Knockin' on Heaven's Door (1998) Review

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(More customer reviews)A little bit like "Lock, stock, and Two Smoking Barrels" with less people involved in the story. Great movie if you can watch it. The German only made it a bit difficult for me!
Once the major downfall I found with the film was the lack of subtitles on the copy that I had purchased. This time I gave it a 5 star so people might actually look at it, one. Two, because the film itself was a 5, and this region 2 version may have the one thing I had missing.
*I do not own the DVD listed here on amazon, but this is the only copy I have ever seen with English language listed on it.

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Pilgrim's Progress (1979) Review

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(More customer reviews)If you've never read John Bunyan's timeless classic "Pilgrim's Progress"... you should. And THEN view this well done translation of it to film. I say this because like all movies based on a book, it cannot possibly convey it fully.
It's also a collector's item having the now famous Liam Neeson playing the starring role of "Pilgrim" in it. And here, as in his role in "Krull"; he shows all the usual rough edges of an actor yet new to the business, yet convincing enough to be a "diamond in the rough".
Fast action movie fans will find it a bit dull and tedious for their tastes. Yet considering the venerability of the subject matter, should not readily dismiss it either.
For Parents: This is definitely a "Must Own", being both morally instructive, and cinematically entertaining.

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Posse Review

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(More customer reviews)One of the truly unique American Westerns, Posse finds Kirk Douglas as a pompous U.S. marshal--fittingly named Howard Nightingale (he's great at singing his own praises)--doing everything he can to drum up support in his bid for Senator from the great state of Texas.
Key to his campaign is the capture of Bruce Dern's infamous Jack Strawhorn, a cucumber-cool, sharpshooting robber whose bad luck in finding a gang worthy of his own smarts is echoed by Nightingale's great fortune at having a posse who never fails him.
Or so he thinks....
When Strawhorn is captured, the whole town cheers, but this is offset by Wesley, one of Nightingale's best posse guys, having a go with the mayor's wife...and with two other posse members finding love, as it were, with two younger members of the female gender in the town. Seems Nightingale's boys aren't too shy.
Things come to a head when the tables are turned, and the ending is a total shock for those expecting things to turn out the way they "should" in a Western which, let's face it, is supposed to typify the core of what's good and true in American civilization. The editor of the local newspaper, a former soldier now missing an arm and a leg, is intriguingly similar in his perspective to Strawhorn; this comes out in some subtle and not so subtle ways.
Douglas himself directed this piercing look at American greed and lust and acquitted himself admirably. One of the better entries in the American Western canon, Posse is all too close to political reality even today.
Definitely recommended.


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Something Wicked This Way Comes (1983) Review

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(More customer reviews)"And in despair I bowed my head, there is no peace on earth," I said. "For hate is strong and mocks the song of peace on earth, good will to men." Then pealed the bells more loud and deep, "God is not dead, nor doth He sleep. The wrong shall fail, the right prevail. With peace on earth, good will to men"...
With Shakespeare & Longfellow both quoted in the film & movie screenplay, penned and adapted by the author Ray Bradbury, how could you go wrong with this Disney Family great!
Set in the 1940's in a small idyllic town called Greentown, Illinois; it is the pseudonym for Ray Bradbury's own home town of Waukegan, Illinois. Waukegan plays quite a big role in most of Ray Bradbury's works, just as Bradbury had a pseudonym himself by the name of Douglas Spaulding.
Greentown is mentioned in passing several times in short stories, just for the reader to put a name to the place, but it is featured most prominently in "Dandelion Wine", a beautiful anthology Bradbury wrote concerning his childhood
memories, and in the dark fantasy novel, "Something Wicked This Way Comes". So essentially, you COULD visit Greentown if you wanted to... Just be careful of the carnival "Autumn People" in October.
Jason Robards heads a stellar cast as the small town's middle-aged, midlife crisis cursed, librarian, Mr. Charles Halloway. Vidal Peterson plays Charles' son, the light, tow headed good boy, Will Halloway and Will's best friend, blood brother and alter-ego, the dark & brave Jim Nightshade, played by Shawn Carson.
This dynamically diametric duo get caught up in the carnival that literally blows into town, courtesy of a spooky black train, one fateful, autumn night. "Dark's Pandemonium & Carnival" to be exact & the name does apt justice to the goings on all along the carnival grounds.
All of the Greentown folk's deepest and most secret desires are met by the devilish denizens of the travelling fair and with dire consequences.
Take in the sights and sounds of Mr. Dark's (a deliciously evil & seductive, Jonathan Price) Pandemonium Carnival, such as the beautiful dancing girls, the spooktacular and haunted Ferris Wheel, the fortune teller, the confusing "House Of Mirrors", gambling tables, the "dust witch" (Pam Grier) and the demonically charged, Merry-Go-Round/carousel that will take you on the ride of your life... Literally!
Diane Ladd plays single mother, Mrs. Nightshade while EllenGeer, daughter of the late Will Geer (Grandpa of The Waltons), portrays the mother of Will Halloway.
Someone HAS to save the citizens of small Greeentown from the "Autumn People" with their trickery, spells, evil powers and destructive ways. Who will "Step Right Up..." just like the carnival barker bellows???
Watch this gem of a film and find out for yourself!
Happy Watching & Unpleasant Dreams!


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One of Ray Bradbury's most popular and intriguing novels of good and evil comes to life in this spine-tingling motion picture. On a grim and gusty October day, two young boys encounter a distressed man who foretells of danger blowing their way. Soon after, the town is visited by a seductive stanger named Mr. Dark and his Pandemonium Carnival. Terrifying things begin to happen when the adventurous boys stumble onto the carnival's deadly and destructive secret! Beware: SOMETHING WICKED THIS WAY COMES ... and frightening surprises follow!

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The Prisoner: The Complete Series (40th Anniversary Collector's Edition) (1968) Review

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(More customer reviews)Well not exactly Patrick McGoohan's opening from The Prisoner, but it did catch your attention :-). Seriously here they are, all 17 episodes plus the Prisoner Video Companion originally offered on MCI Home Video now on DVD compliments of our good friends at A&E. What's nicer is the episodes are arranged in what the fans believe to be the chronological order of the episodes in terms of Number 6's time in the Village rather than order of original airdate (although some of them are in airdate order). As a hint at this look carefully at "The General" and "A, B and C". Both star Colin Gordon as Number 2, but in the opening for "A, B and C" he says "I am number 2" rather than "The new number 2". Also this set contains something released on video previously but only in England, a special edition of the 5th episode of the series, "The Chimes of Big Ben". Definitely the best of McGoohan's 3 British Secret Agent types series, but also the quintessential scifi series as well. By the way, a special debt of gratitude to A&E Homevideo. When this series first came out on VHS on MPI Homevideo in 1990, they made a muff in the episode "Checkmate". In the "Where am I" segment of the opening sequence it started with McGoohan doing it with the fore mentioned Colin Gordon even though Peter Wyngarde played Number 2 in this episode. By the third line "That would be telling" the tape was ok. I can't speak for the new A&E VHS copy, but on these DVDs the muff has NOT recurred. Which means either A&E acquired a better copy of the episode to restore on DVD or someone told them about the flub from 11 years ago. So kudos to A&E Video for to repairing this decade old "blooper". This 10 pack is much better buy than the 5 sets of 2 DVDs individually. Get it now, return to the Village and escape at your own pace.

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Patrick McGoohan's classic 17-episode British TV series, THE PRISONER, has been mesmerizing American viewers since its CBS debut in the summer of 1968. Now, just in time for its 40th anniversary A&E presents this definitive collector's edition of the cult classic series. Fully restored and digitally remastered, THE PRISONER is presented in the fan-preferred episode order, offering a chronological interpretation of perhaps the most unusual and challenging television series ever filmed.After resigning from a top-secret position, a man is abducted from his London home and taken to a mysterious place known only as The Village. Residents of The Village, known only by numbers, are held captive on account of their valuable knowledge. The Prisoner--Number Six--must protect his mind in order to preserve his humanity while he struggles to discover the identity of Number One and achieve freedom by escaping from the repressive grasp of his captors. Set includes all 17 complete color episodes: Arrival / Free For All / Dance of the Dead / Checkmate / The Chimes of Big Ben / A, B, and C / The General / The Schizoid Man / Many Happy Returns / It's Your Funeral / A Change of Mind / Hammer Into Anvil / Do Not Forsake Me Oh My Darling / Living In Harmony / The Girl Who Was Death / Once Upon a Time / Fall Out DVD Features: Ultra-rare original footage of the 1966 location shooting, accompanied by commentary with Bernie Williams; Bonus Program: THE PRISONER VIDEO COMPANION; Rare, Alternate Version of the Episode "The Chimes of Big Ben"; Rarely Seen "Foreign File Cabinet" Footage; Rarely Seen "Textless" Intro & Outro; Original Broadcast Trailers; Original Series Promotional Trailer; Gallery of Original Production and Promotional Materials; Production Stills Galleries; Interactive Map of the Village; Prisoner Trivia; Interactive Menus; Scene Selection NEW LIMITED EDITION COLLECTOR'S BOOKLET: 60 Fully Illustrated Pages; Hidden Mysteries Surrounding THE PRISONER; Complete Series Guide of All 17 Episodes; Detailed Color Fold-out Map of The Village Stills from The Prisoner: The Complete Series (Click for larger image)

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Castle Keep (Widescreen Edition) (2004) Review

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(More customer reviews)As I saw this film and Midnight Clear again recently, I thought about Stanley Weintraub's book Silent Night in which he discusses a brief period prior to Christmas in 1914, on the battlefields of Flanders, when German and British soldiers spontaneously agreed to declare a truce and suspend fighting, thereby defying their commanding officers. Centuries ago, knights and their attendants would work with their enemies to clear a field for combat the next day. Such cooperation had an obvious practical value. That's not what interests Weintraub as he examines a temporary truce during one of the bloodiest wars ever fought. It had little (if any) practical or tactical value but it did (and does) suggest a human need which transcends military obligations. However, war is war. After a brief respite, the carnage inevitably resumes.
Directed by Sydney Pollack and based on William Eastlake's novel, it stars Burt Lancaster (Major Abraham Falconer), Patrick O'Neal (as Captain Lionel Beckman), and Peter Falk (as Sergeant Orlando Rossi). They and their five associates are in Belgium during the winter of 1944 when they seek some R&R in the 10th century castle of Count Henri Tixier and his wife, Countess Therese. The Count is impotent and desperate for his wife to produce a male heir. Falconer is an obvious candidate to help the Count achieve his objective. Meanwhile, the war in Europe continues, of course, but the castle keeps them safe from its dangers and deprivations.
While seeing this film the first time and then again recently, I felt as if I were dreaming that I had returned to the 1940s in a time machine, to Belgium near the end of World War Two. Credit Henri Decae's cinematography with creating an uncommonly beautiful setting within which savage combat eventually occurs, reminiscent of John Mathieson's visually stunning camera work during the "Hell Unleashed" sequence early in Gladiator. This is a haunting film, at times an exquisitely lovely film. Certain scenes caused me to think that I was hallucinating.
It now occurs to me that perhaps (just perhaps) Castle Keep portrays a group of men at war, not as they really were nor as war really was at a given time but as those men would remember it decades later, had all of them survived and eventually shared their memories of the castle and surrounding area. That is about as close as I have come (thus far) to understanding certain surrealistic moments in the film. Castle Keep deserves more attention than it has received.
Hopefully it will soon be available in DVD format, accompanied by special features will include as much discussion of it as is already available or can be generated. I fondly recall the "Movies in Time" series on the History cable television channel, hosted by Sander Vanocur, which featured films such as Saving Private Ryan. Before, during, and then following each screening, Vanocur and his guests would discuss the film. How much I wish there were a recorded interview out there, somewhere, during which Pollack, Decae, Lancaster, Falk, and others associated with Castle Keep share their thoughts and feelings about its meaning and significance.

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CASTLE KEEP - DVD Movie

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