the horse's mouth.

I saw this movie with Spanish subtitles for the first time in 1964 as I turned ten years old. It was shown in a public channel in Puerto Rico. That was my first contact with Art in general.
As I watched the movie I realized that I identified strongly with the artist character played by Alec Guiness. Eveything seemed so cool about him.
I also loved the image of the sculptor wearing the long scarf and creating an abstract image as he worked inspired by a nude female model.
My whole life was tranformed at the end of this movie. I was only ten years old but I was decided to be myself like the artists in the movie. Sure enough I became an artist painter!
I travelled the world and lived in Paris for ten years.
After all those years I still trace the root of my artistic life to that wonderful and providential film.
It amazes me how powerful and influential
the art of Cinema could be.

This edition of the Woody Allen Collection is probably the best of the three box sets recently issued by MGM DVD. While Woody is probably best known for his early-70s slapstick comedies ("Sleeper," "Bananas") and his revolutionary reconstruction of the comedy with "Annie Hall" and "Manhattan," three of his absolute best films appear in this set. "Zelig," whose technological advances foreshadow those of 1994's Academy Award favorite "Forrest Gump" by nearly ten years, is easily the better film, and the three years Woody spent making this film seems well worth the effort. About a "human chameleon," Leonard Zelig, whose insecure shapeshifting act ranges from pure novelty to affinities with fascism, is as funny as it is sharp. The best film in the set, "The Purple Rose of Cairo," also foreshadows the postmodern nostalgia films of the late 1990s, particularly "Pleasantville." Set during the Depression, this film is about a woman trapped in an awful marriage and an equally dissatisfying job. She escapes the misery of her life by watching films. She watches the same film over and over, and one of the characters comes off the screen to intervene in her life. A wonderful, complex and poignant examination of the conflation between fiction and reality, "The Purple Rose of Cairo," though a sad and dramatic film, is as powerful as anything Woody Allen has directed. The third wonderful film here is "Hannah and Her Sisters," which won three Oscars, is a return to the ensemble sensibility Woody perfected in "Manhattan." "Broadway Danny Rose" is probably the best of the remaining titles--about a hardworking theatrical manager who is failure at his work specifically because he cares so much about the personal wellbeing of his clients. Mia Farrow gives one of her best performances here. "Radio Days" is a narratively complex film about a Jewish family from Rockaway in the 40s whose lives are informed and entertained by the radio (just as we are entertained by the television and the internet today). The one weak film in the set is "A Midsummer Night's Sex Comedy," which is very similar to the much better Ingmar Bergman film "Smiles of a Summer Night." It involves three couples together in the country one weekend who all seem to be paired with the wrong lover. This set shows an intoxicating run of quality films by a director at the peak of his powers.

If there is anything in the world more uplifting, melancholy, happy, genuine, comic, artsy, it must be the comic genuis of Woody Allen. If I had the money, I would madly run after all his work and assemble my basement (i.e., if I had one) with his work. Anyone who doesn't enjoy his movies, his plays or his books, I have nothing but the deepest sympathies. The man is genius, genius, genius.

If you have money to spend on a good, funny stuff, spend it on this. I know when I leave school and get a job, I will.

I love Woody Allen, so this collection was SUPER for me.

...

I just purchased this DVD last month as a little treat for our anniversary. We play the CDs of the Dublin and Belfast concerts in our car all the time; now we have experienced a closeup and delightful two evening concert in our own home! All of these four men are talented and enjoyable, along with the excellent arrangements and huge orchestras.

You must have a tissue box at hand when listening and particularly watching Ronan Tynan sing about "simple child" and the "town that I love". Each singer produced a favorite for us. The shorter folk songs, plus the more dramatic pieces, produced a fine variety of the music in these two programs that held our interest from first to last notes.

They're nothing quite as delightful as watching the facial expressions and a little teasing that went on here and there, plus the expressions of pleasure on their faces during the songs. We've yet to view all the interviews on this DVD, but then we just bought it recently. Truly love those Irish accents because it reminds me of my heritage!

I bought one of these DVDs for a gift, and will certainly purchase more now that Christmas and birthdays are coming up! Truly hope that these performers have more offerings in the future. You won't be disappointed with the pleasure of these two fine concerts and interviews! Yes! Yes!

2 terrific concerts for the price of one! In the Dublin concert, Anthony Kearns sings some of the most beautiful songs recorded by the "ITs". He is truly outstanding on this recording. To watch him sing is captivating. He holds your attention because you can't believe anyone can sing so beautifully. In the Belfast half, Finbar Wright, a star in Ireland, makes his debut as a member of the "Irish Tenors". He turns the heat up a notch with his easy, romantic style and dark good-looks. His vocal power is evident in "Carrigfergus" and a sensitive maturity is seen in "Green Isle of Erin". All three tenors appear to be having a great time in the medley, "Phil the Fluther", "Are Ye Right There, Michael", "Paddy Reilly". The interviews are worth the price of this dvd, just to hear these lads' wonderful accents!

No words can describe just how good this is. Unlike movies, you will listen and watch these exceptional concerts over and over and never tire of them. The video and sound quality are superb and the voices, phenomenal--And the songs were all in English. Every part of the DVD was perfectly produced and the interviews with the 3 tenors was excellent.
Many DVDs have disappointed me, this one is worth more than I paid.

Easily the best BBC comedy available; what a pity the DVD looks no better than a VHS tape. A decent VHS, mind you, but smeary and low-definition like all of them. The sound is OK.

This show deserved better. It deserved the best: the actors' facial expressions are subtle and their British accents require close attention by American ears. Oh well, at least we have them safely on disc, and perhaps better quality was just not available. I bought both sets and enjoy them hugely.

It is high time this outstanding britcom (plus its sequel, Yes Prime Minister) was released in its entirety on DVD, but it was well worth the wait for the BBC has done an outstanding job. It contains all twenty-one 30-minute episodes (which ran from 1980 through 1982) in a beautifully packaged four-disc set. The quality of the picture is very crisp and clear for a 20-year-old production (I know I'VE never seen it look so good!), and the DVD extras are a real treat.

This is an intelligent, extremely well-written series--a satire of the inner workings of government. Sources within the government provided the writers with all the fodder they needed, and it is highly accurate in its depiction of the corruption, politics, red tape, and manipulation that forms an integral part of the administration of government (ANY government, mind you--which is what gives this series such universal appeal). Indeed, Margaret Thatcher, herself a fan of the series, referred to it as being a "closely observed portrayal of what goes on in the corridors of power."

The series opens with Jim Hacker (played by the late Paul Eddington (Good Neighbours), who sadly died of skin cancer in 1995 at age 68), who has just won the parliamentary seat for his riding (his party has won the election), being appointed as the new Minister of Administrative Affairs. Now that he's in a position of power (or so he thinks!), Hacker has high hopes for making some positive changes--things like instituting an open government policy, linking honours to economies for civil servants, and so on. But he's thwarted at every corner by he who wields the real power--the cunning, quick-witted, hilariously verbose and extremely manipulative civil servant, Sir Humphrey Appleby--the DAA's Permanent Secretary (the late Nigel Hawthorne (The Madness of King George, Mapp & Lucia)). Lastly is Hacker's Private Secretary, Bernard Woolley (Derek Fowlds (Heartbeat)). Bernard is a likeable, pun-loving, unassuming character with conflicting loyalties. He is himself a civil servant, and though there are times when he'd like to assist Hacker in achieving his goals, he must exercise extreme caution in doing so lest Sir Humphrey find out!

DVD EXTRAS include a splendid 42-minute profile of the late Nigel Hawthorne who, having battled cancer of the pancreas for eighteen months, sadly died on Boxing Day 2001. He was 72. The profile was filmed over four months in 1999, during the period when Hawthorne was preparing to play King Lear for the RSC. The series provides a brief bio with photos and snippets of other productions in which he's been involved. Derek Fowlds, Helen Mirren (his co-star in The Madness of King George), Jimmy Perry & David Croft (writers of Dad's Army), and Trevor Bentham (Hawthorne's partner of 22 years) all provide contributions, but the vast majority are from Hawthorne himself. He touches on many of the themes which are elaborated on in his splendid autobiography entitled "Straight Face"--things like his uneasy relationship with his father and his homosexuality. The final features are "A Short History of Yes Minister" (1999) which features Fowlds, Hawthorne, and series' co-writer Jonathan Lynn (it's only 5 minutes but very informative); and a brief 3 1/2 minute interview with Jonathan Lynn from 1981. Lastly are text-based bios of the main and many supporting actors.

This lovely collection set is truly a must-have for fans of the series. It is a unique, extraordinary britcom (a personal favourite of mine!)--one that is sure to appeal to anyone who enjoys the best in British comedy. I would also, however, recommend it unhesitatingly to anyone simply looking for an intelligent, brilliantly written, and impeccably acted series--British or otherwise. Highly, HIGHLY recommended!

"It was three elderly men sitting around a table talking about government. No action, no women, no sex . . . I don't know how it worked." -Jonathan Lynn. Well it did work and anyone who is familiar with this series already knows how brilliant it was and still is. The new minister of Administrative Affairs (Jim Hacker) arrives believing he can make the system more accountable and cost effective--thus assuring his popularity with his constituency--only to find that the stubborn traditions of the civil service (brilliantly portrayed in the controlling character of permanent secretary Sir Humphrey Appleby) are impossible to budge or too convenient in saving his own neck. Hacker often appears intellectually challenged; however, he sometimes manages to win a victory or two at the expense of the Sir Humphrey with personal secretary Bernard Woolley always willing to add a pedantic comment. In addition to the 21 episodes, extras include a brief (very brief) history of the show (which left me wanting more), a period interview with writing Jonathan Lynn (why not a recent reflection on the show?), and a lengthy, and very touching biography of Nigel Hawthorne (Sir Humphrey) who passed away in 2001. The witty political observations in this series are timeless whether one considers British govt., American govt., etc. Minor complaints about the DVD itself is that the volume is rather low and the discs are a little tricky to remove from the case (but worth the struggle, of course). I am looking forward to seeing the Yes, Prime Minister set.

When are we thumbfans going to get another dose? Wouldn't Steve and his thumbs turn The Gangs of New York into a thumbtastic The Thumbs of New York? Daniel Day Lewis's character New York is already wild enough...imagine him as a thumb!

These are the funniest movies I have ever seen. After seeing it I told all my freinds about it and they said it was very funny too. So if you need a good laugh by this DVD. Now!

Oh sweet mother of god! These movies are one of the funniset things i have ever seen! I laughed so hard i cried and got chest pains. I have watched it over and over and it gets funnier every time. I definetly reccomend this to anyone who loves to laugh.

This collection would be improved by inclusion of the early Dreyer comedy The Master of The House. I have seen Gertrud and The Day of Wrath in the cinema several times and Gertrud is on my list of all time top ten. The severity minimal means achieving maximum effects are the essence of what director/critic/screenwriter called "the transcendental style". The story of a woman's' love that was never requited by those who loved sounds simple enough but then, Dreyer would not be the master he is if he had not turned it into something beautiful that is intrinsically tied to the means of the film as medium itself. I thin that this film has only 57 shots. Yes 57! Long camera takes and static camera setups are what make this particular film and unforgettable experience. Definitely not for all tastes but once you see it you will probably be hooked.

Dreyer was concerned with truth, which he defined as being true to life. Words, voice quality, movement, lighting all had to reflect the script as refracted through a realistic exposition of human nature. Dreyer achieved this truth. There is no denying he was a genius at directing. Yet all in all, these stories are uninteresting. After the first half of Ordet, the remainder of the plot is fairly predictable. And I hate to say it, but Gertrud is just plain boring. We learn a bit about the meaning of love, but hardly enough to recompense our time. Yet Gertrud exemplifies the problem with the material. Dreyer's concern for truth was for truth in detail, yet the deep truths expressed in Gertrud are of a philosophical nature, i.e. the larger truths that represent the summary wisdom gained over a lifetime. If it is true, as Dreyer said, that we enter the theater and are transported into a different experience, it seems obvious that we would not want it to be "real" in the sense of that which seems like our common, everyday lives. Some of the "reality TV" shows that give us a glimpse into the life of ordinary people only reveal that these people are...well, ordinary. In fact, most of those people are darned uninteresting, their ideas pedestrian, and their conversation dull. While I shun movies loaded with special effects, explosions, and artificial tensions predictably resolved, I also expect the movie to open a window into the imagination by presenting a plot that has a germ of something unreal. These three movies are thoughtful, but not thought provoking. The photography is excellent and, in fact, the most exciting part of the production. The staging is meticulous. And the transfers are superb (Thanks again, Critereon!). I want to make it clear that my disappointment with these films issues from neither the usual American impatience with slow expositions and pacing, nor from unfamiliarity with foreign films. I loved Afterlife, and have many other foreign films in my collection. Again, Dreyer was a genius. But the material he chose and his literal treatment of it make this set a disappointment. Of the four discs, only the one about Dreyer (My Metier) was truly interesting. Day Of Wrath is mildly interesting, but one I could easily miss.

This great package contains films by one on the masters of modern cinema. Dreyer's work provides a marvellous antidote to what passes for cinema in today's world. Dreyer's films are in effect works of art.
Of this set, my two favorites are Ordet and Gertrud. All of Carl Dreyer's film manage to magically combine the physical and the metaphysical. It takes time to get into the pace of these films, but one into them, they are totally absorbing. The pace required is that of real time. These films restore real emotion and humanity to film, so very different from what passes for emotion and feeling in most of today's Hollywood productions.
To understand these films it is necessary to work from the inside out as it were. We are required to do the work for ourselves. We have to think and feel for ourselves as we watch these films. They are theraputic in the sense that the viewer has to slow down and pay attention. Everything counts in a Dreyer film.
These film are at one and the same time abstract and very personal. I can see how they have influenced fellow Dane Lars von rier.
For anyone is looking for action and external excitement in their films, I would suggest that they look elsewhere, but if they are want to see meditative works of art, this is the place to find them.

It is important to understand that this is a Slovak film and a Slovak story, not a Czech one. The importance of the distinction lies in the fact that, while the Czech lands of Bohemia-Moravia were occupied by the Germans and ruled (with an iron fist) by the SS during the war, Slovakia remained a nominally independent Nazi puppet regime under a dictator named Tiso. The story of the main character is thus really the story of a struggle for the soul of that country during a time when a toxic mix of anti-semitism and nationalism led so many Slovaks to collaborate with the expulsion of the Jews from their land. Especially poignant is the way that the story highlights one of the most enduring social pathologies of that region of the world: petty envy, and the foolishness and outright evil that it leads to.

This movie is so good that it's often difficult to watch. I highly recommend it for anyone seeking some insight into that part of history.

A must-see companion film is the more recent Czech production, "Divided We Fall" (available on DVD), which portrays the story of a couple in a Czech village who have to pretend to be collaborators in order to cover the fact that they are hiding a Jew in their apartment. Although what the main characters do is ultimately heroic, the movie is honest enough not to portray them as noble, but as frightened people who feel trapped into a terrible moral dilemma. Unlike "The Shop on High Street," "Divided We Fall" exhibits the uniquely Czech characteristic of being tragic and funny at the same time.

This film is one of the most gripping stories told about Nazi occupied Europe. A small town in 1942 Czechoslovakia feels the changing regime envelop the people, pinning friends against one another, and turning even the most pazifistic men into traitors.

Small-time carpenter Tony is married to an attractive, but constantly nagging and complaining, materialistic woman. Seeing her in-laws successful, while exploiting the political advantages of working with the Nazis, makes Tony's wife ever more determined to have a "piece of the fortune" the Jews are said to have been hording. Although refusing to work at a "tower of Babel" the Nazis are erecting as a symbol of their glory (and doing without the money he could have earned), Tony doesn't speak out against the "new order" either.

When Tony finds himself as assistant to an old lady at her failing notions shop (which he "legally" was entitled to take over), he learns about the Jewish community, how everyone looked out for one another, and how these people were no different from other folk in town, if anything they were more human than the rest. Still afraid of retribution from the Nazis and their sympathisers, Tony is in a no-win-situation.

The final scene of this 1966 Best Foreign Film Oscar Winner was likely an inspiration for the final scene in the 1997 Blockbuster "Titanic". This cinematic gem serves as a reminder to the old German saying "Leben und leben lassen" (live and let live). A classic indeed!

...this movie is great. I'm not Czech and I know very little about Czech history or the language. What I DO know is that I responded very strongly to this movie and highly recommend it. The acting is great from the two lead actors, and the camera work is wonderful (especially right at the end). It is nice that the movie does not need to go into the horrors of concentration camps or be very explicit about it; it just touches on the knowledge that is in every viewer's head, and leaves it at that. I will say that the first half hour seemed a little slow, but the movie built momentum throughout, and for the last 20 minutes (at least) my eyes were glued to the screen.
The Criterion release is one of the no-frills releases, but the video and sound are, of course, very good. If you're looking for a different take on a WWII-related theme, check this out. It is very moving and well-done.

Jean-Luc Godard is perhaps best known as the most influential of the French New Wave filmmakers. Themes of social realism were wedded to a naturalistic, seemingly spontaneous, hand-held cinematography with jump cuts and an intimate documentary style.

1964's BAND OF OUTSIDERS has been described by Godard as "Alice in Wonderland meets Franz Kafka." This sentimental, noirish story is about a gullible woman who takes up with couple of would-be bad guys in an ill-fated effort to rob her own home of her aunt's fortune. (The primary relationship in the story may have been the inspiration behind the recent, overlooked and very funny, Bandits.)

Band of Outsiders is weirdly joyous and always surprising with a sense of romantic doom that recalls his most famous gangster romance, Breathless (A Bout de Souffle, 1959).

This is a CLASSIC that should be owned by EVERY person who owns a DVD player. But that is not going to happen any time soon. Godard$B!G(Bs greatest movie comes back to life better than ever through the Criterion Collection, with possibly their best package.
Lots of extras are incredibly insightful, including the booklet (a feature that many studios do not think of as a $B!F(Bsupplement$B!G(B). Godard and everyone else that worked on this movie should be proud the way this has been preserved for future generations. This IS Nouvelle Vague, a movie that reinvented the medium, but lost in the shuffle over the years.
And with an incredibly low list price for a Criterion release, this DVD should not stay on store shelves. If you buy or rent it, you will love it. Guaranteed

If there are any films that offer a wonderful sense of love for the cinema, they are the films of Jean-Luc Godard. But, as he explains in a brief interview from 1964 that is included with this fine DVD, he was also against film; that is, against the conventions and rules that predominated French cinema. So he introduced unconventional methods of telling stories and making movies and decided to include elements that films typically left out. "Band of Outsiders" is a playful, unconventional, mesmerizing tale of small-time gangsters and young love set in 1960s Paris. Its source material runs the gamut from the pulp crime novel on which it is based to the American B-movies and film noir that inspired its look. It's Godard's best love letter to Paris since "Breathless," and also one of the last of his true New Wave films.

The story might be simple enough: Arthur and Franz enlist the help of the young, beautiful Odile to stage a robbery. But if the story is simple, everything else around it is not. Here we find allusions and homages to Arthur Rimbaud (the poet whom one of the characters is named after), Franz Kafka, film composer Michel Legrand, "The Umbrellas of Cherbourg," T.S. Eliot, Shakespeare, American cartoons, Jack London, Charlie Chaplin, Andre Breton, Andre Malraux, and numerous others. That's Godard doing his thing, and even if we miss those allusions, there's so much more to be cherished: the famous minute of silence, the running visit through the Louvre, the dance scene, the glorious closeups of Anna Karina, riding on the underground metro, the trio driving through the streets of Paris.

"Band of Outsiders" is playful, wondrous, hilarious, breezy, but at the same time melancholic, dark in its undertones. Raoul Coutard's photography gives it a stark look, but its playfulness is its most alluring aspect, along with Godard's wonderfully appealing, inventive visual language. It might not be the finest example of the French New Wave, nor is it as perfect as a work of art as "Breathless" and "My Life to Live," but in its flaunting of cinematic invention, its richness, and its embodiment of pure cinema, it's in a class by itself and certainly a film that should be seen, if not owned, by lovers of cinema. Its most memorable moments will remain in your mind forever.

Many Godard fans, myself included, have been waiting eagerly for this Criterion edition of "Band of Outsiders." It's a remarkable digital transfer; the images and contrasts are crisp; the mono soundtrack is as clear as possible. The additional features are worth the price of the DVD alone, including a visual glossary that explains many of the film's allusions and a brief interview in which Godard explains the philosophy behind the New Wave. Criterion has really outdone itself with this disc, and that's saying something.

I recommend that, even if you do not know French, you should watch this film at least once with the subtitles off since they sometimes obscure the closeups that make this film so memorable. When the camera is on Anna Karina's face, believe me when I say you don't want anything to stand in its way.

After months of patient waiting for volume 4, I simply can't believe that Rhino would do this to us. After years of watching the same episodes OVER AND OVER AND OVER on Scifi every Saturday morning, they actually release four of those same episodes. Heck, I just watched "Girl in Gold Boots" THIS SATURDAY, and I'm sure some of you did too! I'm afraid that I'm just going to have to wait for the next collection and hope for the best... I just can't see spending the $ on this collection.

but how about Wild Rebels, Ring of Terror, Daddy-O, Earth vs The Spider, Santa Claus Conquers the Martians, Attack of the the Eye Creatures, Teenagers From Outer Space, and more shorts? Why not include commercials, Turkey Day bumpers, convention highlights, etc. as special features?<

...is a good day. A show this creative should live on forever on tape or DVD. Unfortunately, due to rights issues with the underlying movies, MST3K is likely to disappear forever in January. Until that time, we have 4 more episodes to preserve for posterity, and to demonstrate to Rhino that there is an audience for this show.

"Hamlet". An underrated show, and a good candidate for DVD-hood. Mike and the 'bots win a game of 3 card monte and get to select their film. They choose "Hamlet" but let Pearl decide WHICH adaptation. Instead of Kenneth Branagh's 1996 version or Zeffirelli's 1990 interpretation, they get to watch this poorly-dubbed German made-for-TV slice of warm pork.

"Space Mutiny". Made in the one country not subjected to endless reruns of "Battlestar Galactica" - South Africa. What to do? Why , reuse the BG opticals in the bizarre space drama. The film can be summarized as follows: Our hero, Big McLargeHuge, does something in a spaceship that is made of brick walls and boiler rooms.

"The Girl With Gold Boots". A film made when Manson walked the streets. The less said about this one the better.

"Overdrawn at the Memory Bank". The kind of film your parents thought would be ok to watch since it was produced by PBS. It even has that flat videotaped "made in the UK" look about it. Little did your folks realize that making kids watch this awful Raul Julia vehicle is tantamount to child endangerment. The film itself is a futuristic "Casablanca" something-or-other. Oh, and it's hilarious!

In conclusion: buy this collection, even if these experiments aren't your favorites. Create demand for old MST3K episodes so that others might be released in the future. Supplies are really limited, so act now!