TC-4

I was hoping that this would be funny, boy was I wrong! Any Gilligan's Island would have been funnier. Not only was it boring but the quantity of commercials was absurd. I was glad when it was over. Looks like I resume going to the video store soon.

When I was a child of 9 I remember my parents watching the Horace Heidt musical show on Mondays at 9PM. When the show was cancelled the new I Love Lucy started in the fall of 1951. It was very funny and was the talk of everyone. Now over 50 years later I am still watching it in the repeats. Sadly, all the stars have passed on. The one thing that my wife and I notice now that we did not notice before was how cheap Fred and Ethel were. They were really "moochers". They could have donated something to the cost of trips, remodeling etc. One bizzare note is that Horace Heidt and Desi Arnaz both died on the same day.

I just bought a big screen tv and rented a few DVDs to use with my progressive scan DVD player. The first movie was Solaris. After about 10 minutes I felt like washing my truck or cutting the grass. My wife even went into another room and did some knitting. I struggled to about half way and fast forwarded to the end. All the people involved with this movie should have realized that most viewers would hate it. From now on I will check out the IMDB with a list of DVDs I plan to rent before I spend my money.

I was told that this movie was quite a thriller. I waited throughout to be thrilled. All I saw was a lot of crazy people who claimed to sane. Maybe I will have to watch it again when I have nothing to do.

One thing that really angered me was on the DVD. On the main menu I had a choice of wide-screen or full-screen. I watched in w/s as I like to see all movies in w/s whenever possible so I won't miss anything. After watching it I picked a scene in w/s and then found the identical scene in p/s and discovered that there was more to see in all directions in p/s. So the wide-screen version was just a hoax for those who like w/s movies. It was photographed in 1.33 to 1 ratio and then the w/s merely had a mask over the center of the film. I was actually seeing less of the movie in w/s than in p/s. To me, this is a rip-off.

This movie was very funny although my wife did not watch it as she does not like this type of humor. What I should like to alert viewers with the DVD is the choice between standard and widescreen. I started with the widescreen version and it did not look widescreen, only masked to look that way. I memorized a certain scene in W/S and then looked at the same frame in Standard and I saw more of the image both vertically and horizontally. So in this instance this W/S version is just a gimmick. I do this test with all the dvds that give me that option, some are real w/s and some are not.

I believe, like most serial buffs, that Republic made the best serials. After watching the 1948 Columbia serial Superman which was mostly talk and poor special effects, I was reluctant in purchasing the 1942 Captain Midnight. Boy! was I surprised. This serial did not let up for a minute. Dave O'Brien was perfect as Captain Midnight and James Craven was one of the best heavies ever. Something must have happened after 1942 because all the Columbia serials that I saw from that time on were cheasy. If Superman had been made with the Captain Midnight production values and stuntman Ted Mapes as Superman, that would have been a great serial.

As my wife is part of a Search and Rescue team, we decided to watch this movie on the Animal Planet which was supposedly about S&R.

Obviously this movie had no technical advisors as everything was totally wrong and made real handlers look stupid. For example, it takes years of training under all sorts of weather with qualified instructors and after passing difficult exams to become a certified S&R dog and handler. Yet one of the dogs was trained in a backyard once for 5 minutes and suddenly became a S&R dog. I can just imagine how the S&R handlers who were in NYC on 9/11 must feel.

This movie made everyone look bad including the police and the FBI. I just hope that people who know my wife and friends don't think that the movie is realistic. This is a good example as to why "tv-movies" are terrible for the most part. After this insult I will no longer watch anything on the Animal Planet. I thought they were smarter than this.

My wife and I really enjoyed the first 3 seasons. Then we had wait 16 months for the 4th season. We couldn't remember most of the characters and what their fuction was. As a result of this time delay we havn't got the enthusiam that we had about the show. If this turns out to be the last season that would be ok with us. The show is not fresh anymore and there are just too few episodes to get really involved and get stranded again for another long period.

I cannot figure out Jackie's movies. Some are made for the Asian audience and dubbed for us and some are made here. They also have several titles. This movie was like are cartoon. There was really no story and little violence most of which was very basic. I think the American audience are dumped inferior movies made overseas. This was like a tv show. If this was the first Jackie Chan movie I ever saw, it would be my last.

I had heard that Dick Powell had made this movie to change his image from a song and dance man to that of a tough guy. I watched it last night on TCM and tough guy he wasn't. I was waiting for him to break into a song at any time. My neighbor could have made a better tough guy than him. I think that William Bendix in the time that he was bully would have made a much better Marlowe. If you want to the part done right, don't miss the remake with Robert Mitchum.

I just watched Black Sunday again after not seeing it for 25 years. I had first seen it in the theaters and it was very exciting. This time it was I felt cheated as I saw it on The Mystery Channel in "pan and Scan" and half the movie was gone especially those tremendous airial scenes at the end.

Robert Shaw did so much running in this movie that I could not help but think of his heart attack the following year. If you see this great movie, make sure that you see it in wide-screen.

I rented this movie after hearing how great it was from others. My wife and I both like thrillers. I have a good sound system for my tv and for the first 30 min. it was very difficult to hear any of the dialog as everyone spoke in almost a whisper. I have never turned up my sound system so loud for a movie just to hear what they are saying. We couldn't see where all the tension was as there was nothing that was really scary. This movie is highly overated. What I did find more interesting was on the 2nd dvd that came in the set was that the disease that the children in the movie had was real and it was explained fully by doctors and vistims. Don't waste your time.

Back in 1956 when this movie came out it was the Legion of Decency run by the Catholic church that decided what was proper or improper to see. I remember my parents checking that list whenever I wanted to see a movie. They were divided into groups. Unobjectionable, Objectionable with certain restrictions and others but the worst one was rated Condemned. I laugh when I think about it. Baby Doll did not play in my town of 100,000 as the church would have made a big stink about it, but it did play in Boston which was 25 miles away. I did not see it then but I heard from others that did and they told me that it was very steamy. There was so much controversy about this movie that no one dared mention that they saw it in mixed company as being branded as liking porno movies. I finally saw this movie on AMC about 15 years ago and I had to smile because this was such a mild movie by today's standards. This movie could be shown today on regular TV unedited with a PG rating. It had no nudity nor swearing. Karl Malden, Eli Walich and Carol Baker were outstanding. Still today Carol Baker is still being mentioned as Carol "Baby Doll" Baker, truly a role she will never live down. One more thing, the musical score throughout the movie is very moving. I bought the LP soundtrack long before I saw the movie and it was interesting to see how it fit. I have recorded it onto a cassette and still play it in my car. I think that it was the church and it's censorship that made this movie so popular.

One thing that I don't like and why I avoid old silent movies is the poor print quality. I just saw this movie on TCM and it was restored and looked like a new movie. This made it interesting right from the start. All those exterior scenes of NYC were precious along with the scenes with Babe Ruth. This movie was a real treat and I will be looking for more like this.

A "Spoiler" for those who don't know is a scene that comes up before it is meant to in order to keep the audience interested. These spoilers showed up before every commercial break thus ruining the show for me. This is just like someone in a movie theater who saw the movie before talking out loud as to what will happen. I watched this mini-series for about 45 minutes and gave up on what looked like a good story thanks to the spoilers. It is no wonder that fewer and fewer people are watching network tv. This is the last time I watch any TV-movie or min-series on CBS.

This is the same old story about an alien being taking over the earth.

I see this type of stuff each week on the X-Files done much better. Without telling any details for those who want to see it, there is nothing original about this. The CGI work to create the monster was the worst that I have ever seen. Patrick Muldoon who was the male star was possibly the worst actor that I have ever seen. I watched it because of the reputation of Theresa Russell but she looked lost in a very stupid movie. I watched it on the Sci-Fi Channel which had more commericials ever and lots of bleeps. This movie might have been passible as a late night movie on tape or dvd but not with edits, cuts and commercials.

When I was a kid I used to love to go to the Sat. matinee for the weekly serials. It was not uncommon to see the same explosion or car wreck in many serials as the serials would use the same action scenes in different serials. If my memory serves me correctly, many scenes from one of the Airport movies were used over again in this movie. Strange how it was the same airline and the damage was the same. In any event the use of the old shots blended in quite well with the new ones. It makes me wonder if transporting criminals on commercial airlines and the flying public actually does happen.

This movie was rated so highly that I had to watch it. My first big disappointment was when it came on the screen it was subtitled which I was not aware of. I watched it for about 20 minutes or until my bag of popcorn was gone. It was very obvious in the few fight scenes that I saw that the actors were suspended on wires as no one glides through the air as gracefully as they did. I just could not get into it after this and I am glad that I did not finish it as I would have lost 2 hours of my life for no good reason. Beware to anyone anticipating watching this movie as it is very boring.

With a cast like Julia Roberts, Catherine Zita-Jones and John Cusack who probably made a total of $40,000.00 in salaries alone, I expected something really funny but all I got was about 15 minutes of laughter at the beginning and then it just rambled on. I have seen TV-movies that were more entertaining than this. The best thing in the movie was the Doberman who went after the window washer. That was a beautiful dog. Don't the cast and crew while making something like this realize that it is just another dumb movie??

SPOILERS WATCH OUT. I watched this movie only because it was a true story. After watching it I cannot believe that there were so many stupid people. Harik had a beautiful wife and he fell for a teenager almost instantly then his wife never fell for the fact that he was always at the office etc. How this could have happened for years without getting caught is hard to believe especially when he was up for public office and was on the news all the time. There are many other incidents which I will not reveal except that it is worth watching to find out just when he will get caught.

My married daughter said that I had to see this movie. I finally saw it last night and my wife and I were pleasantly surprised. It caught our attention right away and held it throughout. It is certainly a big cut above movies of this type. It is hard to talk about this movie without giving away the storyline so suffice it to say that it is about someone who gets gut feelings about what will happen in the future. I watched it on Encore so if you have a remote use the mute button for the first 2 minutes as the Encore host tells you almost the whole story before you see it. I guess they never heard of spoilers.

I held back on this movie for a few weeks as I did not think that it would be very funny. In fact I thought that the beginning was rather like all the other "teen movies". Then all of a sudden a few things happened that made me laugh quite unexpectedly and it got better throughout. The small spoiler is when she is driving her car and sees a place that does manacures and makes a quick u-turn and causes 2 other cars to have an accident was out of place. There was nothing funny about a jerk driver. Otherwise I enjoyed this movie more that I expected.

I watch any movie for it's entertainment value not so much for it's being realistic. If I wanted only realism I would never watch Star Trek or Star Wars movies. This movie had a lot of scenes with action and tension just like in the old movie serials when I was a kid. Whether it be realitic or not I don't care as when the movie was over I was entertained and my mind was taken away from the troubles of the world for a couple of hours and that it what counts to me. I recommend this movie to anyone with an open mind.

This was one show that my father really liked and never missed. It was one of the earliest shows that I remember seeing. It was on our 12" black and white tv and the sound was through the little speaker. The music did not appeal to me but I would watch it with my parents. I can just imagine what that show would be like on a big screen and surround sound.

I made it a point to watch 24 as it was hyped by the media etc. Well now that I watched the first episode I need not bother watch any more. So what that it takes place in "real time"? To me that does not make it more suspenseful. I like Keifer Sutherland's role but I got quickly bored when, at the same time, it covered the goings on of his teenage daughter of which I have seen enough tv-movies of bratty kids. If it is going to be a thriller type tv show fine, but leave out the stuff about his personal life especially his jerk daughter and all her friends none of which I don't care about. I gave it a chance and never again will I waste an hour of my life on this boring show. This reminds me of last season's Big Apple that was hyped and lasted about 3 weeks. This will be another one of those shows.