Matthew Millheiser's DVD Talk DVD Reviews https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/list/DVD Video DVD Talk DVD Review RSS Feed en-us It's All True DVD Video https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/15854 Tue, 17 May 2005 06:49:27 UTC Rent It

The Movie

While the late great Orson Wells was filming the soon-to-be-butchered The Magnificent Ambersons and preparing to direct a segment of Journey Into Fear, he was asked by the RKO studio heads to grab a camera and head down to Brazil to shoot some Carnival footage. This act was all part-and-parcel of America's "Good Neighbor Policy" of the 1940s, which in essence was really more of a "Keep Nazi Influence The Hell Out Of Hemisphere" initiative (Brazil's government, in particular, was chock full of Nazi sympathizers, and do I even need to get started o...Read the entire review

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Walt Disney's Classic Cartoon Favorites Volume 4 Starring Chip N Dale DVD Video https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/15610 Mon, 02 May 2005 04:43:02 UTC Recommended

The Program

You know, when it comes to my Disney history, anything remotely Chip and Dale-related is strangely residing in absentia. Come to think of it, these two rascally chipmunks sort of exist in the metaphorical Third Circle of DisneyHell (coming in 2008 to an afterlife near you). Consider the first circle to be the Big Five (Micky and Minnie Mouse, Donald Duck, Goofy, Pluto), and the second to be the "name" Feature characters (Cinderella, Dumbo, Sleeping Beauty, Ariel, Belle, Aladdin, etc.). Our poor little chipmunks are stuck nudged between Bullwhip Griffin and the little Asian ...Read the entire review

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Backbeat: Special Edition DVD Video https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/15416 Wed, 20 Apr 2005 02:31:55 UTC Rent It

The Movie

Long before Ringo Starr was a Fab Four fixture, or before Love Me Do became their first hit single... before the John Lennon proclaimed that the band was more popular than Jesus, or before they were hanging out with the Maharishi... before their Magical Mystery Tour debacle of a film and the eclectic genius of the "White Album"... the Beatles shined with Stu Sutcliffe, the band's original bass player and art-school buddy of John Lennon. Stu traveled with the Beatles to Hamburg as the scrappy young quintet (featuring Lennon, Paul McCartney, and George Harrison, each on vocals/guitar, Sutclife on bass, and Pete Best on drums) cut their rock-and-roll teeth in the legendary Cavern club, opening for burlesque shows, popping uppers like pez, and...Read the entire review

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White Heat DVD Video https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/15295 Tue, 12 Apr 2005 21:51:12 UTC Highly Recommended

The Movie

Made it, Ma! Top of the world!!

Raoul Walsh's 1949 crime-noir classic White Heat marked the return of James Cagney to the role of which audiences had known him best: the tough, squinty-eyed, uncompromising gangster. Although Cagney had received a well-deserved Academy Award for charismatic performance as the sweet yet doggedly determined George M. Cohan in 1942's Yankee Doodle Dandy, his return to his gangster "roots", as it were, resulted in a film that remains one of the most memorable in its genre. From start to finish, White Heat is a ...Read the entire review

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Aladdin: The Return of Jafar DVD Video https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/15169 Tue, 05 Apr 2005 17:10:39 UTC Skip It

The Movie

You know, there was once a time in which we as a culture hadn't become utterly desensitized to the site of Disney anally violating its heritage with a gaffe stick. There was a time, long long ago, in which the company retained a health sense of legacy about their timeless masterpieces. I mean, when Walt was alive do you think there ever would have been a Bullwhip Griffin 2: March of the Nostril Brigade? I. Think. Not.

But enough of my mindless recollections. Flash forward to 2005, and we have Disney whoring itself at Wal-Mart display stands roughly every 37 minutes, h...Read the entire review

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Heat: Two-Disc Special Edition DVD Video https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/14526 Fri, 18 Feb 2005 17:27:13 UTC Highly Recommended

The Movie

After the critical and commercial success of The Last of the Mohicans, Michael Mann found himself with some serious clout in theHollywood establishment. As an unabashed, drooling and hyperventilating fan of that 1992 film, I can only remain in awe of how Mann made such a fantastic movie out of one thoroughly coma-inducing snorer of a book. Heck, if I could only go back in time just once, I'd head back to the 19th-Century and congratulate Twain on his list of James Fenimore Cooper's Literary Offenses... but that's guano for another cave. After the succ...Read the entire review

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Miami Vice - Season One DVD Video https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/14236 Thu, 27 Jan 2005 14:07:17 UTC Recommended

The Program

In the period between the Mariel Boat Lifts of 1980 and the ascension of South ...Read the entire review

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Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow: Special Collector's Edition DVD Video https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/14171 Sun, 23 Jan 2005 09:23:24 UTC Recommended

The Movie

Picture this: an action-adventure film using state-of-the-art technology to produce some of the most striking visuals ever committed to film. Utilizing powerful computers, blue screens, and minimalist stages and sets, an entire virtual world is created in which live-action actors perform, having to rely on their intrinsic acting talents to imagine a universe available only within the digital realm. There is a story here, but it's certainly dominated by striking visuals and dazzling special effects which bring a wholly imaginative and brightly detailed universe to life. The film is shot but the visuals...Read the entire review

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Visions of Italy DVD Video https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/14116 Wed, 19 Jan 2005 04:42:08 UTC Recommended

The Program

Il Belpaese - The Beautiful Country. Your humble reviewer will never forget his first (and, as of this writing, his only) visit to Italy in the summer of 2003. I had just spent two weeks in the Czech Republic (an absolutely stellar place to visit, but that's another conversation entirely) and with a few days to kill, decided to zip over to Florence as fulfillment of a l...Read the entire review

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Youth of the Beast: Criterion Collection DVD Video https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/14085 Mon, 17 Jan 2005 07:53:21 UTC Recommended

The Movie

Seijun Suzuki's Youth of the Beast is a vicious little bastard of a movie, a two-fisted tale of Technicolor testosterone that swings to a mad vibe of jazz, violence, and revenge. Set in the seedy underworld of Yakuza gang wars, Suzuki's 1963 film is a testament to style and excess; the movie is a striking kaleidoscope of music, color, and attitude. There is a story here, and a compelling one at that, but it is more than a little bit obfuscated by its explosive sense of prese...Read the entire review

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Musa: The Warrior (Region 0 Hong Kong Version) DVD Video https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/14007 Sun, 16 Jan 2005 15:01:35 UTC Recommended

The Movie

Set in 14th Century China , Korean director Kim Sung-su's Musa: The Warrior spins a rousing and engaging adventure tale, the like of which seems to have been lost to filmmakers of late. Equal parts fast-moving action extravaganza, big-budget spectacle (the film was shot with a reported ...Read the entire review

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Catwoman DVD Video https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/14037 Thu, 13 Jan 2005 18:32:56 UTC Rent It

The Movie

At this point in the game, being such an unwavering DC Comics geek plays against me while watching Catwoman, the latest round of ammunition proving beyond a shadow of a doubt that, up to Christopher Nolan's involvement in the Batman franchise and Bryan Singer's in Superman, Warner Brothers had absolutely no idea what to do with the rich pantheon of comics characters they own. While rival Marvel has been reaping copious amounts of box-office and critical kudos with their adaptations of Spider-Man, X-Men, and Blade (although faltering a bit with Hulk, whi...Read the entire review

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Nine Good Teeth DVD Video https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/14003 Tue, 11 Jan 2005 17:41:55 UTC Recommended

The Movie

When she was a little girl, a gypsy fortune-teller told Mary Mirabito Livornese Cavaliere that she would live to be 96 years old. Cut to 1995, the year in which the Sicilian-American matriarch of her ganse mishpuche reached her 96th birthday. Grandson and filmmaker Alex Halpern decided to grab a camera and document the life of his colorful grandmother, whom he affectionately refers to as "Nana", during the year of her prophesized demise.

And what a life! Filmed in 1995, Nine Good Teeth is a ...Read the entire review

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The Twilight Samurai DVD Video https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/13927 Mon, 03 Jan 2005 22:11:03 UTC Rent It

The Movie

Those who are looking for raucous, aggressive, and stylized Samurai adventure and swordplay will be sorely disappointed in Yoji Yamada's exquisite The Twilight Samurai, a haunting and beautiful film set in the transition period between the Shogunate and the Meiji Restoration. Although there are two critical duels within the film, it is a drama first and foremost, a meditation about role, happiness, and the assertion of the individual over cultural realizations and class expectations. In the lead...Read the entire review

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Playboy's 50th Anniversary Celebration DVD Video https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/13820 Fri, 31 Dec 2004 05:16:09 UTC Skip It

The Program

In the current socio-political climate, is it even safe to say that Playboy, as an entity, is a safe and generally tame endeavor? Especially in an American society so deathly afraid of anything remotely sexual that the sight of a single areola sends Red-State Soccer Moms and Nascar Dads into screaming fits of dizzying hysteria, the likes of which would make Jonathan Edwards (the fire-and-brimstone preacher, not that other nutsucker) seem cool and rational in comparison? What's that?... What are you supposed to tell your children? Maybe that it's a boob?! Heavens forbid. Read the entire review

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Infernal Affairs DVD Video https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/13886 Fri, 31 Dec 2004 05:03:56 UTC Recommended

The Movie

I first saw Wu jian dao (Infernal Affairs) about a year ago on an all-region DVD, after having been inundated with mountains of hype. The word on this 2002 Hong Kong film was nothing short of miraculous: that it was the crime drama of the new millennium, a modern classic, that the new film from directors Wai Keung Lai and Siu Fai Mak represented the new face of cinema emerging from Hong Kong, etc. I sat down to watch the film and was singularly unimpressed; that is to say, I thought it was a good film -- often a really good film -- but far from great. Granted, much of that had to do with the fact the night befor...Read the entire review

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Vidas Privadas DVD Video https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/13837 Wed, 29 Dec 2004 18:27:33 UTC Skip It

The Movie

There are good movies, there are great movies, and there are movies that defy conventional description. Unfortunately for the latter, that could swing in either direction. As in, some movies are so unbelievably awful that you are left wondering just what in the wide, wide world of sports is a-goin' on here. Such is the case with Vidas Privadas (Private Lives), a woefully misguided and generally terrible Argentine film from director/musician Fito PĂ...Read the entire review

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Paparazzi DVD Video https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/13808 Mon, 27 Dec 2004 19:12:41 UTC Rent It

The Movie

Paparazzi. Well, I'm not going to waste too much time reviewing this movie, as the promos and trailers not only deliver pretty much the entire plot of the film, but also contain just as much depth, subtlety, and nuance in 30 seconds as this movie delivers in 90 minutes or so. And the beautiful thing about the trailers is that they're over really quickly, and you're free to move on to more endearing or insightful pursuits. Like cross-country yodeling, for instance, or full-contact Parcheesi or Strip Yahtzee.

...Read the entire review

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Bobby Jones: Stroke of Genius DVD Video https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/13777 Thu, 23 Dec 2004 17:43:04 UTC Rent It

The Movie

I should probably preface this review by admitting that I am not, by any stretch of the imagination, a golf aficionado. I grew up living across the street from a golf course, and played a lot when I was younger, but I grew out of the sport upon reaching the Age of Reason. That's not a slight against you golf fans out there; it's just not my thing. Plus I royally, royally sucked at it, and had a lot more fun smirking at funny white people in funny clothes while smoking cigars and downing Green Lizards.

So I really didn't know much about the titular hero of Bobby Jones: Stroke of GeniusRead the entire review

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Troy: Two-Disc Widescreen Edition DVD Video https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/13750 Tue, 21 Dec 2004 08:13:36 UTC Rent It

Too many broken hearts have fallen in the river
Too many lonely souls have drifted out to sea
You lay your bets and then you pay the price
The things we do for love

The Movie

It's been about five years since I last read The Iliad – not that I actively read Homer on a regular basis, mind you; it's also been about five years since I last read an Archie Double Digest – but even then I hardly would have equated that exemplary cornerstone of the development of Western Civilization to a peppy (if disposable) 10CC tune from 1977. But while I was watching the entirety of Wolfgang Peterson's latest big-budget extravaganza, I couldn'...Read the entire review

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History of Iron Maiden Part 1: The Early Days DVD Video https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/13652 Sat, 18 Dec 2004 10:56:37 UTC DVD Talk Collector Series

The Program

So there I was, 11 years old and on my way to computer camp, when...


EDITORIAL NOTE: We here at DVD Talk would like to remind our gentle readers that uttering the preceding sentence is guaranteed to ensure that you will never get laid in the English-speaking world.

Carry on, ya pantywaist.


...when I first heard Iron Maiden . This was during the summer of 1982, on the long-lamented K102 radio station in Miami, Florida, at or about 8:30 in the A.M., in a Checker sedan heading north on the Palmetto Expressway. I was a young but eager headbanger, having listened to my fill of Kiss, Van Halen, Judas Priest...Read the entire review

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The Manchurian Candidate DVD Video https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/13699 Fri, 17 Dec 2004 08:33:55 UTC Recommended

The Movie

No working director today has a bigger set of stones than Jonathan Demme.

I say this with all due respect to all the other courageous directors out there in cinemaland, but Demme's got them all beat. Just before he tackled his 2004 remake of The Manchurian Candidate, Demme had previously helmed the 2002 mega-flop The Truth About Charlie, an ill-advised and ultimately disastrous remake of the classic 1963 Stanley Donen film Charade. Loathed by critics and annihilated at the box-office, The Truth About Charlie made cinemaphiles the world over wonder just what in hell was going on with Jonathan Demme. I mean, this was the guy who directed <...Read the entire review

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King Arthur: Extended Unrated Edition DVD Video https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/13684 Thu, 16 Dec 2004 06:24:20 UTC Recommended

The Movie

The legend of Arthur Pendragon has been told and retold, analyzed and discussed, mythologized and deconstructed so many times that there are entire fields of study dedicated to the examination of Arthuriana. The vast pantheon of Arthurian literature is packed with volumes of legendary tales featuring courtly love and prowess, lions, dragons, serpents, giants, maidens, wizards, demons, and temptresses, which have delighted and enchanted audiences for over a millennia.

So what is it about Arthurian literature that captures the hearts of so man...Read the entire review

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Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance DVD Video https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/13622 Fri, 10 Dec 2004 15:50:32 UTC Highly Recommended

The Movie

In Sympathy For Mr. Vengeance (Boksuneun naui geot), nobody's getting away unscathed. South Korean director Chan Woo-Park's follow-up to his 2000 masterpiece Joint Security Area (Gongdong gyeongbi guyeok JSA ) is a tale that demonstrates how the road to damnation is awash with moral ambiguity, in the midst of which you are simultaneously demonizing the "hero" while rooting for the "villain"... which is a feat within itself, given that these two archetypes are consistently in ...Read the entire review

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Top Gun: Special Collector's Edition DVD Video https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/13566 Mon, 06 Dec 2004 07:45:37 UTC Highly Recommended

The DVD

You could put up a plethora of reasons to determine why Top Gun was the smash hit of 1986. Maybe it was the rising star talent of a young Tom Cruise, who with this film knocked his already rocketing career into the stratosphere. Or perhaps it was the distinct music-video visual flair of director Tony Scott, who, after the disastrous performance of his woefully underrated art house horror flick The Hunger, couldn't get arrested in Hollywood during the mid 1980s. Or perhaps it was the rock-em sock-em, in-your-face, popcorn-pleasing, box-canyon-yodeling partnership of Jerry Bruckheimer and the late Don Simpson, whose previous music-vid-as-cinema collaboration, 1983's Fl...Read the entire review

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Father and Son DVD Video https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/13379 Mon, 22 Nov 2004 19:28:48 UTC Rent It

The&nbsp;Movie

Long lingering stares. Deep, sensual embraces. Two beautiful, well-formed bodies clinging to each other in bed, giving each other love and comfort in the dead of night. Not exactly the imagery that immediately pops into mind when thinking about fathers and sons, is it? This certainly caused quite the controversy at Cannes in 2003 when director Aleksandr Sokurov's Father and Son (Otets i syn) was submitted for competition. Chargers were made that Sokurov's film was little more than homoerotic imagery coupled with awkward incestual overtones. Sokurov's response to critics was&nbsp;something of the lines of, "And what baggage are you <...Read the entire review

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The Ranch: Unrated and Uncut DVD Video https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/13373 Mon, 22 Nov 2004 06:21:48 UTC Rent It

The Movie

I never really heard of The Ranch until I received the DVD to review, so as it goes with the territory I enter this review free of pre-conceived notions or any sense of expectation or dread. And certainly, a film that deals with the behind-the-scenes goings on at a Nevada brothel certainly carries with it a sense of perverse curiosity. I mean, who isn't interested at what goes on at such an establishment? You could be the most Purityrannical bible-thumper in the world, full of so much fire and brimstone that it would put Read the entire review

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Buck Rogers in the 25th Century: The Complete Epic Series DVD Video https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/13368 Mon, 22 Nov 2004 01:46:36 UTC Recommended

The year is 1987, and NASA launches the last of America's deep space probes. In a freak mishap, Ranger Three and its pilot, Captain William "Buck" Rogers, are blown out of their trajectory into an orbit which freezes his life support systems, and returns Big Rogers to Earth... five hundred years later.

The Program

OK, intrepid followers, hop back with me as we flow freely into the pa...Read the entire review

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From Jesus to Christ - The First Christians DVD Video https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/13308 Wed, 17 Nov 2004 02:58:33 UTC Rent It

The Program

I suppose if you wanted to trace the roots of liberalism within the Jewish community, no one historical figure could even begin to compare with Jesus. Born into a political climate ripe with religious conservatism, political upheaval, and occupation in the face of the most monumental imperial force the world had ever known, Jesus's radicalism not only flew in the face of traditional religious authority, but also led into a movement that would fundamentally shift the development of Western civilization for millennia. His martyrdom sparked the beginning of a splinter movement within the traditional Jewish ranks, evolving into a religious fervor that conquered an empire. With Emperor Constant...Read the entire review

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Mickey's Twice Upon a Christmas DVD Video https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/13269 Mon, 15 Nov 2004 03:04:01 UTC Rent It

The Movie

You know, I'm not quite as adverse to Disney's Direct-To-Video product as I used to be. I am of the type of thinking that Disney's creative personnel suddenly realized, while they were saddled with an executive mandate to flood the home video market with cheaply-made disposable product, that said product did not have to totally and completely blow.

And while there have been a ton of stinkers, the vast majority of these releases can be classified as inoffensive, unmemorable, and... uh... "cheaply-made disposable product". It's a simple equation, isn't it? Get your low-cost animation divisions to produce quick and dirty knockoffs of the compan...Read the entire review

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Too Close for Comfort - The Complete First Season DVD Video https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/13266 Sun, 14 Nov 2004 23:08:43 UTC Rent It

&nbsp;The Program

Ted Knight was a comedic genius, but I suppose that's hardly news to anyone who saw more than&nbsp;three seconds of the original Caddyshack. His masterfully searing slow burn as the unctuous Judge Smails provided for the perfect counterfoil against Rodney Dangerfield's obnoxious hilarity and Chevy Chase's glib smugness. That's where I fondly remember the man, but I suppose most would highly cherish his role as Ted Baxter on The Mary ...Read the entire review

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Su Alteza Serenisima DVD Video https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/13235 Sun, 14 Nov 2004 18:30:11 UTC Skip It

The Movie

My knowledge of Mexican history is about as complete as my knowledge of the prevailing principles of Persian plumbing. In fact, I suppose a solid working knowledge of the life of Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna would be extremely beneficial in gauging one's enjoyment out of Su Alteza SerenĂ­sima (His Most Serene Highness), the 2000 film from director Felipe Cazale. The movie takes place during the final three days of Santa Anna's life, attempting to provide context to a life filled with bravado, glory, and defeat.

Elected president of newly independent Mexico in 1833 after...Read the entire review

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By the Sea DVD Video https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/13129 Sat, 06 Nov 2004 05:12:37 UTC Rent It

The&nbsp;Movie

By The Sea is such a sweet little movie that tries so earnestly and so breezily to please and entertain that I almost feel like the world's biggest jackoff for dissing it here. And you have to give some credit to a film that so splendidly interweaves the supernatural with salsa dancing. You won't see M. Knight Shyamalan trying to do that, and if he did he'd probably end up spooking everybody by suddenly revealing that what you thought was&nbsp;Salsa was actually The Hokey-Pokey, but only after&nbsp;two hours of tenuous and inexorably methodical (read: boring) buildup.

...Read the entire review

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Adoption DVD Video https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/13108 Fri, 05 Nov 2004 05:18:59 UTC Recommended

The Movie

There is no escaping the fact that Örökbefogadás (Adoption), the 1975 Hungarian film from acclaimed director Márta Mészáros, is a bleak feature, but what that doesn't mean is that there aren't small moments of monumental triumph scattered throughout the picture. The world presented in this film is a cold one, a grayscale universe that seems to be devoid of warmth and emotion. From a Western perspective, the film is all at once evocative of the type of Communist bloc lifestyle we had come to expect from a populace subjugated by Soviet influence (although Hungary ...Read the entire review

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Whispers in the Dark DVD Video https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/13100 Thu, 04 Nov 2004 19:40:36 UTC Skip It

The Movie

Whispers in the Dark is such a relic of the early/mid 1990s that it almost exists as something of a cinematic time capsule. All it once it is emblematic of the type of "erotic thriller" films that dotted the film landscape of the era - copious amounts of flesh, sex, violence, and would-be thrills, all slung together into a virtual mélange of titillation and thrill/kills. Like almost any other film genre, there was a handful of decent films, a whole slew of mediocrity, and endless buttloads of utter crap - most of which comprise the bulk of Showtime's 3:00 a.m. weekend lineup (usually starring Nikki Fritz and Taimie Hannum). Obviously the film that set the gold standard was 1992's Basic Instinct, a wickedly tempting and wholly ridiculous movie that manag...Read the entire review

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