My One And Only [HD]

A surprise
I had "My One and Only" on a list of recent movies I had missed and after viewing it, I was pleasantly surprised at how much I enjoyed this charming, slightly over-the-top film. Renée Zellweger plays the often beaten down but nonetheless driven mother of two teenage boys, whose own separation from her husband has her, quite literally, driven to leave him. And drive she and the boys do! From Boston to California, it's one missed opportunity after another as Zellweger runs into a cast of losing suitors...several played by actors of note.

The pace is decidedly slow, but that makes "My One and Only" all the better. While Zellweger is the glue that holds the family (and the movie) together, a wonderful performance is turned in by Logan Lerman, who plays the older son George. George serves as narrator and his emotional expressiveness is just right for the part. I highly recommend "My One and Only" and I wouldn't be surprised if the viewer might want to see it for a second...

Comedy Drama
This movie is so underated. We went to see it because it was the only adult movie playing last year in September.

The movie plays out like movies of the 1940's and 50'... just so entertaining. It kinda reminds me of Neil Simon plays.

Sad that only action flicks and kids animated movies are the movies that we are inundated with today. I just absolutely loved it !!! I am watching it the second time and I enjoyed just as much as the first time, maybe more.
Just a word of caution, If you are not 60 plus you want understand this movie or probably enjoy it. It is like movies were when movies were really movies

Back in the 1960's Rene character would have been cast as Vivien Leigh, Jean Simmons, Janet Leigh, and other stars of that era that could have played a lady who life had dealt a blow from which you just don't recover, you just endure.

Would not call this a comedy, but a worthy product overall
Once again I was ordering this on the premise similar to what you see on the cover: "funny", "cheerful comedy" and the cover showing everyone smiling. There were several lines that were laugh-out-loud funny, but this was more of a drama about an angered wife traveling cross country with her two teen boys to hop from sugar daddy to sugar daddy.

The performances were adequate, with even Chris Noth having a brief part as a one of the lunatics she briefly picks to marry. David Koechner plays a great little role as another one of the crazies she tried to marry. Renee plays her role quite well, but it is hard to feel for her as she leap frogs from man to man, uprooting the boys each time as they travel to California from New York. Logan Lerman (who I first remember from Meet Bill) succinctly plays one of her boys, that if you do not read the art or remember the spoiler ads - gives a nice twist at the end of...

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Diary Of A Wimpy Kid [HD]

Awesome Family Fun!!!
This movie was actually a lot better than I expected, and had some hilarious moments. I can relate to some of the things that happened to Greg. I have not read the book, so I couldn't compare it. 12 year old Greg Heffley is nervous about starting middle school. Him and his dorky best friend, Rowley Jefferson try to fit in and become popular, but that's easier said than done. Throughout the school year, Greg and Rowley come up with weird ways to become popular like being a Safety Patrol officer, wrestling, and performing in epic school plays. In order to truly appreciate this film, you either need to be a parent, or think from the perspective of a kid. I highly recommend DIARY OF A WIMPY KID!!!

Better than I expected
My daughter loves this book series, so my wife decided to get this DVD, and we watched it as a family. I wouldn't normally review a kid's movie, but I want to let dads know that this movie is actually watchable, and certainly better than I expected. The plot hangs together, the kids are good actors, and there are some genuinely funny moments which I can relate to from my own childhood. The only reason I'm deducting a star is that, as others have noted, the portrayal of the parents as somewhat clueless is both unnecessary and counterproductive.

Awesome Movie!!
This movie brought me back to middle school times. I'm an adult now. But this movie was highly entertaining. I can still relate to a lot of it, even though I am an adult and I don't have the same situations any more. But this movie makes it easy to remember. Middle school is a simpler time in your life. And this movie paints that picture very well. I don't mean they dumbed it down. This movie was smart with a very good message: "Never turn on your friends". What I mean is it shows how kids worry about simpler things in middle school. And they are frequently hilarious, just like the entirety of this movie. Zachary Gordon did an A+ job as Greg. I can't wait to see them all back in the sequel, and the one after that and the one after that! I give this a 10/10!

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Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story [HD]

A wonderfully stupid movie!
I guess my husband and I just don't have the sophistication needed to appreciate "films," because this movie is just our type! We actually had to stop the DVD a couple of times to compose ourselves. My stomach hurt so much from the wrench-throwing and car-dodging scenes. I know it's stupid, but it totally cracked us up! If you want to watch something that requires no thinking but entertains you to the max, give this one a try.

"You're in a chinese opium tent Timmy!"
"This is where dodgeball was invented....by opium addicted chinamen." This movie is perfect. It was never meant to be some critically acclaimed opus....actually, the more I know about most critics the less I care what they think but this movie is a perfect 90 minute smilefest with wonderfully warm performances by absolutely everyone in this film. From the two main stars all the way down to Chuck Norris.

I absolutely love everything about this film. They actually have a guy who actually thinks he's a pirate. Justin Long says "no doy" and did that guy by the jukebox get killed by a dodgeball? The direction is spot on, the writing is fantastic and everyone on the screen is absolutely the best person I can imagine for their respective roles. Also, there is something so funny about a rhino-skin playground ball smacking someone in the chops. I could never grow tired of watching this film. It will put you in a good mood....isn't that what entertainment is about?

Well isn't that convient for you... and the clock.
Dodgeball is one of the greatest movies ever made. The movie is about Vince Vaughn leading a group of misfits to win a Dodgeball tournment to save his gym. The movie is funny from the beginning to the end. Ben Stiller plays a great villian, White Goodman a sucessful gym owner who uses a whole bunch of funny and stupid sayings to every phrase. Rip Torn does a great job as Patches O'Houllahan, the Average Joes dodgeball coach who says the now classic line "If you can dodge a wrench, you can dodge a ball". Also you can't forget Christine Taylor and Stephon Roots great performances and my favorite in the movie Steve The Pirate.

Buy this movie, it is great. Best Sports Movie Ever made.

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Gorilla At Large [HD]

GORILLA AT LARGE.....
This review is for "Gorilla at Large", the reason I bought this disc. In 1954, the 3-D craze was at its' peak--especially with horror films and this included the gorilla movie as scare factor. 1954 saw "Phantom of the Rue Morgue" and "Gorilla at Large" pawing their way into theaters in 3-D and Technicolor, with better than average budgets. "Gorilla at Large" is set in a seedy carnival around a lurid sideshow called "The Garden of Evil" where beautiful trapeze star Mlle. LaVerne ( a young and beautiful Anne Bancroft paying her starlet dues) swings seductively over a gorilla pit where mankiller ape Goliath reaches for her, threatening to yank her down at any moment. LaVerne's troubled and hot-tempered husband (a stoic Raymond Burr) jealously oversees her act and LaVerne. He also manages the carnival. Two problematic things occur: a hunky new stuntman for LaVerne ( a young, hunky Cameron Mitchell) for a dangerous new thrill in her act and a brutal murder. The murder shuts the carnival...

Good to see these movies again...
Midnight Movie Madness continues with great stuff from the past. The movie
mystery on Monster Island is so well preserved that it looks like it was
just recently made. Saw this movie as a kid, and one of the characters is
as stupid as i remember him...but was well worth seeing this movie again.
Nice to see Peter Cushing again...Enjoy

uneven double feature redeemed by top-rate "Gorilla"
Like the other reviewers here, I really only bought this set because I dearly wanted GORILLA AT LARGE. Honestly, the less said about MYSTERY ON MONSTER ISLAND (1981) the better. Well, at least it stars Peter Cushing but the movie is a complete snooze. Better stick to men in ape suits and Anne Bancroft prancing about in a sexy trapeze outfit.

...which leads us back to GORILLA AT LARGE...

Filmed at the height of the 3-D craze, GORILLA AT LARGE (1954) isn't a horror film as much as it is a mystery crime thriller. Fox contract players Cameron Mitchell and Anne Bancroft star and add lots of extra gloss to this tawdry tale of a series of murders in a circus. The setting is a circus called the Garden of Evil, where the star attraction is Goliath, a gorilla (and played very obviously by a man wearing a chimp suit). Anne Bancroft is Mlle. Laverne, a trapeze artist whose whole act revolves around swinging above Goliath's enclosure. When a series of grisly murders...

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Hatchet for the Honeymoon [Blu-ray]

Middling Bava is still impressive
A unique blend of giallo and ghost story/tale of madness, Hatchet for the Honeymoon is quite an entertaining trifle. The plotting is careless, what with the police inspector showing up at just the right moment at least three times too many, but Mario Bava's many visual and editing flourishes are so clever they're downright witty. I particularly like the way the psycho, John Herrington, literally puts his wife at a distance by looking at her through the wrong end of his binoculars while she harangues him. Also wonderful is a transition where the camera pans across a line of mannequin heads that seem to float against the black background of a darkened room. The camera stops at the final head, which we realize with a start is Herrington, and we hear a woman's voice speaking. There's a momentary sense of dizzying disorientation before the camera suddenly continues its pan and we see the woman speaking and realize that we're in a different scene now. There's also a bit...

Great movie but very poor picture and terrible sound!
As always, my review is based on the QUALITY of the DVD.

I appreciate Image Entertainment giving us the opportunity to view "Hatchet for the Honeymoon" and another work of Mario Bava to observe. It is remarkable that we have this new entertainment medium and that we can enjoy these films from so long ago. But -- this DVD is the worst one that I own. The picture is lousy and the sound is awful. You get the 1.66:1 screen ratio, but that wouldn't be so bad if the picture was CLEAR. I'm not sure if this was released prematurely. Just take into consideration my review of picture + sound to make your decision if you really want to buy this. In addition, it comes in a snap-case although there are some notes within.

Volume is at an all-time low. I had to crank up my speaker and software volume to the maximum and still had trouble hearing the dialogue. You could not possibly eat potato chips and listen to this at the same time!

The movie itself is pretty good, perhaps worthy of...

probably the best this movie will ever look
Bava's intriguing and original twist on the Italian giallo (a genre he had pretty much invented with Evil Eye and Blood and Black Lace) with an empathic view towards the killer (who is never hidden like in other thrillers but revealled right at the start). However, this is not a harrowing portrait of perversity like Henry:Portrait of a Serial Killer or even Psycho. Bava's colourful compositions and beautiful cinematography give the proceedings a decidedly playful appeal - and his surreal flashbacks whenever the killer strikes avoids the use of on-screen gore. His use of voice-overs in the opening is inspired, as our 'hero' ponders his madness, what drives him to kill, etc. All this is delivered with a suitible ironic european flavour that non-Bava fans may be rather baffled by.

It's a shame that 'Hatchet' didn't receive the sort of dvd treatment 'Black Sunday' or 'Lisa & the Devil' got from Image, but it's a solid addition to any collection of Bava's work or fans...

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Black Sunday: Remastered Edition [Blu-ray]

Beautiful, Brilliant Bava
Italian director Mario Bava exploded onto the horror scene with the wonderful black and white film "Black Sunday," also known as "The Mask of Satan" (a title I prefer because it does such a better job describing the movie). This picture borrows heavily from a Nikolai Gogol short story called "The Vij," and while I am not familiar with the story, the movie succeeds fantastically at conveying a bleak atmosphere of horror. "The Mask of Satan" was Bava's official directorial debut, giving viewers a chance to see the genius that was to come from this excellent filmmaker. Bava didn't merely direct films, however. He also worked on all aspects of movie making during his long career. The director even helped his son cut his teeth in the business immediately before his death in 1980. Fans will miss Bava terribly after viewing just a few of his films, as he was one of those rare Italian horror directors who could truly deliver the goods.

"Black...

This deluxe DVD is a must for any serious collector
Black Sunday is an engrossing, well-crafted, and suprisingly beautiful horror film. This DVD is testament to that fact and a sharp back-handed slap at those who automatically dismiss genre movies as trash. The respect Black Sunday and director Mario Bava are given is long overdue.

I won't bore you with tedious plot summarys. All I will tell you is that if you haven't seen Black Sunday, you must, and that if you have seen it, you must see it again in this presentation (because you've been missing plenty both in content and quality).

Presented in its origanal 1:66:1 theatrical aspect ratio, viewers for the first time can see this classic in ALL its macabre glory. The image quality is absolutely astounding when one compares it to the VHS editions floating around. The audio is also presented in pristine condition gaurenteed to sound excellent in any stereo thanks to the various formats.

All this makes one wonder exactly how much time went into this? If Video...

Best-ever transfer (but....)
Actually, my rating for this DVD version of "Black Sunday" would be 5 stars for the video transfer, 5 stars for Bava's cinematography (seen here like never before), 2 stars for the audio transfer, and 3 stars for the overall quality of the film itself. Bava was not a great director, and didn't like to be called a "cinematographer," but this film really is a painting in motion: every scene is a paradigm of Gothicism -- the cinematic equivalent of Gustave Dore. Like other

reviewers, I was floored by the print used for this disc: it looks, almost literally, like it was shot yesterday, and it's almost impossible to believe the film is almost 40 years old. If there are other films from this era that look this pristine, I haven't seen them. My only quarrel with the disc has to do with the dubbing. In all honesty, I feel this film sports one of the worst American dubbing jobs ever performed on a film, and the big question (which neither Tim Lucas nor...

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Ramona and Beezus [HD]

A Shockingly Wonderful Film
I'm just going to go out there and say it: Elizabeth Allen's "Ramona and Beezus" is the best film of the summer. It may not be the most visually thrilling ("Inception") or the most complex ("Salt"), but "Ramona and Beezus" is utterly charming from start to finish. In a age when films about children are laborious to endure, this is a bright, sweet and fun film. The acting is genuinely great from the very human cast. Joey King as Ramona hits every note like a seasoned professional. Her back up from John Corbett, Bridget Moynahan, Selena Gomez, Ginnifer Goodwin, Josh Duhamel and Sandra Oh is so solid and seamless that you believe this lot is a family. And family is what this film does so right. "Ramona and Beezus" captures in spades what "Where the Wild Things Are" tried so desperately to create: what it feels like to be a misunderstood child. It also deals with modern day family issues like the recession, divorce and dating in ways that never ring false. Sure, the film never gets dark...

She Makes Trouble, but She Means Well
Ramona Quimby doesn't mean to cause trouble. If anything, her intentions are purely honorable. It's just that ... well, she's nine years old; she has a lot of energy, her imagination is vivid, and her goals are ambitious. The unfortunate side effect is that she makes her life and the lives of those around her chaotic. Her teenage sister, named Beatrice but saddled with the unwanted nickname of Beezus, thinks she's a pest. Her teacher, so stiffly matter-of-fact, doesn't like it when she makes up her own words, even if they happen to sound a lot more fun. Her mother, busy at home with an infant daughter, would love it if she would learn to control her enthusiasm. Even her father, so pleasant and involved with his children, would sometimes like to see her grow up just a little bit. The only one who seems to understand Ramona is her aunt Bea. Of course, it's easy to understand a rambunctious child when you don't have to live with her every day.

"Ramona and Beezus," adapted from...

Terrific family film
Beverly Cleary's "Ramona" books, as well as her other series and standalones are about half a dozen chapters long. Each one is carefully detailed and paced - even if the event would seem minor to an adult - it's treated with the importance as a child of Ramona's age would view it.

In contrast, this movie pitches Cleary's plots to you like fastballs. For example, first Ramona gets a bad report card and curses (Ramona the Brave), then she makes a mess with toothpaste (Ramona and Her Mother), and then her dad brings home Gummi Bears for her and sister to share (Ramona and Her Father), and so on. There's also some fantasy sequences to emphasize Ramona's runaway imagination and to give the film even more of a child's eye-view perspective.

The overall plot is basically borrowed from "Ramona Forever," as Howie Kemp's annoying Uncle Hobart tries to (re) woo Ramona's Aunt Bea. There's also a storyline (Ramona and Her Father) about their dad losing his job (which...

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