The Guard (2011)

The Guard, a small independent film from Ireland written and directed by John Michael McDonagh, is something of a gem. On the surface, it could fall into any number of the usual categories crime drama, fish-out-of-water story, odd couple forced to work together buddy flick but none of those labels would do it proper justice. The closest thing I can truly compare it to is the Coen brothers' film Fargo. Like Fargo, The Guard deals with a homicide in a quiet rural area (in this case coastal Ireland instead of Minnesota) being investigated by the local authority (in this case an idiosyncratic Garda Irish policeman instead of a highly pregnant sheriff). But also like Fargo, what makes the film truly interesting is the character studies that unfold as we see both sides the police and the criminals going about their missions.

And in a final comparison to Fargo and to Coen brothers films in general, the dialogue is frequently priceless. At the film's center is the guard of the title, Sergeant Gerry Boyle (Brendan Gleeson), an Irish policeman stationed in the district of Connemara on the western coast of Ireland. In the opening scene, where Boyle witnesses a car accident on a rural road where some local youths are killed, we quickly learn three things about Boyle very little ever rattles him, he's definitely more attuned to the spirit of the law than the letter, and he's far from being above the occasional bit of self indulgence. Shortly after that, when he's investigating an apparent murder and having to break in a new partner, Aidan McBride (Rory Keenan) at the same time, we learn something else about Boyle: he delights in being a crude, rude, pain in the ass to just about everyone, deliberately goading or provoking people just to see how they'll react.

The plot deepens when an American FBI agent, Wendell Everett (Don Cheadle) shows up, tracking an international drug-smuggling operation who's rumored to be in the district planning a drop, and it turns out that Boyle's murder victim is connected to the drug gang. From that point things quickly become a tangle of murder, bribery, blackmail and deception as Boyle and Everett try to close in on the gang before the drop can be pulled off and the gang in turn does everything they can to get the two out of the way so that they can make their pick-up without interference.

But it's the characters and their interactions along the way that really drive The Guard and make it a cut above the usual crime drama fare. Gleeson's Boyle is a delight to watch alternating between charming and sensitive one moment and poke-in-the-eye offensive the next and you can tell Gleeson is having a lot of fun playing him, like when a freckle-faced boy asks him what a derringer he found is for and Boyle replies "It's for shooting small Protestants." A touching sub-plot reveals yet another side to Boyle. His mother, Eileen (marvelously played by Fionnula Flanagan) is in a local hospice, apparently with some form of terminal cancer. The scenes between mother and son are both darkly funny and moving, and you can see where Boyle gets his life-on-my-terms approach to things.

Don Cheadle's by-the-book straight-laced Everett is the straight man to many of Boyle's jabs but he handles the role well, managing to be funny without being ridiculous. One great scene comes when Everett finally sees through Boyle's "Ugly Irishman" game and Boyle realizes it and just grins, the exchange all through facial expressions. Another great scene has Everett tromping through the Connemara countryside trying to question residents who refuse to speak to him in anything but Gaelic (translated in subtitles so that you know what they're saying while Everett does not, adding to the comic effect).

The members of the drug gang two Irishmen, Francis Sheehy (Liam Cunningham) and Liam O'Leary (David Wilmot), and an Englishman, Clive Cornell (a stand-out performance by Mark Strong) are particularly engaging in their scenes. Like one where they're driving along killing time debating the merits of various philosophers based on nationality, or another where they're in a local aquarium and Cornell is staring thoughtfully at the glass and comments "I like sharks. They're... soothing." Or yet another where Cornell delivers a pay-off and flies into a devastatingly sarcastic rant when asked if the money's all there. Other characters add to the color, including a cowboy-hat wearing IRA man embarrassed over a missing cache of weapons, a pale-faced camera-flashing local youth who apparently has a fetish for crime scenes, a pint-sized boy disappointed that Cheadle's FBI man isn't with the Behavioral Science Unit he's seen on TV (apparently the only thing that's going to impress anyone in the district), and a couple of cheery uniformed prostitutes who liven up Boyle's day off.

About the only cautions I would mention are that the accents Irish and English are a bit on the thick side, and the ending does involve one ambiguous outcome. It's well set up and you could come down on either side of it, but it's deliberately left unclear.

Other than that though, I highly recommend The Guard as a film well worth catching and John Michael McDonagh as a writer/director worth following.

32 of 38 people found the following review helpful: Reviewed September 8, 2011. Original reviews of this product have been deleted by Amazon.

Michael John McDonagh previously wrote the screenplay for Ned Kelly starring Heath Ledger which I remember as a good movie. His brother Martin has won an Academy Award nomination, for Best Original Screenplay for In Bruges, which also starred Brendan Gleeson, and what I consider the best performance of Colin Farrell's career, and an Academy award for the short feature Six Shooter, A Collection of 2005 Academy Award Nominated Short Films, also starring Brendan Gleeson, and at least two other characters you will see in The Guard, written and directed by MJ.

As the movie begins we see Gerry Boyle, the guard played by BG, in his white squad car parked behind a stone wall, when a red car whizzes by. He does not respond to the speeding car. His response to what happens next, has no words, yet it establishes the nature of the character, as he rummages through pockets, and does something with the drugs. We can deduce that here is a guard that does not follow the established rules, and in fact may even be corrupt.

Next we see him responding to a murder scene. Here we get a truer sense of his character by how he acts around the new cop who will be his partner. Here the comedic tone of the movie gets established. He likes to push buttons and get a reaction. They theorise about the murder, a potted plant placed on the victim's crotch, the significance of the number 5 1/2 painted on the wall. Perhaps he was the 5 1/2th victim, the young one theorises.

Like another reviewer I was struck by the parallels with the Coen Brothers, particularly Fargo, and No Country For Old Men. Instead of the barren landscapes of Minnesota, and the quirky Nordic accents of Minnesotans, we have the bog landscape of the Wesht of Ireland, and the quirks and mores of the locals. We have sociopathic criminals. We also have the quirky Spaghetti Western music, reinforcing the ironic tone. We also have a trace of Ryan's Daughter, and a half cracked young lad on a bike, who mirrors John Hurt's character in that movie. We have murderous criminals who debate their favorite philosophers as they drive along.

So, strait laced, by the book FBI agent Wendell Evers played by Don Cheadle, moseys into town, hot on the trail of an international smuggling ring hoping to land half a billion dollars worth of drugs in Ireland. Instantly, this sets up a culture clash, with Boyle making racially insensitive comments. When rebuked, his response. "I'm Irish. Racism is part of our culture."

When Boyle is by himself he wanders his house in his red or yellow y fronts scratching. He does not seem like a brilliant cop. However, not following the book, opens up levels of resourcefulness for him. Guards don't carry firearms in Ireland, yet in a prescient way he manages to acquire weapons, donating the balance to the local IRA man who wears a cowboy hat. With his seeming amorality, you wonder if when push comes to shove, he will back off and let the criminals do their thing or if he will intervene.

Perhaps my favorite scene, the second derringer scene, reminiscent of similar scenes at the beginning of Inglorious Basterds, and final scene with Woody Harrelson in No Country for Old Men. Life and death hangs in the balance.

Boyle tells Evers he came fourth in swimming in the Olympics, which made me search the internet after the movie. The answer may surprise you.

Another theme is the nihilism, which is that events have no inherent meaning, a consistent theme in several Coen Brothers movies.

For non Irish speakers, our FBI detective attempts at one point to interview some Irish speaking people. In speech they refer to him as fear gorm, which the subtitle translates as black man. The word gorm actually means blue. If you were saying it literally, it would be fear dubh (pronounced far duhve).

I know that some people claim that they cannot understand foreign accents. Where on earth do you hear more foreign accents than in North America on a daily basis? If I walk the streets of San Francisco, I will hear German, English, Chinese, Filipino, Mexican, South American, you name it. So, we have Oprah Winfrey, or Sigourney Weaver, narrating BBC produced documentaries because producers think customers cannot discern an English accent. The English in this movie is well spoken with a slight accent. West may be pronounced Wesht, just like Sean Connery doesn't say accent, he says ackshent. Even Schwarzenegger was not the governor of California, he was the governor of Callie phone ee yeah.

I saw this at Robert Redford's Sundance Theater in San Francisco. It was an afternoon show, and the political incorrectness, and several American pop culture references, and fun poking commments resonated with the audience.

If you wish to see Brendan Gleeson in another movie, I recommend John Boorman's The General, where he plays Martin Cahill based on a real life Irish gangster.

So, I loved this movie. I think most people will feel the same way, and I think we have seen a great new talent with Michael John McDonagh, in a very impressive first outing as director. It's clear that talent runs in this family, and perhaps they see parallels between themselves as brothers, and the Coen Brothers. I don't think such a comparison is grandiose, and I wonder if they will work together on future projects. I believe that 'genius, in order to be emulated, must first be imitated.'

Update. 11/30/11. Last week, on my flight back to San Francisco, I watched a program about the making of The Guard, which has become the highest grossing Irish made movie ever at the Irish box office grossing 4.3 million Euros, beating the previous best, The wind That Shakes The Barley, starring Cillian Murphy. To put this this in an American context, it's about $1.50 for every man, woman and child in the country.

I think you will love it, and I hope this was helpful. Thank you.

Buy The Guard (2011) Now

Even though the movie summary insists that this movie is a raucous comedy, it is NOT, but it is an excellent and entertaining film. Yes, there are laughs, but it is dark and violent as well like "In Brouges." Brendan Gleeson is an outstanding actor and his character is thrillingly idiosyncratic artfully played. Don Cheadle plays the straight man with charm and dignity. One of my favorite films in a long while!

Read Best Reviews of The Guard (2011) Here

Being a retired police officer I really enjoyed this movie which I rate as the best cop flick of the year. Gleeson is superb as an old timer who does things his way. The barbs he trades with Cheadles character are priceless and had me LMAO. Watching this movie with some retired LE friends, they all loved it and highly recommend it to others. This is one of those sleeper foreign films that should have had wider release here in the US. A dark comedy showing that police work is the same no matter what country you're in. Great movie, I bought several as Christmas gifts for friends it was so good.

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Brendan Gleeson stars as a small town Sgt. in Ireland. In many ways he reminded me of Andy of Mayberry in that he has his own local quirky ways of doing things, but beneath it all he is quite intelligent. There are some international drug smugglers in his area and the FBI has sent Don Cheadle to work with the very frank, sometimes crass Gleeson who believes racial stereotypes and has no problems questioning Cheadle to the point of his frustration.

The writing is witty and the quirky characters are reminiscent of a Coen brothers masterpiece.

Cheadle is talking about the recent killing to Gleeson:

CHEADLE: "We need to go door to door and ask people if they saw anything."

GLEESON: "You lost me at 'we'".

CHEADLE: "You and I need...

GLEESON: "It's my day off."

Effective use of sound track. Great script. Funny. Clever.

F-bomb, no nudity, adult situations.

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Last Man Standing / The Last Boy Scout (Action Double Feature) (2010)

2 of my most favorite guilty pleasures are only better on blu ray(duh....); Both are films that generally went overlooked in many ways w/the exception of the fanbases for each; Boyscout def has the edge humor-wise(an actual great 'buddy' picture....Damon Wayans is very funny, & Shane Black can write a wicked screenplay....), but visually, Last Man Standing has the edge. Detailed and crisp, it is how this movie was made to be seen. And the gun sounds are even more amazing here. Walter Hill has generally been overlooked as a filmmaker I think, and while some people thought this was a little 'slow', I had no problem w/the pacing. Ry Cooder scores this movie perfectly too...

This is a great disc of 2 classic, lesser seen Bruce Willis movies, each of which contain lots and lots of welcome familiar faces. I know many times these 'double feature' discs stick a lemon w/something decent, but in this case(in my opinion...), you kill 2 birds with one stone...2 modern 'classics' on one!

Now if they can only find something to pair The Long Kiss Goodnight up with.....

This Blu-Ray transfer is excellent! Years ago, when I bought The Last Boyscout on DVD, I was very disappointed. The picture quality was horrible. It was very grainy. It was better to just watch it on a VHS tape. The DVD quality was that bad. (If you ever bought The Last Boyscout on DVD, you know what I'm talking about!) So, I'm glad that this Blu-Ray edition of The Last Boyscout finally gives the movie justice in terms of picture quality.

The movie itself -if you are a Bruce Willis fan, or an action fan in general, and for whatever reason that you haven't watched this yet -go buy this movie! It's an excellent action movie that I have watched over and over!

Buy Last Man Standing / The Last Boy Scout (Action Double Feature) (2010) Now

Bruce Willis has had the profound good luck to star in some of the greatest American action films of all time, including its single greatest: the first DIE HARD. And this paved the way for Willis to become one of the biggest film stars of the 1990's, and for better (PULP FICTION, THE SIXTH SENSE, the other two DIE HARD 90's films) or worse (THE COLOR OF NIGHT, STRIKING DISTANCE, MORTAL THOUGHTS, FOUR ROOMS), he was king. The two films in this Blu-ray double feature represent his best 90's action works: THE LAST BOY SCOUT and LAST MAN STANDING.

THE LAST BOY SCOUT is another film in the mismatched buddy-cop actioner genre from writer Shane Black, who set the perfect blueprint for the genre with LETHAL WEAPON, slightly misstepped it with THE LONG KISS GOODNIGHT and injected fresh and wonderful life back into it with the woefully underseen KISS KISS, BANG BANG. But what's different about the mismatched pair here is one of them is a former Secret Service agent turned alcoholic loser deadbeat private eye (Willis) and the other is a former star quarterback turned gambling addict and coke-fiend (Damon Wayans)... neither of them are cops. But they're losers who are down on their luck that, despite themselves, find redemption as they take on corrupt government officials and sleazy, murderous sports executives. Both of the men that they seek to bring down are both involved in their respective falls from grace, so they look to dish out a heaping helping of cold-served revenge... until a wonderful plot twist has one of them protecting the very person who ruined his life.

Tony Scott, prior to this film, had long been determined as an untalented, coat-tail riding hack whose flashy MTV-style of filmmaking used with such films as TOP GUN and BEVERLY HILLS COP 2 seemed to serve 30-second commercials better than a feature film. However, he proves that with the right script and the right players, from Noble Willingham and Taylor Negron to Chelsea Field and Bruce McGill and a before-she-was-famous Halle Berry, you can make a really great film. Ultimately it was the success of this film

Yes, there are logic-holes that you could fly a 747 through (How does Willis afford such a beautiful home with his barely-solvent business?), and the film may not be up to par with the dramatic performances of a Merchant-Ivory film, but as pure adrenalinizing popcorn fare, it's perfect. Black's one-liners zing back and forth, Scott keeps a healthy tempo going, and it has the benefit of Willis playing one of the coolest action heroes ever. His character is probably a little too cool for a sense of realism, but that is NOT what this film is going for. It goes for mythical cool, by telling a tale of redemption of two fallen heroes in the snappiest and most entertaining way possible.

Now, onto LAST MAN STANDING. This film is another remake of the legendary film YOJIMBO from legendary filmmaker Akira Kurosawa with legendary actor Toshiro Mifune as a ronin, or masterless Samurai, who reluctantly helps to bring order to a town with two warring gangs in feudal Japan. The first remake of the film was legendary directory Sergio Leone's A FISTFUL OF DOLLARS with legendary actor Clint Eastwood as a gunslinger-for-hire who reluctantly helps bring order to a town with two warring gangs in the Old West. Now, Walter Hill, director of such classics as 48 HRS. and THE WARRIORS brings Willis as a former mob gun-for-hire who reluctantly helps bring order to the dusty desert town of Jericho, that happens to have two warring mobs in the late 1920's. The film isn't jam-packed with action, but when you get the action, you really are slammed with it. The film also features Christopher Walken as the town's crazed main gun for hire (Walken playing a crazed and violent man? What are the odds?), WARRIORS and 48 HRS. alum David Patrick Kelly as the head of the town's Irish mob, Michael Imperioli as the idiotic cousin of the head of the town's Italian mob, Bruce Dern as the sleazy and amoral town sheriff and William Sanderson as the the heart-of-gold town barkeep. Willis gives a very understated, quiet cool performance that is pretty quip-free. But when he pulls out those twin .45's, you better run for cover. There is a spectacular shootout near the climax that is just awesome. And Ry Cooder's rock/blues infused score is a highlight as well.

As a director, Hill had a series of missteps like BREWSTER'S MILLIONS, STREETS OF FIRE, RED HEAT and ANOTHER 48 HRS., but LAST MAN STANDING stands out as one of his strongest films, alongside his biggest successes and some of his other seriously underrated films, like WILD BILL and JOHNNY HANDSOME.

Overall, this is a double-bill that features Willis in his prime as an action hero and major film star, and it doesn't hurt that both films are terrific.

Warner Bros. Blu-Ray films can really vary in quality. Most of their Blu-Rays are very good, and some are very poor as far as additional content and the lack of lossless audio, which is part of the standard of Blu-Ray discs. Sadly, this is one of the examples of the latter. This disc does NOT have lossless audio. Watching THE LAST BOY SCOUT, every now and then, I can hear my player (and it's not an issue with the player or physical issues with the disc) rev up and there's a slight audio skip. It's doesn't terribly detract from the experience, but it doesn't help, despite the very crisp picture.

Still terrific films, but it does have audio issues that might make more of a surround sound setup owner think twice before getting this.

Read Best Reviews of Last Man Standing / The Last Boy Scout (Action Double Feature) (2010) Here

This double bill (just like in the old days) features Bruce Willis with two of his 1990s hits, "Last Boy Scout" (1991) and "Last Man Standing" (1996). The films share not only Bruce and the word "last" in the title but they also share the 90s style action film genre.

"Last Boy Scout" is the better of the pair, a 5 star flick, with good action, some of the snappiest dialogue you'll ever hear in films, a cute little girl who steals the show, and an over-the-top ending filled with death, destruction, and fireworks. There's even a little sex, with such hot ladies as Halle Berry and Chelsea Field. Add to that some great performances from Bruce Willis, his partner Damon Wayans, Danielle Harris as Willis' little girl, Noble Willingham as Wayans' sleazy ex-boss, and Taylor Negron as the dangerous Mr. Milo. Really a classic 5 star flick that shouldn't be missed.

"Last Man Standing" is a remake of Yojimbo, one of the best films ever. Japanese and American films are often interchangeable, as we see from "The Seven Samaruai" (1954) and "The Magnificent Seven" (1960) or from "Rashomon" (1950) to "Outrage" (1964), but this works best when the remake is a Western as the gun slinger is more compatible with the samurai. Thus the Yojimbo remake as "A Fistfull of Dollars" was a better version of Yojimbo than the current film, "Last Man Standing."

If "Last Man Standing" is not as good as "Yojimbo" or "A Fistfull of Dollars" it nonetheless has its compelling moments. Good performances from Bruce Dern as a corrupt Sheriff and Christopher Walken as an assassin help the rather dour plot, but Willis' personality, copied from Mifune and Eastwood, just doesn't work when the film is transplanted into Prohibition.

Think of this package as getting a great film with an OK film thrown in. My 5 star rating is for "Boy Scout" and I'd have to give "Last Man Standing" a 3.

Want Last Man Standing / The Last Boy Scout (Action Double Feature) (2010) Discount?

Since everyone else has already provided their summaries of the storyline, their opinions on the acting and everything else, I will, as I always do, only focus upon the quality of the transfer of this film to Blu Ray.

Not sure why other reviewers have said these film's audio is lossy, they are not. Both utilized DTS HD MA 5.1 audio which I will come back to later.

Very important for you to know that this collection does not consist of two separate discs...both movies are on a single blu ray disc.

Last Man Standing

VIDEO....not the cleanest transfer you will ever find, but not the dirtiest either. There is some noticeable film grain, and a general loss of detail in the darker areas. Overall, the color grading is very warm, almost orange which I suppose is typical of what directors want to see when a film takes place in a dust bowl environment. Mbps rate averages in the mid 20's. The amount of DNR is also noticeable in skin close ups where you can easily see the smoothing out of features. In early scenes there is also a lack of detail in the grassy plains area as well as the street that Bruce Willis drives into to start the film. Despite these faults, it's still an enjoyable viewing of Willis's lesser known films and retains its legs despite the years.

AUDIO...the lossless DTS HD MA 5.1 audio is not demo worthy but it is not terribly bad either. Most all the audio is nicely spread across the front stage with several instances of discreet channeling to the right and left sides. There is some, not much, channeling to the rears but don't expect a whole lot. The audio levels are just fine and the dialogue is easy to understand with good transient response. The sub gets put to work with many of the gunshots throughout the film.

The Last Boy Scout

VIDEO....This film is representative of the many early buddy cop films and does not hold up quite as well as it has aged but it was still an enjoyable enough film. The video transfer to blu ray is certainly not a remaster but was probably just re-encoded for blu ray. There is a goodly amount of grain throughout the film and a crushing of the blacks far too much taking out much of the details in the shadow and darker scenes. Though I do not have this film on Standard Definition, I doubt there would be much of an improvement between it and this Blu Ray version. I saw no artifacting or dirt in any part of the film and it played just fine. Never the less, if you already have the film on standard DVD, do not expect a whole lot of difference.

AUDIO...The DTS HD MA 5.1 audio was surprisingly good. No need to reset your remote's volume control as the levels were fine between dialogue, foley and soundtracks. There was some nice panning between the front and rear stages as well as some unexpected directionality to the rears with foley fx.

EXTRAS...There were no extras for either film. Each film has an old static graphic with play, scene and language set up in addition to going to the other film.

All my reviews focus solely on the quality of the transfers to Blu Ray of both video and audio and I do hope that this review has been of some help to you in deciding upon your purchase decisions and that I am on the correct path with this type of review.

Thanks for reading.

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Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist (+ BD Live) (2008)

(2008 HOLIDAY TEAM)I was all prepared to trivialize this movie for what I expected to be another hipster teen comedy taking advantage of the success of Juno and Superbad, especially given that Michael Cera is the co-star of all three films. However, this 2008 movie is really a quirky, sharply played variation on Martin Scorsese's 1985 After Hours, this time focusing on two misfit teens, kindred spirits when it comes to their taste in music, who find themselves traipsing through New York's indie rock scene for one hilariously sleepless night. Their chemistry is predestined by their names, a tribute to the scintillating married couple played by William Powell and Myrna Loy in The Thin Man series of golden-era Hollywood classics. Their nocturnal misadventures are driven by Nora's search for her hard-partying best friend Caroline, who escaped in a fit of paranoia out of a van, while gay-band bassist Nick is nursing a broken heart over Tris, the shallow, man-baiting ex-girlfriend who continues to play him.

If the movie simply limited itself to the odyssey, it would have been satisfying enough for its intended audience, but what director Peter Sollett and screenwriter Lorene Scarfaria have done to transcend the genre is make the lead characters' mutual passion for music the focal emotional point of their growing attraction for one another. Nick keeps sending Tris idiosyncratic mix CDs (like "Road to Closure, Vol. 12"), which she tosses into the trash only to provide Nora an opportunity to retrieve them and listen to reflections of his broken heart. Neither is able to articulate their feelings otherwise, as shown by their comically bumbling conversations, so the music plays a vital part of their burgeoning relationship. I still don't find Cera terribly versatile, but he has been resourceful in using his now-familiar screen persona of a dweebish sad-sack in suitably well-turned material.

Familiar as Catherine Keener's edgy but ultimately caring daughter in The 40-Year-Old Virgin, Kat Dennings comes into her own as Norah, capturing the insecurity of a character who leaves herself wide open to the pain inflicted by those around her. There are scene-stealing turns by Ari Graynor as the constantly drunken Caroline, Alexis Dziena as self-appointed goddess Tris, and Rafi Gavron and Aaron Yoo as Nick's club-friendly gay bandmates. There are a couple of Saturday Night Live cast cameos thrown in "newscaster" Seth Meyers as the horned-up passenger mistaking Nick's yellow Yugo as a cab (with Scarfaria as his girlfriend) and Andy Samberg as a bum lurking on the steps of St. Patrick's Cathedral. The alt-rock music is appropriately underground to fit the story. There really isn't that much more to the movie since the fate of these characters is clear from the outset.

It's simply that the film has good energy fueled by the constant barrage of music and smart dialogue to fill the love story that emerges from their long night's journey into morning. There are a surprising number of extras with the 2009 DVD starting with two separate commentaries, the first with Sollett, Cera, Dennings and Graynor discussing the production details, and the second with Sollett and the source novel's writers, Rachel Cohn and David Levithan, in which they discuss more of the story and screen adaptation. There are deleted scenes and outtakes, some quite funny but understandably excised, and an amusingly off-kilter Nick & Norah puppet show by Dennings. Rounding out the extras are storyboards, photo galleries, Graynor's video diary, a music video, and a funny faux-interview with Cera and Dennings.

I am over 50 and even though this movie is probably aimed at teenagers

i found it really enjoyable,this was due to really clever writing and

a excellent cast that seemed to work well together.

I had allready borrowed this movie from my brother and decided after

watching it to buy a copy for myself from the U.S. (i`m in australia)

that`s how much i enjoyed this movie.

The picture and audio is very good as you would expect with blu-ray

and this movie had some fantastic music.

Buy Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist (+ BD Live) (2008) Now

When you think about it, nothing much really happens in this movie. NICK & NORAH'S INFINITE PLAYLIST takes place in the course of one day and night, with the crux of the story occuring in the wee hours of the morning. So there's a bit of an energetic After Hours vibe in this movie, but catered towards the sensibilities of hip teenagers who prowl the New York streets way past their bedtime. But then it also has echoes of Adventures in Babysitting, with Ari Graynor's awfully wasted Caroline subbing in for Penelope Ann Miller's nervous Brenda. Going into this one, and me being a huge fan of one of the most fabulous romantic couples in cinema, Nick and Nora Charles (of the Thin Man series), I was already favorably predisposed towards this quirky teenage romantic comedy.

Norah has never met Nick. But she knows about this guy who makes the best break-up mix CDs, most of which were pieced together for his ex-girlfriend Tris (his latest opus being titled "Road to Closure Vol. 12"). But Tris just pokes fun at the poor sap and then promptly discards these mixes, with Norah then un-discarding them and putting them in her I-pod. Because Norah absolutely digs these mixes. So, no, Norah has never met Nick, but she's probably halfway in love with the guy anyway.

Now Nick may not look like he's all that (in fact, he looks kinda dorky), yet he plays in a rock band, plays the guitar although he doesn't quite know how to work the drum machine. And dude drives a broken-down yellow Yugo which people often mistake for a taxi. But being in a band has to count for a couple of cool points, right? The plot MacGuffin is that the legendary rock band Fluffy is scheduled to put on a secret show somewhere in NYC, the rub being, of course, that the time and location are kept a mystery, leaving Fluffy's fans scouring the city for clues in the form of little white rabbits. Nick and Norah happen to be such fans, and, during this evening, they meet by chance and then are thrown together by circumstances (circumstances being the misplacing of Norah's unholily inebriated BFF and a half-hearted quest to find Fluffy). And, somehow, someway, it turns out that Nick and Norah just may be perfect for each other.

Segue alert. The special features in this dvd are pretty righteous: two cool audio commentaries one with Director Peter Sollett, Michael Cera, Kat Dennings, and Ari Graynor (fun!); the other with Peter Sollett, authors Rachel Cohn & David Levithan, and screenwriter Lorene Scafaria; 4 minutes of outtakes; 9 deleted/alternate scenes; an awesome "Nick & Norah Puppet Show" by Kat Dennings (she pretty much recaps the film but also throws in a savage bear); Ari Graynor's excellent video diary; storyboard animations; a fake interview with Michael Cera & Kat Dennings; Peter Sollett's photo album; and Bishop Allen's music video "Middle Management." All worth checking out.

I really like this movie. See this one especially if you like movies in which two people just mostly hang out and come to find that they're awesomely sympatico. Michael Cera (Juno (Single-Disc Edition)) and Kat Dennings are terrific together, showing off an easy, natural chemistry. The low-key Michael Cera, with his not-quite-male-model looks, is likeable because he's so relatable to nerds like me, but he's also got his act together, not to mention that Cera has that wonderfully dry delivery. Kat Dennings is amazing in this film, with her vibrancy and spunk and wistful vulnerability and just her girl-next-door realness. How can you not pull for her, especially when you find out that her ex-boyfriend was mostly using her to get in good with her influential music producer dad? And don't discount the supporting actors. It's cool that Nick's gay homies aren't portrayed stereotypically, but more as regular dudes and who really are looking out for Nick. And credit to Ari Graynor for being a good sport in some pretty humiliating haplessly drunk scenes (that scene of Caroline sifting thru a soiled toilet for her bubble gum is funny, but in a really gross kinda way).

Do they ever find the legendary rock band Fluffy? It doesn't really matter, because this movie isn't really about Fluffy. There's no dumbing down here, and there are many moments of great appeal, mostly generated by the two leads. Set in the gritty neon backdrop of the Big Apple at night and with a playlist of cool indie-rock tunes to serenade things along, NICK & NORAH'S INFINITE PLAYLIST, funny and romantic, wistful and unconventional, should please both teens and adults, the night owls and even those who like to turn in early and thus will never know the delights of experiencing a live Fluffy concert. Although, again, it's not about Fluffy.

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I was expecting a typical teenage/high school rom com and what I got was something far better. This movie comes as close to capturing EXACTLY what it was like to be young, into alternative music and how many nights ended up like this.

Without giving to much away, the casting was perfect bar maybe the ex-girlfriend of Michael Cera who comes across as way too vacuous and not remotely the alt girl type. Anyway, the chemistry between Nick and Norah seems pretty spot on as does the chemistry between the guys in the band and how they interact with each other. The ability to cast gay characters without making them flaming stereotypes was a good move.

There are other nice touches--the Yugo Nick drives, the clubs they hit in NYC, the goofy late night corner store owner and the empty Port Authority bus terminal all just work to create the feeling of "oh, yeah, I remember being 20 and doing that and being there at 4 a.m." without all this urban angst and fear that movies seem to want to portray New York as having.

On the extras I enjoyed Norah's puppet show version of the movie. Other than that the outtakes, video diary, etc., are just filler.

In the end, Kat Dennings is a star period who knows how not to overact and Michael Cera finally plays a role more suited to his emo-ness.

A pleasant gem.

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Just as Nick's yellow Yugo must roll backwards before it can move forwards, so to must our hero make a few mistakes before he gets himself going the right direction. Although it's not the most original concept for a film (night on the town), this movie's strength rests in the realistic relationships between its teenaged characters (who love, manipulate, and take advantage of one another) and the ambiance of a night in NYC. There are enough summaries here to rely on, I will simply recommend this film to anyone who enjoys a good flick about teenaged antics, young love, or indie music.

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It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (1963)

Stanley Kramer's IT'S A MAD, MAD, MAD, MAD WORLD (1963, UA) is my favorite comedy of the sound era and the most fondly remembered movie of my 1960's childhood in the San Francisco Bay Area. It has a sunny and airy mood, the comedy cast of a lifetime, sharp and hilarious dialogue, an irrestible greed plot, a melodic music score by Ernest Gold, and furious pacing for almost, or just over, three hours (depending on what version you are watching). The more I watch it on DVD at 161 minutes or at 182 minutes on Turner Classic Movies, the more I love it and want to see the long-lost 192 minute Cinerama world premiere version.

MAD WORLD does something right that every other movie of its type gets wrong--it starts a chase plot in reel one, then develops character outward as we go along. It does not spend 45 minutes setting up the story, as similar movies do. In the opening scene, a dying millionaire (Jimmy Durante) tells a group of people in the Southern California desert that a large sum of money is buried "under a big W" in a park south of San Diego. Mickey Rooney and Buddy Hackett are gag writers headed for Las Vegas. Milton Berle is headed for a vacation with wife Dorothy Provine and Ethel Herman as the mother-in-law to beat all mothers-in-law. Sid Caesar and Edie Adams are a dentist and his wife. And Jonathan Winters is driving a van of furniture. Monitoring all of them, as they race after the money, is Spencer Tracy as the coastal city (a compilation of Long Beach and Santa Monica) police captain with a wall map.

So we have a slapstick chase movie to end all slapstick chase movies. (WARNING: PLOT SPOILERS AHEAD!!) Heading a golden age of television cast are Caesar and Adams, who get to fly in a makeshift plane, then get locked in a hardware store basement. In a career performance, Winters hilariously gets to completely demolish a desert gas station. Berle has a running battle with the mother-in-law from Hell, Merman, who in turn has been given some gloriously acidic dialogue by superb sreenwriters William and Tania Rose. The Roses have never been given enough credit here. All of the sublime dialogue is on the printed page. Along the way, Winters meets up with Phil Silvers, who in turn mixes up with miner Mike Mazurki. Silvers is staggeringly funny with a car at the bottom of a canyon, then later drowning in a river. Rooney and Hackett are in another plane that flies through a Coke billboard after pilot Jim Backus knocks himself unconscious. There is also Dick Shawn as Merman's lifeguard son at Silver Strand Beach. And a phone running battle in his inner police office with Tracy and his wife and daughter that escalates over a simple vacation. And this is only part one, before the film's intermission! Part two has some of the funniest dialogue and greatest car chases in all of movie history for me. And the grand climax has never been topped for me--not even by silent era clowns.

MAD WORLD got mixed reviews when it opened city by city in late 1963, right before President Kennedy's tragic death in Dallas. The positive ones praised a wonderful cast and hilarious chase plot. The negative reviews said it was too long and repetitious at 193 minutes. So producer/director Kramer and his editors carefully cut the Cinerama world premiere version, two months into its run, to 162 minutes. It played in 70mm Cinerama engaggements at 162 minutes until 35mm engagements in Spring 1965. It was further cut then to 154 minutes with roadshow music and intermission removed. All 35mm prints today--and since 1965--run 154 minutes. The DVD, which may or may not still be for sale, restores roadshow music and runs 161 minutes. At an aspect ratio of 2.55, it also blessedly comes close to restoring the ultra-wide widescreen images of the original film. Maddeningly, though, this 161 minute DVD print is curiously missing the Oscar-nominated title song overture.

But there is also a 182 minute print of MAD WORLD (!), restored by my dear filmmaker friend Paul Scrabo, MGM executives, and a dying Kramer in 1991. That is the version that hit VHS and laserdisc in 1991 with a splendid hour-long documentary that I wish could be seen nowadays. It briefly surfaced on one DVD edition, then removed from another that has no bonus material. (So we have two different 161 minute DVD prints that may both be on moratorium! One with a lot of bonuses and one with none. It's a mad, mad, mad, mad world!) Anyway, the 1991 documentary combines behind-the-scenes filmmaking with cast/crew reminiscences. Almost everyone recalls a lot of hard work in desert heat, but also a heck of a lot of slapstick fun. One other thing I love about the movie is that the Southern California desert landscapes are deserted for miles--no other cars and no homes, just an occasional truck and gas station.

For 22 years, Paul and I and others have been on a futile quest to restore IT'S A MAD, MAD, MAD, MAD WORLD back to its original 192 minute Cinerama world premiere length. The closest we have come is the 182 minute reconstruction on home video and cable TV, and it includes preview material. So we are still missing at least ten minutes of crucial visual material and as much as fifteen minutes. Included in the still lost material (I have the complete script--I think) are Shawn stealing his married girlfriend's (!) convertible, more of Buster Keaton's cameo as a crook, getting Jim Backus INTO a shower he subsequently is removed from, the identity of a strange man in the police station (he is a police reporter told to sit on the story for now), Tracy learning who Silvers is (an unemployed piano player and gambler), and the beginning of almost all the police office scenes. Current prints, including the 182, join them in progress.

There are easy-to-find Internet articles on Stanley Kramer's immortal masterpiece that claim the great Robert Harris and James Katz, who restored VERTIGO and MY FAIR LADY among others, want to reconstruct MAD WORLD. My Internet sources claim Harris has in his possession "188 minutes of bona fide world premiere footage." Only four minutes missing off the original 192 minute print--close enough for me! The Internet claims further that Harris just is waiting for a $2 million purchase order--lunch money in today's Hollywood--to do the work that needs to be done to restore this wonderful movie back to the length it ran when it opened in Los Angeles on November 7, 1963; the version that early in 1964 got six Oscar nominations.

We owe it to the memory of a great filmmaker and a magnificent cast, many still very much alive, to reconstruct and restore IT'S A MAD, MAD, MAD, MAD WORLD from 154 or 161 minutes to 192 minutes for theatrical re-release (it has always been an audience favorite) and letterboxed 2.76 ratio home video sales. It is a precious part of our cinematic and cultural heritage. THIS REVIEW IS BASED ON THE 161 MINUTE DVD and 182 MINUTE CABLE TV PRINTS.

It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World is a classic comedy. Combining big name talent, it tells the story of what happen when a group of strangers finds out where $50,000 is buried. Soon, these normally law-abiding citizens are speeding, stealing, and destroying property. What they don't know is the police are observing them the entire time. As the situations get more out of hand, the movie gets funnier.

I wasn't that impressed the first time I saw this movie. But on repeated viewings with friends, I've come to enjoy it more. The actors are phenomenal and the material has a timelessly funny quality to it. I'm young enough that I don't recognize all the stars, but that doesn't diminish my enjoyment at all.

I was excited when I found out that the movie was coming to DVD, but I've got to say the final product disappointed me. I have only seen the "restored" VHS version that's been out for years. This DVD goes back to the original theatrical release and cuts out some of my favorite scenes. They are included in the deleted scenes section, but it's a very poorly thought out section that makes it hard to find what you want to see. The DVD does include good picture and sound, and I have always enjoyed the documentary included from the videos.

This is a classic movie that everyone should see. However, if you're a fan of the recent videos, be forewarned that this is not the entire movie you are used to seeing. Hopefully, this movie will be reissued on DVD with this footage added back.

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I really wanted to like this DVD. I have the movie on VHS and enjoy it a lot. My reason for rating it so low was that it had almost 23 minutes missing from what was on the restored DVD version, including several memorable Phil Sivers moments. I see no reason why a DVD should offer less than the VHS. Shame on the producers of the DVD. What could they possibly have been thinking?

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As the first film I ever paid to see as a child (I was 11, and so proud of saving up the money!) I loved "It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World". It was slapstick on a grand scale, with a clever commentary on greed thrown in. And the cast! Tracy, Berle, Caesar, Silvers, Winters, Rooney, Hackett, Shawn, Terry-Thomas, Falk, Rochester...and the 3 Stooges had a bit part, along with Jack Benny, Jerry Lewis, Buster Keaton, so many more! For one of the first generation of 'TV Kids', I was in Heaven!

With adulthood, and changing tastes, I can see some of the film's flaws...It's too long, Spencer Tracy is obviously in poor health and straining to keep his energy level up, some of the scenes (especially the early ones) lack pacing, and the Cinerama format almost guarantees you'll miss part of the action, even in a wide-screen format.

But the film's sense of joy is undimmed, and the new digitally-remastered edition Amazon.com is offering gives them full attention. Enjoy again Rooney and Hackett's mishandling of an airplane, Jonathan Winter's gas station destruction scene (a classic!), and, of course the bodies-flying finale.

And hang in there...After the film is a 'Making of...' documentary, with FABULOUS ancedotes by the surviving cast members...It alone is worth the cost of the film!

After 36 years, I STILL love this movie!

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I'm not going to go into a review of the 1963 film "It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World.'' This is one of those films that's almost beyond reviewing--you either love it or you hate it. I love it, and have loved it for more than 30 years, ever since my Mom took me to see it in its 1970 theatrical re-release. It's a classic.

What I want to talk about here is the new DVD version of the movie. Is it good? "Yes emphatically" and "yes kinda" at the same time. The main drawback for the dvd is the aspect ratio-strange for a widescreen 16x9 enhanced dvd, yes? Let me explain.

For decades since I saw it on the big screen, the only version I was able to see of "Mad4World" was the pan-and-scan version-which meant for years I was seeing only about half the picture. I thought myself lucky when I recently caught a "widescreen" version of the movie on cable TV (either Turner Classic or American Movie Classics, I forget which-probably TCM since my tape has no damn commercials stuck in the middle of it). Unfortunately, this version was only a small bit "wider" than the pan and scan; but it was better than what I'd seen on TV previously. You see, "M4World" started its life as a ultra widescreen Cinerama movie. That means its picture was not only super-wide, having been shot in 70mm SuperPanavision, but that it was also projected onto a curved screen that wrapped around the audience, taking up almost all your peripheral vision if you sat in the front part of the auditorium. An anamorphic lens was used in the projector which distorted the picture at the edges in order for them to look normal when projected on the huge curved screen. The original aspect ratio was 2.55:1.

So the point I'm trying to make is that this was a VERY widescreen movie. And now we have a very widescreen transfer on DVD. Now we can see more of the film than we have been able to in years, right? Good, right?

Well, yes and no. You see, for some reason, MGM has put "Mad4World" out not at a 2:55 aspect ratio, but at a slightly narrower 2:35 aspect ratio. This might not seem like such a bad thing, but the surprising result is that there are many things I can see on my old vhs tape of the pan-and scan version that I cannot see on this widescreen DVD!

The reason is this: as I said, this widescreen version is slightly less wide than the original, and often characters on either the far left or far right sides of the screen are cut off a bit. In my old P&S version, the person who had done the panning and scanning simply panned all the way to the right or left side of the picture if the action was on that side, showing that character fully (but of course showing the characters on the other side not at all). In this new dvd (not-quite) wide (enough) screen version there is, of course, no panning and scanning; the 2:35 picture is simply shown. Unfortunately it is a slightly smaller picture than what was originally there, and often the result is characters cut off at the shoulder.

Of course, this is MUCH better than anything we've had on home video before. And MGM should be praised for releasing the DVD at such a reasonable price, and with some decent extras. I just wonder why they didn't go ahead and transfer the film at its original aspect ratio.

If I have to look at Phil Silvers, I wanna see BOTH his shoulders, dammnit!

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