Operation: Endgame (2010)

The movie was pretty good. It was a movie made to just have people kill each other and crack jokes. It had good fights and killing scenes and it was pretty funny. The story line isn't explained great in the beginning and is put together worse at the end. If you are looking for a movie with a good played story this isn't it. But, if you are just looking for a reason to laugh and see some rated material then I Recommend this movie because it's fun.

OK, first it's not 'terms of endearment'. Next off, it's an ation movie, with some black comedic elements. It's a wise ass, kill everyone, pseudo-psycholigcal actionfest.

There aren't a lot of surprises once the action starts, and it is definitely violent, and bloody, but in a 'im gonna kill you creatively, and make cracks and wise-ass comments while I do it' kind of way.

If you are looking for friend green tomatoes, look elsewhere. If you have a dark sense of humor, then you should enjoy every last minute of it.

Enjoy Rob Corddry in his best role since H&K Guantanmo.

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I found it funny in a somewhat dark sense of humor. Assassins locked up and hating each other in an underground bunker? Why not. It's not like an AMAZING movie ever made but it made me laugh. Rent if first, watch it, and if your like me (I buy movies IIIII like) then purchase it. :)

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Seventy-nine minutes of mindless froth that, on second viewing, was slightly more entertaining than the first. I believe this is director Fouad Mikati's first film (and hopefully last?) and he goes at it with gusto as do the cast who seem to be enjoying themselves doing nothing in particular and they get paid for it, too.

Rob Corddry hams it up best of all and Ellen Barkin, Odette Annable plus Emilie de Ravin provide the eye candy. Zach Galifianakis seemed rather out of place as if he strolled onto the set from some other production nearby. Ving Rhames and Jeffrey Tambor have so little time on screen that their talents are wasted.

The two teams of assassins slug it out in an underground bunker and that really is all there is to it except that the death of each seems to provide vicarious thrills to each killer. The storyline is so paper-thin that I can't see how the production could be anything other than fun froth.

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Operation Endgame is a fun, funny and violent action/mystery movie that suffers from the inclusion of a horribly tacked on character played by someone who was obviously looking to collect a pay check. Zach Galifianakis is a complete waste of space in this movie. In fact, his role in this movie could be completely eliminated without changing the story one bit. It's as if some movie executive was given the script for this film and said, "Let's hire that fat, bearded guy from The Hangover and put him in this movie. What, there is no role for him to play? Well let's just add one." Thank god Mr. Galifianakis is only in the movie for 5 minutes. But it's 5 minutes of horrible acting that doesn't add anything to the movie. Seriously, my grandmother could put on a better performance in this role and she's been dead for 2 years.

As for the rest of the movie, it's mostly great. Mostly. Chock full of black humor and over the top violence, it had me chuckling until the last 15 minutes. That's where things start to fall apart. The last 15 minutes feel very rushed, slapping the audience in the face with story elements that are meant to tie up the plot. Part of this is of course the writer trying desperately to explain why Zach Galifianakis' character, the Hermit, was even there to begin with, as "the movie studio made me do it" wouldn't have been an acceptable reason. (Even though it would have been the most valid reason.) What it ultimately boils down to is one man with great power suddenly developing a conscience and deciding to put an end to the manipulation of the world. But the manner in which the movie brings us to this end is a bit convoluted. No more insane and illogical than your average anime movie, mind you. But definitely not a simple, spoon-fed answer that we're used to getting in American cinema.

This is a funny movie IF you like black humor. It's dark, gritty, cynical, and obscene. If you're watching this because Zach Galifianakis is in it and you're expecting The Hangover 2, you're going to be very disappointed. But get beyond him and you've got an entertaining, if violent, hour and a half ahead of you.

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Modern Times (The Criterion Collection) (1905)

MODERN TIMES opens with its credits being printed out over a close-up image of a clock ticking interminably forward. The film's first real shot is of mindless sheep being herded through gates, which fades into an image of factory employees exiting a subway stop on their way to work. Looking at this from a modern standpoint, one can only think that the more things change, the more they stay the same.

This is a film that I can watch over and over again. It's not just that it's an incredibly funny film. It's not just that its satire of modernization and industrialization still rings true today. It's that each aspect of the filmmaking pulls together to form something greater than each individual part. The story ranges from big topics concerning the Great Depression and dehumanization, while successfully balancing that with the small love story between the tramp and the gamin. In a theme that would be revisited even more powerfully in LIMELIGHT, the two characters need each other, depend on each other and simply have no reason to exist without the other. The comedy tickles while the tragedy touches. No other director in film history managed to find that equilibrium with such skill.

This is rightly hailed as the last great silent movie, albeit one made several years after sound has become the norm. I still get a kick out of the fact that the only intelligible voices come solely from machines. Chaplin is making a silent film using sound technology, meaning he has the option to take the best of the both worlds. His next film, THE GREAT DICTATOR, wouldn't quite get this mixture right, but it's a success here. The film can go for several minutes at a time with no meaningful talking or sound effects, and then suddenly jump into an unexpected gag involving voice. The mixture of sound and silent set pieces was inevitable at this point in film history, but I've never seen it pulled off as well as Chaplin does it here.

While disc one contains the film itself in beautifully restored condition, the second DVD is full of extras. Most important is the "Chaplin Today -Modern Times" documentary. This is more or less structured around two French directors (Luc and Jean-Pierre Dardenne) discussing the film. Absolutely fascinating stuff. They analyze the film's jokes, its metaphors and its themes. They talk about everything from the number of frames per second shot to the number of gags that revolve around food. Also included in the documentary is some footage of Chaplin meeting Gandhi. I have nothing to add; I just had to mention it.

Chaplin's nonsense song, the tune he sings at the end of the film in faux Italian, is the subject of two extras. The first is an extended version, featuring a final verse that never made it to the final edit. The second is a Karaoke version of the song (I'm not making this up). And speaking of Chaplin's music, there's an excerpt from 1950s TV of Liberace himself (of all people) performing "Smile" -the theme from MODERN TIMES. Great rendition of a great song.

There's also a short (ten minute) documentary from 1967 called "Por primera vez" ("For The First Time") in which peasants in a tiny village in Cuba are shown a movie for the first time. It's a fascinating look at what film means to people who have never actually watched one before. The reason for its inclusion on this DVD is that the film in question is, of course, MODERN TIMES. It may be an odd choice for their first film experience given that the story of a factory worker undergoing a nervous breakdown may not be something that relates well to people who rarely even see automobiles. But the villagers laugh at the right places and seem genuinely enthused. The documentary is well worth watching and will fascinate anyone with an interest in the societal ramifications of film.

The picture restoration on the main feature is also fabulous. The image has never looked crisper. While this is nominally a silent movie, the original release did feature a synchronized soundtrack of sound effects and Chaplin's musical score (which means, unlike other "silent" DVD releases, we connoisseurs don't have to argue about whether this particular sound track is wonderful and totally keeping in the spirit of what would have been played at the time, or a complete outrage that should result in everyone responsible being shot). The sound quality is excellent, bringing one of my favorite film soundtracks to life superbly.

If I was going to recommend one Chaplin movie to someone, I think I'd have to choose this one. It has two major things going for it. It's a great film, but it's also extremely representative of his body of work. It has comedy, it has pathos, it features the tramp, it has a message. And it's also one of the most influential movies that Chaplin ever made. Everyone, from film to television (remember Lucille Ball working at the candy factory?), has either made reference to MODERN TIMES, or just plain stolen some of its gags. The image of Charlie being dragged into the heart of the gears and cogs of a giant unfathomable machine is familiar to even those people who haven't seen the movie. If you like this film, then you should already own this release. And if you haven't seen it before, then this is absolutely worth a gander. You'll be surprised at just how modern and fresh this classic movie is.

Charlie Chaplin's Modern Times is one of my favourite films and arguably one of the best films ever made. The movie remains incredibly funny while also managing to be a significant artistic achievement in cinema design and social commentary. For Chaplin fans, it marks the last appearance of his "little tramp" character and, not coincidentally, his last film without full synchronized sound. The film does include music, sound effects, and the occasional voice, including a segment at the end where we get to hear the tramp sing a short nonsense song. However, as a film released 10 years into the sound movie era, the film is also something of an enigma. It presents perhaps the most famous silent film character in a film that purports to be silent, yet it features futuristic factory machinery (reminiscent of Metropolis) and large close-circuit flat screen video displays that would have looked almost like science fiction back in the 1930's.

This new Blu-ray release from Criterion continues their standard of releasing historically important films with significant audio/video remastering and a variety of enticing special features. However, in this case, Criterion is competing with an already excellent release of this film on DVD from Warner/mk2 in 2003. The new Criterion release mentions that the "new" transfer was created in collaboration with Cineteca di Bologna, who were also credited with the previous Warner/mk2 release. I am not sure if this release actually includes a new transfer or just an upgrade of the existing one to 2K-resolution for Blu-ray. I performed a side-by-side comparison of both versions, and the Criterion Blu-ray version contained noticeably better detail and superior contrast. However, it also contained a great deal more digital grain that I found a little distracting at first. This can easily be seen in the opening frames where the clock face that seemed so steady on the old DVD version now has a multitude of dancing pixels that give it a strange shimmering quality. As the film progressed, I became accustomed to the new graininess of the image and began to appreciate the increased detail. For the first time, I could see some of the horizontal wires used to secretly operate the "feeding machine" in the second chapter. Chaplin's face also looked a little older throughout. The old Warner/mk2 DVD version looked softer and textures, including faces, had a much smoother feel to them. I did notice some extra grit and fibres showing near the edges of the frame in the Criterion version that were absent from the Warner/mk2 DVD, so this does suggest that the transfer or at least processing of the transfer is different. Overall, I preferred the more detailed Criterion version but still think that a better compromise between the two could be reached with some more processing and cleanup of artefacts done to the Criterion version.

Sound quality for both versions was similar with a slight nod going to the lossless Criterion mono version. The old DVD also includes a Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack absent from the Criterion version. This is not really worth the effort for a film with 1936 sound technology.

As far as special features go, the Criterion version really shines. It adds a new and informative commentary by Chaplin biographer, David Robinson. The old DVD included only a six-minute introduction by Robinson. Other features from the old DVD are also carried through to the Criterion Blu-ray. These include the 26-minute "Chaplin Today Modern Times" featurette, two deleted scenes of very minor importance, some theatrical trailers, and a 10-minute Cuban documentary about peasants seeing Modern Times as their first movie experience. The old DVD includes some additional materials that are not included on the new Blu-ray such as photo/poster galleries, plus some vintage featurettes from the US government and Ford motor company related to assembly line labour, and a performance of "Smile" by Liberace. None of these is a major loss.

New to the Criterion version are two excellent "visual essays" which are essentially a series of stills (many from the galleries on the old DVD) with substantial and informative commentaries by two Chaplin historians related to the making of the film and the locations used. There is also a very interesting new featurette about the visual and sound effects used in the film. It includes some fascinating explanations of effect shots presented in the film, although their very detailed explanation of a glass matte shot used in the roller skating scene does not seem to take into account that the camera moves during the sequence.

Also included is a very interesting interview with music arranger, David Raskin, taken from an old Laserdisc version of the film. I was glad to be able to see this again. Finally, an old Chaplin short, "The Rink", and a home movie with Alistair Cooke, "All at Sea", are included. These are available elsewhere but are presented here in superior quality (the former) or with an additional interview (the latter) not available elsewhere.

Criterion also includes a nice 36-page black and white printed booklet with chapter stops, cast and credits, plus two informative historical essays.

Overall, I think this is a nice package. The film presentation is more detailed than it has ever been in any previous release, although some additional digital manipulation of the picture and cleanup of artefacts would be welcomed by my eyes. The bonus features are extensive and interesting, although I would like to have seen more of the image galleries (including stills, script elements, publicity and financial material) that have been included, albeit at much lower resolution, on previous DVD and Laserdisc versions. My only gripe with the bonus materials is that both on disk and in print they refer to poor or at least "diminished" box office performance of the film because it did not have full sound. All vintage box office information I have seen related to the film indicate that it was one of the top five grossing films of the year. Then or now, it is a fun ride.

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The more I watch it, the more I feel that Charlie Chaplin's sublime silent MODERN TIMES (1936) is his finest film. THE GOLD RUSH (1925) is too desolate for my tastes, and CITY LIGHTS (1931) does not have the exquisite Paulette Goddard (then Chaplin's wife) as leading lady. MODERN TIMES is more episodic than other Chaplin features--six or seven one reel comedies strung together for 83 minutes. There are two incomparable segments set in a dehumanizing factory (in this silent film, the boss speaks over surveillance photography)--Chaplin gets caught inside the gears of a machine, while much later his boss, Chester Conklin from the Keystone Kops, has the same thing happen during lunch hour. It is hysterical to see Chaplin feed lunch to the upside down head of Conklin inside the machine. It is also pricelessly funny when Charlie is guinea pig for a new mechanized lunch demonstration that fails miserably.

Meanwhile, out along the waterfront (location work was done at San Pedro harbor), an indomitable Paulette Goddard watches as her father is killed by a mob, feeds bananas to children, and is helped by Chaplin out of a robbery of food when she is starving. The scenes with Goddard are heartbreakingly lovely, while Charlie is having a great time in prison--no work to do and free food! "Can't I please stay longer?" he asks the warden on a title card as he is being paroled. He will get his wish when he inadvertently becomes the leader of a labor rally waving a red Communist flag.

Eventually, Chaplin and Goddard set up housekeeping together in a waterfront shack. She tags along when he gets a job as an all night watchman in a department store. Paulette tries on a fur coat and goes to sleep on a bed up on the fourth or fifth floor. Charlie will wake her before the store opens. But first she watches aghast as he roller skates blindfolded, oblivious to a giant hole in the store four or five stories deep! Then while Paulette sleeps, Charlie tries to be a good security guard on the first floor. There is a story robbery, but one of the criminals recognizes an old pal from prison so they leave Charlie alone. He gets drunk on a barrel of booze, then eventually falls asleep in the lingerie department under a pile of clothes. Unemployment again in the morning.

Finally, Charlie tries his hand, with major coaching from Goddard, as a combination waiter and singer in a fancy restaurant. This is the very first time the Little Tramp talks in movies, singing a gibberish song. But Charlie quits the job when Paulette is arrested for vagrancy. Eluding the police, the two of them head off into a sunrise and bright new future in one of the loveliest endings in all of modern movie history for me. Chaplin's swansong to The Little Tramp forever. Movie comedies just don't get much better than this Depression era gem.

I have MODERN TIMES as part of the two-disk Chaplin Collection authorized by the Chaplin Estate. It looks and sounds like a million bucks, but curiously seems to have been trimmed by a few minutes from the 87 minute original. (All of the Chaplins seem slightly trimmed--for heaven's sake, why?) Disk two bonuses that will take you a good two hours to see--thus a full evening for everything--include a 30 minute chat with two Belgium filmmakers analyzing the movie as they watch it, deleted scenes, the nightclub gibberish song done as Karaoke to try and understand what on earth Chaplin is singing, the classic theme song "Smile" sung by Liberace, a Cuban village seeing their very first movie (MODERN TIMES) with great excitement, U.S. Labor shorts (which I could not get sound on), and a huge 250 stills production gallery.

MODERN TIMES is, quite simply, one of the great comedies of all time and, arguably, Chaplin's most sublime masterpiece. It is sold individually, as a double bill with CITY LIGHTS, as part of one of two Chaplin archives boxed sets, and probably rentable from Netflicks. With so many wonderful Harold Lloyd silent comedies now available in restored 35mm archive prints, along with the same for Buster Keaton, Charlie Chaplin is getting ignored again. Do watch MODERN TIMES to see the great Charlie at his greatest. Or near greatest.

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It helps that Modern Times is one of Chaplin's best films, period, running a close second behind City Lights (I hope that's next on the re-release list). And happily, unlike The Gold Rush, which was ruined by awful sound choices, the Modern Times DVD offers a clean transfer of the film with all the beloved original elements intact as far as I could see and hear, plus a host of extras.

The film itself is the most briskly paced of Chaplin's feature-length films. And his writing is sharp, unhindered by the sermonizing which permeates his last works. The dilemma facing our Little Tramp this time is something all of us can relate to: For the first time, we see him thinking ahead, wanting to have a future, to form a family, and working towards that end. Chaplin's physical-comedy skills are at their peak: Witness the extended takes of the rollerskate scene, and the factory assembly line. Even if the 18fps (sometimes 16fps) film speed made everything look faster than it really was, it's still impressive physical co-ordination requiring flawless execution, since Chaplin rarely edits using coverage.

In Modern Times we see one of the first truly well-rounded Chaplin heroines. The radiant Paulette Goddard was Chaplin's best leading lady, her high spirits and lively presence being a much better foil for Chaplin than the starry-eyed icons of perfection that were Georgia Hale, Edna Purviance, or Virginia Cherrill. She just has more star quality and brings a quirkier, more animated personality to Chaplin's films, balancing them nicely.

And the gags -some of the best in the Chaplin canon. The eating machine always has me rolling on the floor; the nonsense song is terrific (the DVD offers a "karaoke" version which, though a novelty, does tell us finally what the lyrics actually are); and all the machine gags are fast-moving gems.

The bonus materials include a long outtake and several documentaries. "Chaplin Today" features guests Luc and Jean-Pierre Dardenne, the French filmmakers behind the film Rosetta, and though their film-historian banter is not entirely to my taste, they do bring up some insights that I hadn't observed about Modern Times.

In all, a great release, and a great DVD to have for movie nights. It's a wonderful presentation of a comedy classic.

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Modern Times is among the Best 100 American movies of all time (#81), and it is among the Best 1000 Movies on DVD by Peter Travers. I rate this movie 5 stars or 9 over 10. This movie is timeless, a masterpiece, a pleasure to watch and watch over and over again. It was the last silent movie Chaplin did and the last to feature the Little Tramp (beautiful ending with the two lovers walking arm and arm into a sunset.) The theme of the movie is how technology alienates the human being. Accidentally converted into a working class hero, Chaplin spends some time in jail, where he'd like to stay forever. There we watch one of the funniest scenes of the movie, the lunch with some "white powder". I couldn't stop laughing! In the times of the Great Depression, Chaplin portraits the unemployed and the hunger. Trying to find a steady job, he ends up in a Caffe where he waits on tables and sings. Yes! He does. The nonsense song (with Chaplin original voice in there) stands as one of the best moments in movie history. I can't quit this song off of my mind ... Paulette Goddard, Chaplin's wife at the time, appears here in what's considered her best and liveliest leading lady. This DVD is beautifully repackaged for the Chaplin Collection (a wonderful collection, thanks Warner!) It includes an all-new digital transfer and a soundtrack remastered in Dolby Digital 5.1 as well as original mono. The second DVD comes full loaded with many speacial features, like a documentary about "Chaplin today", deleted scenes, an introduction by Chaplin biographer David Robinson, a Karaoke of the nonsense song, the wonderful song Smile, sung by Liberace, a Behind the Scenes in the Machine Age 42 minutes documentary, and lots of more extras!

I recommend this DVD to everybody, you will not be disapointed, and I would say it's a MUST for movie collectors. A classic, a masterpiece, a timeless movie!

P.S. If you like my review vote YES. You can read all my other reviews if you wish to. I modestly write them to help people form an opinion about movies, music and books, but if nobody reads them (if you don't vote I do not know if you did) there is no point in writing them

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Firefox / Heartbreak Ridge (Two-Movie Collection) (2011)

Please describe the audio and video quality of any Blu-Ray you review. Thanks to those who do this.

Both movies have DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 soundtracks, which are very good.

Video quality varied throughout the movies. Firefox started out very good, and had a lot of very good parts, but some parts were grainy. The flying scenes at the end were, unfortunately, grainy. Heartbreak Ridge also had some very good parts, and some grainy parts. Video quality in these two movies wasn't great, but mostly good.

Overall, these are pretty good movies, and I'm not terribly disappointed with the video quality. I'm satisfied with this purchase.

I have always been a huge fan of Firefox, lumping it in with Hunt for Red October for my "superior Russian tech we must steal" flicks. I was surprised at out crisp the blu-ray transfer is and really enjoyed watching it for the first time in a few years.

The sound design/mix is of particular interest to me the soundscape they engineered for this film is exceptional. At no time during the plane visual effects sequences do you feel like you are listening to a post-produced "mix" it registers as very real for me, which is great because the model effects don't always hold up as I would like them to.

Great price point and two movies to boot (still have to check out Heartbreak Ridge). Enjoy!

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I'm happy to report that the somewhat misleading use of the term "2 movie set", while true, is less informative than '2 Disc Set'. Yes indeed this is a 2 disc set, not '1' as widely speculated prior to release (also shown as '1 disc' on Amazon's product page).

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As for the Firefox movie it's a great movie and so is Heartbreak Ridge. It's better quality over the old copy I have and as for the sound well let's just say it's not really 5.1DDS. It's better than the original 2chnl dvd with better picture quality. So yes it is better..! If your that much of a stickler for sound and picture quality then don't buy this. But if you want better than vhs or old dvd then buy it and I bet you'll like it over the old original old stuff.

I love these movies and Firefox was a great movie and still is..

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The movie "Firefox" alone is worth the price. It has whatever you like; thrills, action, suspense, intrigue the whole enchilada. It qualifies as one of my "best." Having the second film is icing on the cake. "Heartbreak Ridge" is not as good but it holds up and is worth watching. If you are an Eastwood fan, this is whoopee time.

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The Longshots (2008)

"The Longshots," on the surface, is a movie we've seen countless times before -an underachieving team, freshly motivated, become real competitors as they ride from one victory to the next. What sets "The Longshots" apart, however, is the central relationship between a sullen girl and her out-of-work uncle.

The film is about Jasmine Plummer (Keke Palmer), the first girl quarterback to play in the Pop Warner football tournament.

Jasmine, who lives with her mom, Claire (Tasha Smith), is an eleven-year-old more at ease reading books than socializing with classmates. She's tried to get involved in after-school activities, but is teased and soon retreats to her books.

When Claire's work schedule is changed to a later shift, she asks Jasmine's Uncle Curtis (Ice Cube) to look after her in the afternoons. Reluctantly, Curtis agrees. Both Jasmine and Curtis initially resent this arrangement, but try to make the best of it. One day, Curtis, a former high school football player, tosses around a football with Jasmine and sees that she has a good eye and a strong arm. He talks Jasmine into trying out for the local team, telling her she owes it to herself to pursue something she does well.

The story is set in the fictional town of Minden, economically devastated since a local factory -the town's major employer -closed down a few years ago. Many shops on the main street are closed, idle men hang out on the streets, and a general air of resigned despair permeates people, buildings, and the town itself.

The film's second act focuses on Jasmine's making the team and turning around its fortunes from also-ran to winner. The team's success energizes the town, giving it something to be proud of.

"The Longshots" delivers a far different experience than I anticipated. Director Fred Durst devotes considerable time to the growing relationship between Jasmine and Curtis. We really get to know them and have a firm grip on their personalities, fears, and frustrations. In a non-rushed series of scenes -some with gently comic moments -we come to like these two people and care about what will happen to them.

Ice Cube is very good as Curtis, a man whose self-esteem has taken a hit in the years since his high school glory days. His Curtis is a decent guy who genuinely cares for his niece, partly because his brother, Jasmine's father, has abandoned her. His suggestions are never bullying. They are presented with logical back-up and rationale. He relies upon Jasmine to weigh the suggestions and decide for herself whether to pursue them. Ice Cube is wonderfully expressive, and perfectly conveys what he's thinking, a technique invaluable in acting for the camera.

Ms. Palmer provides a sympathetic yet spirited Jasmine. As she comes to know her uncle better and like him, she listens to him and comes to have faith in herself and respect for her own athletic ability. By playing football, she is making her uncle happy, but is also tapping talents she never knew she had.

What "The Longshots" doesn't contain are scenes of excessive team putdowns of Jasmine, big arguments about a girl playing football, and a melodramatic family home life. Director Durst has wisely cut to the chase, staying with the story of Jasmine, Curtis, and the team's effect on Minden, and avoiding the cliches.

Rated PG, "The Longshots" is an excellent family film -a movie that can be enjoyed equally by a young audience and their parents.

This was a touching and well made movie!

I'm not even into football but I was rooting for this little girl all the way...then I was rooting for this community!

Bottom line this was a great family film that pulls at your heart strings and makes you root for the underdog!

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Longshots has a good story. It also has terrific performances by both Ice Cube and Keke Palmer, which won't go unnoticed to the viewer. The problem with the film is that it doesn't go deep enough to really tap into the emotional core of the film the way other sports films have done, such as "Remember the Titans" or "Rudy." At an hour and a half, I feel that they could have added another 20-30 minutes to really make this movie fly. The movie is still watchable, fun entertainment, for the most part.

Longshots is based on a true story of a young girl who wants to play football, and becomes the first girl to ever play in the Pop Warner Superbowl. Jasmine Plummer lives with her mother. Her father has left the family and is nowhere to be found. She spends her spare time reading, and she's ridiculed by her classmates at school for always having her nose in a book. Her one desire in life is to become a model. Her mother has to take on extra hours at work, and so Jasmine is left with her unemployed uncle, Curtis. At first, and a bit predictably, Jasmine and Curtis have a difficult time getting along, seeing that they don't have much in common. Curtis doesn't go anywhere without his football, and Jasmine is the same way with her books. When Curtis is playing catch with a friend, the ball lands at Jasmine's feet (yes, we've seen this formula a number of times), and Jasmine delivers a near-perfect pass. Suddenly, it dawns on Curtis to help Jasmine develop her skills of becoming a quarterback that even she doesn't know she has.

Keke Palmer is one of today's best upcoming actresses. She was fantastic in "Akeelah and the Bee," and she matches Ice Cube in every scene. Evidently, she trained very hard to be able to throw a football. There is a hilarious scene when Jasmine is trying to put on all of her football equipment, and she lets out a piercing scream of disgust when she realizes she's holding a jock strap.

Ice Cube is equally good as her uncle, Curtis. Curtis is a man who is feeling the pains of being stuck. He feels that he should have left the little town they live in, which is all but dead due to the economy. He spends his days hanging out at the field, and little else. He wears the same clothes for days. However, finding a companion in Jasmine, Curtis discovers that he now has something to do with his time that is worthwhile.

I would have loved to see more development between Jasmine and Curtis. The story had something really special going on between these two characters, but there simply isn't enough time to devote to them, as the story shifts to Jasmine's football training, a few games, and then, of course, the championship game in Miami.

There are a couple of scenes when her father comes back. I would have also liked to have seen this dynamic played out a bit more as well as the strained relationship between Jasmine's father and Curtis, who now bitterly resents his brother for abandoning Jasmine. These three characters are really the most interesting in the film. Even a budding romance between Curtis and Jasmine's teacher feels contrived and unreal. It is also unnecessary.

The football scenes are fine, and they play themselves out in typical fashion. There isn't anything we haven't already scene in other films, which is another reason why I feel that movie short-changed itself in the characterization and the relationships. The heart of the movie seemed to lie there, so I was hoping for something deeper.

In any case, Longshots is a good film that can certainly be enjoyed by the whole family. However, the movie could have been so much more than it ended up being.

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This is a very good Family Movie and Ice cube is such a great Actor.I recomend it to family's.It shows what can happen when you beleive in

Yourself.and how much courage this Girl has to go for what you beleive in.I also enjoy Keke palmer.she is a great actor as well.

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i ordered this movie for my kid brother who loves this movie and i am so glad and happy he loves it so thank you for the great price.

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The Quiet Man (60th Anniversary Special Edition) (1952)

*****5 stars for the film

Haunted by an incident that happened in the ring, American boxer Sean Thornton (John Wayne) returns to his Irish birthplace, seeking only his roots and a quiet, peaceful life.

He soon falls in love with the beautiful, tempestuous Mary Kate (Maureen O'Hara). She is equally taken with him, but won't marry without the consent of her stubborn, blustering brother, Will (Victor McLaglen), who disapproves the match.

With the help of a well-intentioned scheme arranged by their friends, Mary Kate gets her brother's permission and Sean and she wed. Relationships spoil soon after, however, when Will refuses to pay the rightful dowry. Sean doesn't care, but Mary Kate is outraged and wants Sean to have it out with Will.

Time and again Sean backs down determined not to use his fists his inner tension building the whole while. But eventually he will have to decide between losing his wife's love and respect and facing his greatest fear.

This was an important and personal project for John Ford (whose real name was Sean O'Feeney). That his heart and those of his cast members were in what they were doing shows through. The fact that much of the film was shot on location in Ireland (on location shoots were somewhat unusual at the time) also adds an authentic flavor.

Barry Fitzgerald was at his comedic best here, and Ward Bond's performance as a priest has several simply unforgettable moments.

The Quiet Man is a charming classic and among Ford's best (in fact, it won him an Oscar for Best Director). It's funny, romantic, and always entertaining. It also features an exuberant score (courtesy of Victor Young) and one of the longest and most memorable knock-down, drag-out fights ever committed to film.

-DVD-

Two different editions of this DVD have been released with almost

identical packaging. Be careful which one you buy! (I wish I'd known this).

"John Wayne Collection" edition (*1 star)

This is the one I bought (ISBN 0-7820-1057-1, ASIN: B00000I1KV). It has "John Wayne Collection" printed on a green band at the top. Its special features include "The Making of the Quiet Man" documentary & the theatrical trailer. DON'T BUY THIS VERSION, PLEASE. The sound is decent, but the picture is absolutely terrible: blurry and full of splotches, almost unwatchable.

"Collector's Edition"

Apparently, the sound and picture quality are okay on the "Collector's Edition" DVD (ASIN: B00006JMRD), whose special features include Commentary by Maureen O'Hara, the theatrical trailer, "The Joy of Ireland" documentary with Maureen O'Hara, "Remembering The Quiet Man" Montage, and "The Making of The Quiet Man."

I will not, as some feel necessary, go over the story/characters/performances of this film. Suffice to say, this is one the most enjoyable films ever made, blarney or not.

Rather, what I would like to briefly comment on is the utterly pathetic transfer of this classic film to DVD. It states quite clearly on the back of the cover that this film has been digitally remastered. I took that to mean both video and audio. WRONG. The picture quality of this DVD is shocking, one of the worst I have ever seen. Believe me when I say this -the VHS version I purchased in 1991 has a better video clarity than this. At times it's actually difficult to make out the actors features. The company behind this, ARTISAN I believe they are called, should be ashamed. I have a copy of the recently released and remastered CASABLANCA DVD. That film was made in 1942, yet it looks as if it was just made, such is the sharpness of the video. The Quiet Man deserved the same treatment, but didn't get it. Shame on ARTISAN.

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i hate giving a classic a 1 star rating. the movie is nothing less than 5. but the dvd transfer is pathetic. i've seen better 2nd generation VHS to DVD transfers than this. what was the distributor thinking when they allowed this to be distributed to the public?? did they even bother to review the final product before its release? there's no excuse for this with todays movie restoration technology. hopefully we will see this movie re-released by a company who cares about art.

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I also remember seeing this movie as a kid. Actually, it was featured in my high school English class for something or other. As I recall it, this was a must see film for everyone I knew.

I am now spoiled. I use a high-definition projector and a 10 foot screen. Most recent, and some old DVD's look wonderful on it. For the most part, the experience is like going to a movie theater, no lines, great sharpness. Even old black and whites look wonderful on this system.

I obtained the first transfer by Artisan and was shocked by the grotesque and constantly changing colors, and also the gross color fringing. Most dark areas had a strong purple hew to them. Color intensity was gross, greens bloomed out of the picture. Sharpness was very poor.

The added featurettes were little better. My over all impression was that this was some sort of amateur video company run by incompetants with anciend junk equipment. However, it appears that Artisan actually has money enough to get the rights to a great deal of John Wayne material.

I then obtained the "Collector's Edition." Some contributers have claimed it was much better than the first release. It is identical! This is the worst transfer of a Technicolor movie that I have ever seen. Also, the newly made featurettes are horrible looking. STAY AWAY FROM THIS MESS!

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What a travesty of a DVD transfer!?!?

Here I am expecting to watch a lush restoration of one of the great films from one of the greatest American Filmmakers (had I read the reviews I would have thought twice of buying it for sure!) and I get a shoddy transfer probably done straight from video. These imbeciles at Artisan oughtta be fired, tarred and feathered!

Collector's edition my eye! "Pappy" & "Duke" must be doin' backflips in their graves! Even with this major imperfection, it is still a great story and a pleasure to see a great filmmaker at the height of his powers. Still I hope one day that someone gives us a DVD worth the material.

Damn shame.

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Shakespeare in Love (2012)

(2008 HOLIDAY TEAM)I honestly did not know what to expect when I first sat down to watch "Shakespeare In Love." Perhaps that was for the best, since this film teems with unexpected moments and twists, turning literary history upside down and giving it a clever and bawdy twist.

Gywenth Paltrow plays a young noblewoman who is expected to be demurely betrothed, but who wants none of the life ahead of her. She yearns for the theater, and, in her headstrong, ambitious drive, dresses like a boy to obtain a part in Will Shakespeare's newest drama. Of course, the two fall in love (hence the title!) and their duplicity leads to plot complications that get more and more outrageous. Literary jokes abound, but you don't need to know a whit about Shakespeare to enjoy this romp. This is a romantic comedy cloaked in Elizabethian times, an anachronism that is thoroughly satisfying.

Paltrow's Viola is gutsy, intelligent, and torn, a portrayal that deservedly earned her an Oscar. Joseph Fiennes makes a lovable, bumbling Will Shakespeare. The two display a chemistry that brings the witty script to life and elevates this film to a level above most romantic comedies.

This film should appeal to a wide range of viewers even those who hated studying Shakespeare in school.

This movie really hit home for me. I just sat there in awe of the acting, the way the story unfolded. It totally engrossed me. I saw it three times at the movies and could have easily gone to see it again and again. When it won so many Academy Awards, I wasn't surprised except I thought Saving Private Ryan should have won Best Picture. I also felt that Tom Wilkinson didn't get the praise he deserved. His performance was, as usual for Tom, understated and perfect. I thought he should have been nominated instead of Geoffrey Rush, for best supporting actor, and I'm an aussie.

I also felt Joseph Fiennes should have got a Best Actor gong. Gwyneth was great but Joseph's performance of Will was exceptional to say the least.

The highlights for me were the unfolding of the two stories, (Romeo and Juliet & Will and Viola). Then the actual performance of Romeo and Juliet and the intertwining tragedy of Will and Viola. The way the audience reacted at the end said it all.

I think that 'Shakespeare In Love' is mainly a movie that females thoroughly love. The males in my circle of friends and family didn't quite GET IT so to speak.

Also deserving of mention were Colin Firth and the actor with the the stutter, which miraculously disappeared at the start of the play.

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This is the kind of movie the Academy loves and through its love, rewards.

The script by Stoppard and Norman is erudite and cunning, passionate and playful, filled with witticisms by and about the Bard; and the parallels to Shakespeare and his work, especially the play within a play, Romeo and Juliet, and the play to come, Twelfth Night, are marvelous and a bit miraculous. The romantic direction by Madden conjures up an Elizabethan England and its London theatre with enough lusty color to delight the poet himself. The acting is wonderful with Gwyneth Paltrow conquering a very demanding and delightful four-part role as Viola/Tom Kent, and on the stage as first Romeo and then as Juliet! Joseph Fiennes as the young Shakespeare writing his Romeo and Juliet on the fly, fired with the energy from his adulterous love for the lovely Viola, is better than advertised.

Of course what would a Shakespearean play or a great Hollywood movie be without its bit players and supporting roles? Judi Dench as the queen in her Academy Award winning performance gives the impression of somebody doing something marvelously well but with such ease as to look unemployed. (I stole that line from somewhere.)

From the gutter snipe with his rodents to the queen's bad teeth, from Colin Firth's delightfully villainous Lord Wessex to Geoffrey Rush's wise, but bumbling stage manager, from the tavern trollops to the gentry at the ball (in which the sonnet within a play from Romeo and Juliet is once again given life by Fiennes and Paltrow) everything is expertly presented. You don't have to be a Shakespearean buff to appreciate this resplendent romantic comedy, but if you are, your experience will be enhanced.

This is Hollywood at its best. For all the clunkers and the mass-mindless indulgences that are the usual fare-tinsel town, you are forgiven!

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I would like to point out that Blu Ray of "Shakespeare in Love" that Mark Barry is reviewing is actually the European/UK 1080p release, but he has erroneously listed his review on the site for the Canadian (Alliance) 1080i Blu Ray release. Those in the USA interested in obtaining the European 1080p/24 5.1 DTS-HD MA release should know that it plays FLAWLESSLY on my standard Sony PS3 in the USA, as it is "Region Free". It can be obtained at amazon.co.uk for less (delivered) than the inferior Canadian version. Also note that the 1080i/60 Canadian (Alliance) edition only has subtitles in French, while the 1080p/24 UK/European edition contains subtitles in English as well as many other languages.

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The first time I saw the movie, my reaction was: "Hmm, not bad. An OK movie, but nothing striking. Maybe even got a bit turned off 'cuz it's such a 'chick movie'."

Two months later, I was dying to go back to the theater and watch it again why, it was a mystery. So I paid a little more attention the 2nd time round, and I found out why subconsciously I'd already come to like that film after the first viewing.

To begin with, the dialogues are witty and very well-written. As someone who had never read any Shakespeare before (pardon me, Shakespeare gurus), I didn't know at first that there're many, many lines that were taken directly from the poet/playwright. As I read 12 of Shakepeare's plays and all of his sonnets after the movie (you can tell that I fell madly in love with Shakespeare after watching the film), I came to see how Shakespeare's own words were taken out and seamed together so cleverly and perfectly in the script. And as I re-watch the video, each time I continue to discover something new in the script that I didn't notice before.

Second, the way the Romeo/Juliet and Will/Viola stories intertwines together is just fabulous and done perfectly. The two stories bring each other to life and it's just a very creative and beautiful way of telling a story. The lead to the Twelth Night at the end is totally icing on an already-marvelous cake.

In a word, this movie is a classic.

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