Women Movie Reviews

This was a very cool video. Not only was it entertaining, but it also gave me all the info I need to go and have a great time in Rio de Janeiro. I also went to the website at www.womenoftheworld.com and got even more pictures and information. THIS IS GREAT!

This was a very cool video. Not only was it entertaining, but it also gave me all the info I need to go and have a great time in Rio de Janeiro. I also went to the website at www.4womenoftheworld.com and got even more pictures and information. THIS IS GREAT!

I was on my way to Brazil and needed a little guidance. The WOTW video did just that and was an incredibly hot and erotic video at the same time. It has the right mixture of general "where to go/what to do" information and features some of the most beautiful women I have ever seen.

We've all heard the rumors and the hype about Rio de Janeiro. The Women of the World videos are proof that they are ALL TRUE! For the first time, I've seen a real, uncensored look at the Women and nightlife of Rio de Janeiro! No wonder they call it the sex capital of South America. All those fine honies with caramel colored skin and beautiful butts drove me crazy...If you are an ass man like me, you will LOVE this video series. I can't wait till I go myself and do exactly what I saw these guys do in the videos!

This was a very cool video. Not only was it entertaining, but it also gave me all the info I need to go and have a great time in Rio de Janeiro. I also went to the website at www.4womenoftheworld.com and got even more pictures and information. THIS IS GREAT!

Great DVD! Great Concept. I take my hat off to the guys at Women of the World. I actually bought this title at an adult video store and was expecting it to be hardcore. Turns out it wasn't porn, but was even better because it actually shows how they met the girls featured in the video! We've all heard the rumors and hype about Rio de Janeiro. But this video actually shows regular guys how to go down to Rio and party like a rockstar! After seeing this video, I'm getting ready to book a trip to Rio!

I pre-ordered the VHS tape back in early December. I received it a few days ago. I am totally impressed. I have a weight bench, dumb-bells, a bar and a heavier weight set at home. I use my light weight dumb-bells all of the time, but I always wanted to use my work bench and heavier weights for sculpting, but was afraid of hurting myself from improper form. This tape makes it so simple. Jake walks you through each procedure and explains exactly which muscles are being worked. Most tapes perform the procedures in such a fast pace that I was always skeptical about even trying them out. Jake explains, as a model performs the procedure with proper form and technique in a slow smooth pace. Well, I'm on my way to the body I know I was meant to have. Thanks Jake for making a tape for beginners like myself.

I found this dvd to be extremely valuable when it comes to learning how to use weights. Jake's instruction is clear and very helpful. I was always nervous about using weights at the gym, now I have enough confidence to give it a try. I always wanted to use weights at home, but I never knew what I needed. Now I do. I know how much to lift, how many times and the best part is now I know how to sculpt the body I have always wanted.

For me, this is the best application of Hou's rigorous formality. His long-take style and the manner in which three generations of Taiwan are woven through one character are breathtaking. It's amazing to watch the shots echo and reflect each other, while the lives of the characters do the same. (My favorite: a shot in the bedroom, using a mirror. The scene builds to sex between the two leads. Later, a discussion in the same room, shot the same way, with a conversation concerning parenthood and abortion.) This is certainly not for all tastes, but is unquestionably a masterpiece.

Like the films of Ozu, Dreyer, or Von Trier, Hou Hsiao-Hsien's films tend to alienate a good portion of their audiences and turn the others into raving mad fanatics of the director's work. I'm definitely one of the fanatics.

Good Men Good Women is one of Hou's more ambitious films. It, like the Puppetmaster, attempts to meld the lives of its main character to the history of the period of Taiwan in which that character lived. In this film, Hou examines the life of an actress in the present day as she prepares for her next role as an anti-Japanese freedom fighter who was of some national acclaim in the 1940's and 1950's. The film freely changes time periods between the modern day actress's life, the life of the freedom fighter she's playing, the actress's own past, and the actress's conception of her role in outtakes from the film she's to shoot. This is somewhat confusing, as the film expects you to put it all together yourself, but the answers are all there for you to find.

The film's acting and pacing are similar to other films by Hou, but the film is shorter than most of his others, which might make it a great introduction to his work. I'd reccomend it highly to anyone though, as it proves challenging, artistic, politically bold films are still being made.

I love Little Women at Christmas. The DVD is wonderful. You can play just the soundtrack. I wish there were more DVDs out there like that.
Hook is good too!

My sister gets the LITTLE WOMEN flick. I got HOOK which is the ROBIN WILLIAMS, DUSTIN HOFFMAN, BOB HOSKIN's verion. Unlike what critic above says, HOOK is great. It is not and does not suggest that it is word-for-word the Peter Pan Tale. IT is an original fantasy that suggests what Peter Pan might be like after he has come back to reality and is now grown-up with his own kids. It's funny, creative, lovable for the whole family!

There is no denying the importance of the films of Gualtiero Jacopetti and Franco Prosperi as they have influenced everything from hardcore horror films ie Cannibal Holocaust to broadcast news and the reality TV craze of today. Blue Underground in an ambitious move have put out this great 8 disc box set (limited to 10,000 copies) which should more than satisfy any mondo fan.

The first two discs are Mondo Cane and Mondo Cane 2. Mondo Cane is certainly a milestone and in fact this entire genre of "shocking documentaries" which where made by Euro filmmakers is better known as the 'mondo' genre. Essentially Mondo Cane is a strange journey into some of the more bizarre and macabre places with the camera voyeuristically witnessing all kinds of oddities and bringing them back for the curious viewer. Mondo Cane 2 continues this tradition. The third disc Women of the World is similar but all the footage is tied together by a common theme of the varied roles women play in different parts of the world.

The next 2 discs are the cut English language version of Africa Addio and the Italian language uncut version. Considered by many to be the greatest mondo doco of all time, the crew head of into Africa during it's transition from colonial control. While the majority of this focuses on the interactions of white and black and some long sequences on the fate of wildlife with laws protecting them diminished (countless animals are gunned down and speared in these scenes and hippos are dismembered) what sets this apart is the aftermath of several massacres caught on film. Later the crew hook up with a group of mercenaries (these nuts look as though they just walked of col. Kurtz's compound in 'Apocalypse Now') and go on a mission, filming a couple of executions.

After the English language print was recut to exclude much political commentary and the censored version was released the film makers came under fire and accused of exploitation, racism and some even called them murders (accusing them of paying for the executions). Being labeled racists must have really angered Jacopetti and Prosperi resulting in them making Addio Zio Tom (Goodbye Uncle Tom) in order to prove that they are not racist.

The next 2 discs are Goodbye Uncle Tom in the cut English version and Italian Language directors cut (this disc alone in worth the price of the set). The butchered English version done little to mend their reputations as in order to have it released alternate versions of scenes were shot and some extreme (but easily justified) politics were omitted. In essence it became a different movie.

The director's cut of Goodbye Uncle Tom is one of the most amazing films I have ever seen. While some scenes are mondo filmed modern 70's events in America, the majority of this film is a departure of the mondo formula as they have made a regular motion picture with actors and sets under the pretense of them traveling back in time to shoot a mondo doco on the slave trade in America pre civil war. All these scenes are set up based on factual accounts and are unsparingly brutal and authentic, literally using 1000s of extras. The sweeping photography and epic scale of this film as we are taken into various aspects of slavery make for a simply breathtaking motion picture experience.

Some people have claimed these scenes are a false representation, by pointing out silly little things like "there probably wouldn't be so many slaves in the house" and "they wouldn't be allowed to jump on the bed like that" as well as others who are infuriated by this film claiming that "it was never as depraved as this" but once again this film is clearly well researched quoting writers of the time and besides how could any people who kept slaves not be "depraved" anyway? Gone With the Wind this certainly is not. Roots, while well made and genuinely heartfelt, is pure sacarine by comparison. Steven Speilberg made the typically cowardly film 'Amistaad'. How can this courtroom drama depicting Europeans as being cruel to slaves and Americans liberating them via the righteous legal system be hailed as "tackling slavery head on" when it completely ignores the 200 years of slavery in America? Goodbye Uncle Tom is clearly a one of a kind spectacle and in my humble opinion the best disc in the set.

The final disc is a doco on the filmmakers themselves, rounding out what is an awesome boxset!

When MONDO CANE first came out it was the "adults only" film every kid like me wanted to see. Needless to say, what was considered shocking and adult in the 60s all seems rather quaint in retrospect. Yet, it's a short distance from the Mondo craze of yore to the "shocking reality TV" we are saddled with today. With all that in mind, I ordered the Mondo Collection and figured $127 was a small price to pay for a little trip down memory lane. To my surprise and delight, the 8-disc set is a primo package. (Think Criterion Collection in terms of quality and restoration but from a company called Blue Underground.) All the shockumentaries are in the package, not to mention "The Godfathers of Mondo" documentary about the guys---the trailblazers---who gave us these films. Soon every schlock filmmaker would crank out a Mondo-this and Mondo-that shockumentary, hoping to out-Mondo everybody else. But, again, this collection gives us the real thing from the guys who put the word Mondo on the map. And, lest we forget, every time we hear a lounge singer do "More," we'll fondly think back to its origin: Mondo Cane. Buy this set and enjoy!

Director Candida Royalle has pioneered the genre of romantic erotica that can be enjoyed by couples. The actors are not the typical surgically enhanced twenty-something sexual automatons that grind their way through mainstream pornography. They look and act more like "real" people of different ages (even some with imperfect bodies)in real romantic situations. Look for character development, dreamy settings, and even a modicum of plot.

Christine is an attractive, thirty-something single woman who visits the lush Love Inn each year. In a bow to Lady Chatterly, it becomes apparent that she yearns for a forbidden rendezvous with the handsome young groundskeeper. Her sensual, soft-focus, longing, dream sequences are mingled with vignettes of other couples at the inn joyfully and playfully celebrating their couplehood, love and sexuality. Perhaps there is a message that the hottest of these scenes is reserved for the fiftyish inkeeper (with average looks and slightly sagging figure) and her long-time lover. The ending, of course, is completely predictable as the frustrated matron and the lonely groundskeeper throw caution and decorum to the wind in a firestorm of pent up longing so hot that it threatens to ignite the hayloft.

Romantic, sensual, sometimes funny. Explicit but not offensive. I liked it. My partner liked it. Her comment, "It's not cheesy like other erotic movies."

Yes, once you have seen this 1933 version of "Little Women", you only ever see Katharine Hepburn in your mind's eye as you re-read the novel. I've seen this one, of course, as well as June Allyson's, Susan Dey's, and Winona Ryder's, and a PBS one years ago which featured an extremely pouty gal with a protruding lower lip as Jo. Interestingly enough, though, one evening I rented both Kate's and June's and played them back to back to determine how each measured up against the other. While Kate brings a quality of haplessness to the role that June doesn't, I found to my surprise that OVERALL I preferred the June Allyson movie. Why? Better film quality, color as opposed to black and white (shouldn't make a difference, but it was attractive), and a cast better known to me from other pictures than Kate's; the 15 years between the pictures makes a great difference for more modern audiences in that respect--imagine, Elizabeth Taylor as Amy!. For more on the June Allyson version, see my full review treatment there. Back to Kate for now. As I mentioned, Kate's haplessness is right out of the book, one of the overriding characteristics of Jo March. Like many of Selznick's earlier pictures (see "David Copperfield"), there is an antique quality to the movie and some of the acting is a wee bit too dated and histrionic. Depending on whom you watch the movie with, that may matter. The first half of the movie, prior to Jo's moving to NY, is the better part. I have always loved the scene where she is being chased over the hills and fences by Laurie with Max Steiner's score cheerily bouncing away, only to come upon her sister Meg trying to be so dignified with her beau Mr. Brooke--Jo's realization that their childhood days are coming to an end with Meg's changing interests and reproof of Jo's tomboy antics. Edna May Oliver gets my vote for the best Aunt March yet--I suppose she really only ever plays one part in every movie you see her in, but that's what can be so effective about character actors and typecasting. Incidentally, I wish ALL versions would drop the playacting sequences--I've always been bored out of my mind by those scenes, even though I realize Alcott devoted a lot of time to them in the book. This "Little Women" is a classic and nobody should reach the age of 30 without having seen it at least once!

Katherine Hepburn brings the Little Women heroine Jo March alive in a portrayal that truly does justice to the Jo that Louisa May Alcott wrote. Courageous and creative, but socially awkward, Jo charms us with her tomboy attempts to deal with adolescence during the difficulties of the Civil War. Though a film is of necessity a rather shortened version of a book, the essential feel of the book is intact in this film version.

Katharine Hepburn stars as the tomboy Jo March in the first screen version of Louisa Allcot's classic LITTLE WOMEN.

Under George Cukor's inspired direction, Hepburn gives one of her best and most celebrated performances. As the quick-witted, sharp-tongued and accident-prone Jo, Hepburn is wonderful.

She later remarked that Jo was a role she always dreamt of playing. She believed that she and Jo were not that different - both were the tomboy and both were highly dramatic.

The supporting cast is first-rate. Spring Byington, Joan Bennett and Paul Lukas are put to good use here, as is the wonderful Frances Dee.

Later re-made with June Allyson, and more recently with Winona Ryder, LITTLE WOMEN is a timeless story of sisterly love and utter devotion.

This is a wonderfully dated (though still very relevant) and thoroughly entertaining comedy from the genius George Cukor. Perfect Wife Norma Shearer's marriage hits the rocks when her less-than-perfect husband begins an affair with the sluttish shopgirl Joan Crawford. Her friends rally round her as she ignores, complains, divorces, and finally rediscovers her own self-worth.

The performances are wonderful. Shearer is winsome and emotional, Crawford is venomous and ambitious (though we don't see enough of her character), and Rosalind Russell steals the show as the scheming, manipulative and two-faced 'Friend' you'd like to hit with a bus. The dialogue is spectacular, comparable in places with Bette Davis in her magnificent opus 'All About Eve', and the ensemble cast of over 150 women hangs together beautifully.

The direction, too, is superior, and Cukor exacts almost superhuman expressions and angles from the 'Faces' - Crawford, Russell and, most of all, Shearer. The gowns, hats, gloves, shoes, furs and jewelery in 'The Women' play almost as important a part in the picture as the cast members themselves, and the 'glorious technicolour' fashion show is a gem.

Sadly, 'The Women' suffers from the same syndrome as all Stage-to-Screen movies do. In a theatre, with scene and time restrictions, the audience depends on dialogue and character interaction for entertainment. In movies, such restrictions don't exist, and 'The Women', like 'Cabaret', 'The Sound of Music' and 'Funny Girl' after it, suffers from a 30-minute or so period in the centre, where it unfortunately loses its momentum. However, the ending is wonderful, especially Crawford's line about Kennels, and for anybody, 'The Women' stands the test of time as an illustration of the awful and hilarious power of gossip.

Even better than the Luce play upon which it was based, THE WOMEN holds up as well as its infamous contemporaries, THE WIZARD OF OZ and GONE WITH THE WIND. There's something for everyone here and the all-star female cast members are all at the top of their games. You will have to watch it a few times to make sure you don't miss a single witty remark, double take or physical bit. A real gem of a comedy with surprisingly significant insights into the strange dance between the sexes!

Yes, this most overblown film of the 30s couldn't convey the feeling of the period to you any better if it were injected into your vein. It's everything - dialogue, fun, emotions, posh clothes and beautiful women - 135 of them, if the trailer is to be belived. The fashion show sequence in Technicolor is an absolute delight, even though the fashions are a bit overblown as well. The DVD quality is top, and there are some interesting and well presented extras. By the way: none of the reviewers note the apperance of Virginia Gray, one of the most beautiful women in the films of the period, scarcely to be seen nowadays. She is wearing a rather heavy and stange hairdo, but I trust it is because she has scenes with Joan Crawford, who probably never allowed a more beautiful younger woman to appear in the same frame with her, let alone steal it.

Many people argue that the film was great, but the ending was weak. I argue otherwise... at the ending is shows the power and reciprocity that friendship has. The jewels and wisdom that Roya has shared with her friend become important at the end. It ends, "I have a book on single parenting...". She means that she doesn't just have a book, but that she can help her like she was helped.

This movie is full of suspense. The male chaser part is a bit awkward. All in all this movie offers a glimpse on Iranian society along with powerful messages of women's solidarity and friendship. A tearjerker too!

From the opening of this film, one gets the impression that they are in for a real downer. The background music gives a very somber mood and the opening scene is not a pleasant one.

Fereshteh and Roya are two close friends at Tehran University in the early eighties. It is made clear from the beginning that Fereshteh is an above average student. In the beginning of the film, we meet Feresteh in a Calculus class where she goes to the board and casually solves a difficult looking problem that no one else in the class was able to solve. Roya, who is also a student in the class and having difficulties with her studies is impressed by Fereshteh's intelligence and asks her for help. They agree to get together to study and become close friends.

Fereshteh is not only intelligent, but she is also beautiful and catches the eye of a young man who wants to marry her. Fereshteh doesn't like this man and rejects his advances. This young man one day sees Fereshteh walking with another man and becomes jealous so he throws acid into the face of the other man who happens to be Fereshteh's cousin. After hearing of this incident, Fereshteh's father forces her to withdraw from the University which soon closes due to the turmoil of the Islamic revolution anyway. Still Fereshteh's only desire is to finish her studies and then help her family. She keeps her hopes up and dreams of going back to college, but will she ever realize that dream? Also, what about her close friend Roya (the one she helped in school)?

I strongly believe that even some highly regarded professional movie critics failed to focus on the right things in this film. The reason I'm stating this is because they tended to look at the cultural side and talk about how oppresive the Iranians are with their women. What I got out of the film is that the two women both wanted what the other had at some point in their lives. Roya wanted Fereshteh's intelligence and later in the film we see an interesting but heartbreakingly sad reversal of things. Events similar to what happened in this film can and do happen in every country.

Country girl Fereshteh and city girl Roya, schoolmates at Tehran University in the early '80s, become friends. Their friendship and their innocent fun are clouded only by the presence of a young man who stalks the pretty Fereshteh demanding that she marry him. Family pressure once again decides Fereshteh's destiny, forcing her into a marriage with a man she doesn't love. Her friend Roya, meanwhile, is living precisely the sort of life that Fereshteh aspires to....

The film certainly shows the extent of patriarchal power, but also demonstrates how female subjugation demands a complex, male complicity. In a sense, the stalker represents the revolution, single-minded, anarchic, and ruthless, while Fereshteh's father and husband represent the deep-rooted traditions that become its willing collaborators. This imbrication is seen when the stalker follows her to the provinces and involves her in a fatal car accident. Although absolved from blame for the death of the stalker, in her father's eyes, Fereshteh further disgraces her family through her involvement in such a serious court case.

Furthermore, her vulnerability as a woman before the judicial system allows a third male figure, Ahmad (Atila Pesiani), to step forward with a loan to save her family's reputation, and to pursue her as a bride. The universities, Fereshteh's only escape, remain closed, and she finally weds, persuaded by her future husband's promise that when the universities re-open, he will allow her to continue her studies. That promise marks Ahmad's last concession to Fereshteh's aspirations. Years of unmediated mental and physical cruelty follow, itemized by Milani in the chilling, dispassionate daily attrition of jealousy and anger.