savanna-2

I would like to give this film a higher rating, but something felt all wrong, the whole time. It started with the feeling that I was watching Kevin Costner as the leading man, Harry Sweeney. What, they couldn't afford Costner, so they asked Jamey Sheridan to give it his best shot? Even my husband thought it was Costner and we decided the beard was a ploy to obfuscate Sheridan's longer face.

The other problem had to do with the number of other little stories, within a story. Too many people to care about any of them or the arc of their lives since the central incident 30 years in the past.

It would have been better to cut the number of men by two, extend the time Harry spent with each man and his family. Additionally, Harry should have been, either a childless widower fruitlessly pursuing the diner waitress OR a widower fruitlessly pursuing a relationship with his estranged son.

Now, to the best parts of the film. The flashback sequences depicting the burgeoning relationship between Harry and David. The two young actors caught the essence of the relationship, with quick glances, knowing looks and body language. I wished there had been more with them, before the central event. It was beautiful, sweet and poignant.

AND the last scenes with Campbell Scott. He was perfect. He was mature, he was shattered, he was solid, he was fragile, he was strong. Did I mention he was perfect?

Made me sad that we had spent all that time with Harry and his dirty dishwater life. I wanted to see David. How David became the person we met at the end.

I've been purposely vague, hopefully not spoiling too much for those who haven't seen the film.

If you're like the first reviewer and are wondering about part two, it wasn't an Ironside episode. Here's a short synopsis I found:

Episode aired 14 September 1972. ... While in Los Angeles to testify for a trial against gangster Frank Harmon, Ed is shot and falls off the balcony of his hotel room. ... This 2- parter was concluded on The Bold Ones: The New Doctors: Five Days in the Death of Sgt.Brown.

It seems some channels have rectified the problem and now include the episode in the lineup. If you happen to be unlucky enough to watch it on a channel that doesn't, then check you tube.

Finding out it was a two part episode with the idea of launching a new series, explains the effort made to introduce to all these new characters that would never be seen on Ironside again.

The part that confused me had to do with the advanced technology, why wouldn't Ironside himself have been a candidate? They go to a lot of trouble to show flashbacks from when Ironside was first injured as being his impetus to find help for Ed, so he doesn't end up paralyzed, but never explain why it would only work for Ed.

Heroin addiction doesn't change its ugly face, no matter the decade. Joseph Campanella should have gotten an Emmy or Golden Globe nomination at least, if not the trophy.

Plays Ironsides' friend who has found solace from his demons in the haze of heroin. Except the high times ended long ago and now he's caught in the ugly jaws of having to have a fix to function normally.

Unfortunate for him, his dealer isn't that sympathetic, leaving Harry hanging when the Chief shows up for a weekend visit with his old friend.

Campanella, really could chewed the scenery here, since his whole part is a man spiraling into withdrawals, but he keeps it on the right side of the line. Well worth watching. There's a reason it has such a high average score, here on IMDb.

If Stabler had tried to snap the guards neck at the end of his time in the hole, it would have completed the transformation into psychopath, Chris Keller, his character on the gritty violent HBO series OZ.

This episode was part of the softening of Stabler arc, during his final seasons on SVU.

This turned out to be a slow paced, tension filled thriller, in the old timey meaning.

Feeling of menace, oppression and deliberate pacing. Filming location adds much to the film. You get that old south, small town, outsiders need not apply feeling. The smiles and welcomes are all fake.

Plus the old cars. If you're a fan of cars from the later 20s to early 40s there here aplenty.

The acting is good. I would say this was probably made for TV and if it wasn't, it was just a couple of years shy of bring TV fare. In some ways it reminded me of the 1970 Bloody Mama about Ma Barker and her gangs crime spree (with a young Robert De Niro.

Flashbacks aplenty to show the history of the house and what happens to the occupants over the years.

I would recommend it except for the most faint of heart. Also, there is one scene that some may feel triggered by.

Nostalgia? Familiarity makes the heart grow fonder? When I went to check out the details for this movie on IMDb I thought the average score of 6.2 was a bit low, until I clicked in and saw my own paltry rating of 5!

What was I thinking? This movie has it all, tension, atmosphere, heavy doses of symbolism, good acting, flies ... plus made in the 70s. With that 70s look to the film, where nothing is overly bright or sunshiny.

I watched the remake of this last week and perhaps that's what made this look better than my original assessment. The remake was overwrought and deliberate and no matter how hard they tried to catch the gritty atmosphere of the original, it just. didn't. happen.

So, if you haven't seen this in awhile or worse, like me, thought this was a rather middling mediocre affair, see if time hasn't changed your perspective.

P.S. I did change my rating and reward this film with a solid seven. Watch it, you won't be sorry!

All good things have to come to an end and the includes the beloved series The Rifleman. A story that would have gotten a different treatment earlier in the series, possibly steeped in Eastern mysticism, now plays out as a broad and mostly insulting caricature.

The townspeople are juvenile bullies. Snickering and acting a fool. I can only remember one other episode where the townsfolk are this embarrassing and that's the episode where someone sends off for a mail order bride as a smart pants trick on Lucas.

All the silliness has to do with a the servant of a rich Japanese businessman visiting America. The townfools pull out Every dull cliché in the book, from actually tripping the man, oops, to making misogynist comments about the male businessman being treated like womenfolk by his servant. Of course the third grade insults wouldn't be complete until some comments are thrown in about their yellow skin, shanty eyes and small stature. I did say this episode is an embarrassment and I meant it.

Now, if the above isn't enough to turn you off, an American actor of Italian descent, heavily made up to play the part of one of the two visiting Japanese, should do it. Unfortunate isn't the word for it.

Don't get me started on Lou. What small amount of charm Patricia Blair exhibited early on is completely gone in the episode. Her broad over emphasized Irish accent gives the Italian Japanese a run for the money.

Mark is far to old for the wide eyed "oh PA" stuff. This episode he's acting like a 10 yr old. The next episode he's asking Lucas for a hand gun. Very uneven and disappointing. This one episode could sour a first time viewer on the whole series.

I enjoyed the whole episode, but was especially caught by a piece of dialog from Jarrod's new wife when discussion of building a home came about. She said "promise to build a house without a roof." Why? Because she was so happy and didn't want anything blocking the beautiful sky. Made me wonder is Pharell Williams had a western fan in his family and somewhere in his subconscious, this phrase was always with him?

Anyway, to the show, as another reviewer noted, Victoria was welcoming and got right down to teaching Beth how to be a good wife to Jarrod, including showing her how to prepare J's favorite meal.

Before any eating could be done, J comes in and sweeps Beth off to a beautiful spot, where he's prepared to build the aforementioned house. As the lovely young wife leans across J to pick a flower, a shot rings out and she's gone.

Jarrod immediately has his suspicions of who did the deed and why. A man he had put in prison, was in town the previous day. J wastes no time saddling up and going in pursuit.

What we're left with is a wild wild ride as J goes deranged and I mean that in the best possible way. I'm sure this episode ended up on the reel presented to the various acting award committees, really, it was that good. A perfect blend of a man with a broken heart, set to right the wrong. I believed it every step of the way.

J would have finished off the guy in the last few minutes (apparently with the sheriff's blessing) if the other brothers hadn't ridden in and stood between J and Cass, who had just about met his maker, with his head in a horse water trough.

The coda has J humbled and feeling low. Now he knows what it's like to take after the fiery side of Victoria, not sure he even had it in him. Well worth a watch. I didn't notice any of the awkwardness lamented by another reviewer.

While Alice steamrolls through life, the picture of perfection, she leaves a path of victims in her wake. Never waking up to the fact that , for all her well-meaning, she's causing greater harm than good.

She seems to base all of her decisions on one thing "would she want to know if the situations were reversed" and goes from there. She believes that being right is more important than being discrete. From that position, we see here bull doze through a series of interactions, from close friends to almost (the dinner guest) perfect strangers.

She is oblivious to the harm and waste she lays about her. No where is she greeted with happiness. Everyone has armored themselves as much as possible to withstand her blows, but sense they never know what new hell she's about to launch, she always hits her mark.

I thought Gary Merrill's Fred Pemberton, was the perfect counter-point as Joan Fontaine's Alice Pemberton's, long suffering husband. You can tell that he loves Alice to the core of her being. That he would give anything for her to gain insight into her behavior, but it's all for naught. Nothing, nothing, nothing works. So measures have to be taken to stop Alice before she causes ultimate destruction and chaos in the lives of those around her.

I've always felt there was something special about this episode. The sheer presence of Joan Fontaine, would lift even the most common material above the mundane. She is genius at establishing all we need to know to understand this character right out of the box.

**********I DON'T WANT TO SPOIL IT BUT IF YOU READ BELOW THIS************ WORSE!!! Terrible! Terrible acting, the most sudsy of soaps story lines. The material from this film is like someone took all the scripts from 10 years of daily soaps and mashed it into one.

What a waste for Jackie. She was the only reason to watch and her part was so one note. Don't waste your time!!

The main reason for making this movie, in my opinion? Someone wanted to see the "love" interest for the son naked! Don't get me wrong, you won't see much, but there are plenty of simulated love scenes. Oh forget it, if you want that, go rent a good film, this would put "Skinamax" to shame!!

Fascinating to watch, cringe worthy at times, deeply hurtful at others. Makes me wonder, as I'm sure many of you do as well, what finally became of Ted? I was sorry to see that things didn't work out as well as one would hope. Personally, I felt the substance abuse problems, for Ted, made proper decision making impossible, when it came to the the $$$$ and the responsibility of it!

I felt that, while the the film makers did make clear that Ted had a problem with alcohol and pot, they only used it to sensationalize the tale. Putrid, if you as me. But hey, they went lower and I do mean scrapping the bottom low, by including footage where Ted told private details of this mothers life and at one point called her a "bar whore." Now, if this were serialized, then yes, I can see how that would be included in the same series as the part where they go and ultimately do the bulk of their filming in and around the home of Ted's mother.

They befriended her, his family, sisters, etc. Then, turned around and used that footage which was shot while Ted was still estranged from his them. How could they do that? There were certainly other ways for the point to be made about Ted's moms struggles with alcohol!!! This stuff was all edited together for one feature documentary so those scenes and voice clips could have just as easily hit the cutting room floor. Maybe the creator's, producers, the whoever's involved in this, were disappointed that Ted's family was very nice to him and didn't start to immediately hit him up for cash and while they tried to give him sensible advice, there were no outrageous blow-ups when squandered the money on expensive cars (he bought 3 total and gave 2 away), drinking, wining and dining women.

So maybe that's it ... they were expecting the Jerry Springer show and got a nice middle-class family instead! Maybe they're hoping after the family sees the documentary and hears these hateful comments, the family will call up and offer to give them a show "Jerry Springer" style! Naw, that won't happen, but what is certain, is that there is an entire family out there hurt because they participated in this! I wish the family the best and hope the the person who decided to include that footage is now sleeping under a bridge in LA and his Mama is not accepting his collect phone calls! Yes, Ted blew the money, lack of personal responsibility, but he's not the only one lacking in this crowd!

This is a film that once seen, the viewer will never forget. I'm at a loss for the low score here at IMDb. The performances are riveting and the depiction of generational drug abuse is something of which to take notice.

Those that think this dumps on the EMT profession, need to get real. What? You think that there are no abusers in this field of work? In fact, the one time I had to ride in a "bus," the EMT was starting an IV and I said "you guys haven't been cruising the park before coming here, have you?" He started laughing and told me how much he loved this film.

Of course, these guys could have been in any profession, but the superior irony would have been lost. This is one drug film I can recommend without hesitation, as it is chilling and stark. It in no way "glamorizes" drug use or the culture.

How could they have made this story better. There wasn't a need for more dialog or love story and the fight scenes were amazingly well done. Tommy Lee Jones and Benicio Del Toro played expertly off one another. I didn't flash onto another film when I was watching this. I was surprised to read a comparison to Rambo. What? How is that even possible. Other than the military theme (which is rather minimal in this film, since Aaron could have easily been CIA, etc.) and people being killed, what is the connection?

While Rambo is gory and violent and rather gratuitous, The Hunted is none of these. The worst we get with the "killings" are a few glimpses of *photos* if the hunters killed at the beginning of the film. I guess this is a thinking man's action film and for those that don't want to think, they will be quick to put it down.

Amazing film, simply amazing. If you haven't seen it, do yourself a favor and check it out. Don't let the hype about Ashton scare you away, he's actually very good in this film. The story is amazing and all of the actors acquit themselves quite well.

Special mention should go too Logan Lerman as Evan at seven. Believable as a child and as the adult Evan speaking through the child. Jesse James is chilling as Tommy at 13. Wouldn't want to meet this kid in a dark alley. Amy Smart shines again and just wonder when some of the bigger roles are going to start coming her way, rather than the "name's" that seem to nab every role, sans talent to explain why.

The director should be proud of himself for pulling all of this together to make a cohesive from such a jumble. Kudos to the editors for keeping it tight and not letting anything sloppy interfere with the viewer's suspension of disbelief.

Saw a comment that began "senseless and useless" and couldn't disagree more. This is a highly entertaining action - adventure. Honestly the time seems to fly by when I'm watching this one ... not really a dull moment.

Geena Davis gives a very credible performance as both Samantha Caine and Charly Baltimore. The viewer is never in doubt that she _is_ both of these women. Great integration of the two personalities by Ms. Davis.

Samuel L. Jackson as her sidekick Mitch is wonderful. A great showing for him and good chemistry between these two actors make the film even better. Jackson's portrayal of Mitch is just right, throughout the film.

Craig Bierko as the enemy turned friend turned enemy gives what is probably one of his best performances. Great screen presence and good chemistry with Geena Davis.

I would recommend this film any time of year, but if you're looking for a different type of Christmas film, this one's for you.

Bring it on and Kirstie Alley does and then some. Doesn't hit a false note in Family Sins. From her sunny suburban mom persona too the outright brutal cruelty w. her family, she is the master manipulator.

She is just bone chilling in this role. It was great to see her in top form and thought the supporting cast was stellar. Just check out the stepford children and the long suffering Marie and Nadine, not to mention the son-in-law unfortunate enough to marry into this mess.

While Will Patton doesn't give the strongest of performances, his role as the prosecutor out to "get the Gecks," is solid.

All in all a good film about a very tragic story.

A precursor to "The Last of Sheila" with a very similar theme. Both totally enjoyable films. Highly recommended both films, in you are in the mood for films that make you think, and keep you guessing throughout. Both highly recommended.

What a fun film. A very loose adaption of Chaucer's "The Knight's Tale." The actors all seemed to be having a terrific time, and what a pleasant surprise, to see "old territory" covered in a rather fresh and entertaining way. Was concerned, going in, that the modern music would be heavy handed or make the film too farcical. What a revelation ...... from the opening song to the closing credits, in no way did the music detract, rather was quit fitting and enhanced the film.

I was looking forward the the performances of Heath Ledger and Rufus Sewell. I considered Mr. Sewell to the be saving grace of Bless the Child, and Mr. Ledger was so charming in 10 Things I Hate About You. They don't disappoint and neither do the supporting cast, even those handed even the smallest of jobs. Oh and a terrific film for those who like to catch the "in jokes" throughout the film.

Truly a good film and for noir addicts it is a must see. I see the Twin Peeks comparison and not surprising, one of the writers, wrote for that show (as well as his brother). Not for a casual view, it can quickly become confusing, as shown, almost completely, in flashback style. Nice "tip" to the Wizard of Oz and the attention to detail, is amazing.

I saw this film in 1998 and again last fall. I was very taken by the film and new energy brought with it. It was a challenging film, which in the long run, turn out to be the better film experiences. I'll make this brief, but am almost dreading to watch the Hollywoodized version.

Updating my comment to reflect upon my original observations/reservations re: Vanilla Sky. Of course, by this date, I have seen VS and know that my original dread of what would become of this highly original tale in the hands of the Hollywood machine was valid. If you haven't seen this film, what are you waiting for? If you've seen Vanilla Sky and not this, do yourself a huge favor and see what VS should/could have been. The only possible improvement in VS over Abre los ojos is Cameron Diaz.

This movie is more suited for the small screen, citing the

above given reasons. The two leads do quite well w. what

they are given. Good cinematography and atmosphere. Patricia Clarkson is stand out as Boyd's mother. Re: Brian Vaughan (IV) performance - see Brad Pitt's performances in, well just about anything, but especially: Kalifornia (1993) .... Early Grayce Interview with the Vampire: The Vampire Chronicles (1994) .... Louisde Pointe du Lac Legends of the Fall (1994) ....Tristan Ludlow Meet Joe Black (1998) .... Joe Black

I just watched this film on a premium channel and agree with the other comments concerning the release and marketing of this film. It's a shame this film only had a limited theatre release, before hitting the video shelves and premium cable channels. The production values are excellent, good writing and fun for adults and children. A true family film. In fact, I don't have children and my boyfriend and I really enjoyed this film. Make an effort to see this film, I don't think you'll be disappointed.

No denying the talents of Rachel Griffiths and her turn in this "dual" role shows that she is quite capable of carrying a film. Also, a great comic turn, with a flush of drama.

The film goes where we would all like to go, (It's a Wonderful Life style) the path not taken. Answers to the "what if's" that plague a person over time.

Terrific handling of the subject matter and great performances by the supporting cast.

A film that begins with tentative non personal laundry discussions, at the local laundry mat, turns into a deeper relationship between the two leads.

A character driven film, with success dependant "Matt and Evelyn" and their dedication to the spirit of the film and a very real chemistry between them.

A true friendship develops, and the film rings true to the viewer. Because we care about the characters, as they have come to care for one another.>

This is a neat little film, that should satisfy fans of suspense/mystery/whodoneit genre. Since this is a 1981, made for TV film, the gore, harsh language and violence that are the staple of many newer films, are not present here. <p> Therefore, the writing, plot twists and acting move this film along. I was guessing up until the final scene. I would consider this film to be a "must see" for fans of the TV series, The Sopranos. Shades of Livia Soprano can be seen in Nancy Marchand's performance .... especially the dynamic between her character and that of her son.