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Chorus Line, a

Childrens Toy Shop > VHS > Drama
starring: Michael Douglas, Alyson Reed, Vicki Frederick, Cameron English, Yamil Borges
directed by: Richard Attenborough

November 03, 1998
Considering I have never seen the Broadway show, I found this movie to be quite enjoyable. The songs were fun, the dancing fantastic, the acting was relatively good, and I thought the plot would have been very good without the Cassie/Zach relationship being thrust into the limelight. Many people did not like "Surprise, Surprise," due to its replacing of an original song. However, I thought Gregg Burge did an absolutely amazing job with it. His dancing was so high-energy and almost technically impeccable. No complaints there. I loved: "Dance Ten, Looks Three", "Nothing", "Hello Twelve", and "At the Ballet." My one major complaint with this movie is Cassie. I felt she was annoying, she detracted ... Read More:

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Paradise Road

Childrens Toy Shop > VHS > Drama
starring: Glenn Close, Frances McDormand, Pauline Collins, Cate Blanchett, Jennifer Ehle
directed by: Bruce Beresford

March 13, 2001
This movie was awesome!!! At first I was reluctant to watch it but my girlfriend forced me to. If it wasn't for her I never would have seen it.

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Laura

Childrens Toy Shop > VHS > Drama
starring: Gene Tierney, Dana Andrews, Clifton Webb, Vincent Price, Judith Anderson
directed by: Rouben Mamoulian, Otto Preminger

March 03, 1998
What an excellent film. I love noir, and Laura rings nary a false note. I just viewed the 2005 DVD and the video is very sharp.

Please do go and get the disc (definitely worth it), but a word of warning about the extras: Sorry to drop the P-bomb, but Jeanine Basinger's (and, to a lesser extent, Rudy Behlmer's) commentary is beyond-the-pail pedantic. How wonderful that Maestro Basinger has benefited from having the Gene Tierney archives at Wesleyan U., but sophisticated viewers of 2007 do *not* need to have enormous blocks read to them in the commentary feature; have rudimentary film language terminology defined and hemmed/hawed about for long stretches; have the commentator list every film that each actor participated in. Can you say "filler"? ... Read More:

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Great Gatsby, the

Childrens Toy Shop > VHS > Drama
starring: Robert Redford, Mia Farrow, Bruce Dern, Karen Black, Scott Wilson
directed by: Jack Clayton

January 26, 1994
F. Scott Fitzgerald presents taut tension and symbolism between Modernism and Victorianism in the 1925's quintessential jazz age of the great American novel, "The Great Gatsby" and this 1974 adaptation of Fitzgerald's novel with Francis Ford Coppola's screenwriting captures the better part of it!

Daisy's green light at the end of her dock that symbolizes all hope and want in not just Gatsby but all people, the "haves" and the "have-nots", guilt and carelessness, living above judgement and consequences, and of course, the eyes of Dr. T.J. Eckleburg over the "valley of the ashes"... All are all beautifully and sadly portrayed.

Mia Farrow as the self centered, one-dimensional Daisy, Bruce Dern as the philandering ... Read More:

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Toy Soldiers

Childrens Toy Shop > VHS > Drama
starring: Sean Astin, Wil Wheaton, Keith Coogan, Andrew Divoff, R. Lee Ermey
directed by: Daniel Petrie Jr.

July 08, 1994
I just love Sean Astin & he should have been awarded for his work on this film. I've been looking for this film on DVD for a long time! Thanks, Amazon. Also,after watching Return of the King, recently released, He really deserved an Oscar for his portrayal of Sam!!!!!!!

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Conflict

Childrens Toy Shop > VHS > Drama
starring: Humphrey Bogart, Alexis Smith, Sydney Greenstreet, Rose Hobart, Charles Drake
directed by: Curtis Bernhardt

September 01, 1998
"Conflict", starring the always excellent Humphrey Bogart is often dismissed as minor league noir and a fairly ordinary entry in Bogart's sterling collection of film performances. On the contrary I've always found it terrific entertainment that really keeps you guessing and asking questions right up to the final frame. It is a most handsome production with all of Warner Bros. expertise on show in the overall look and feel of the piece and in the excellent performances by the male and female cast members in this story of murder, deceit and mystery.

The film begins with the fifth wedding anniversary for affluent married couple engineer Richard Mason and his wife Katherine (Humphrey Bogart and Rose Habart). To the outside world they appear to be the perfect married couple ... Read More:

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Bojangles

Childrens Toy Shop > VHS > Drama

February 19, 2002
As a fan of tap dancing, I wanted to love this movie. Unfortunately, watching it was an endurance challenge. The movie lacks any sort of compelling story line. It essentially drives home the message that Robinson (aka Bojangles) was a gambling, womanizing s.o.b. I don't expect the film makers to rewrite history, but as presented the story didn't take us anywhere. Yes, the tap sequences by Hines and Glover are great, but they would have been greater without the packaging of the "story."

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An Unmarried Woman

Childrens Toy Shop > VHS > Drama
starring: Paul Mazursky, Jill Clayburgh, Alan Bates, Michael Murphy, Cliff Gorman
directed by: Paul Mazursky


BEFORE SEX AND THE CITY HOLLYWOOD MADE A GREAT FILM IN THE ERA OF THE EQUAL RIGHT MOVEMENT! IN THIS MOVIE A WOMAN WHO WAS HAPPILY MARRIED FINDS HERSELF SINGLE AFTER HER HUSBAND HAS BEEN HAVING AN AFAIR! AFTER THE DIVORCE SHE DISCOVERS HERSELF AND FIGURES OUT WHAT HER NEEDS ARE!

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Designing Woman

Childrens Toy Shop > VHS > Drama
starring: Gregory Peck, Lauren Bacall, Dolores Gray, Sam Levene, Tom Helmore
directed by: Vincente Minnelli

March 02, 1994
This movie might have been tangier with Hepburn & Tracy, but it has some nice moments. Minelli was a stylish director & it shows here. But the real treat for those of us who remember the great 50s musicals of Hollywood & Broadway was the presence of Dolores Gray and Jack Cole, sadly quite limited here. Ms. Gray in this film and in It's Always Fair Weather & Kismet could blow the roof off with her magnificent voice and presence. Jack Cole was one of the great dancers and choreographers of that era - a major influence on many choreographers who followed. This film is a special gem for preserving some fine examples of work by these two great performers.

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The Barbarian and the Geisha

Childrens Toy Shop > VHS > Drama
starring: John Wayne, Eiko Ando, Sam Jaffe, Sô Yamamura, Norman Thomson
directed by: John Huston

February 18, 1988
I first saw this movie in 1958 just before going to Japan with the US Army. It made quite an impact on me and my expectations of the Japanese. The movie does successfully capture some of the Japanese spirit as I know it. John Wayne, though he has been panned in this role, I think, embodies what may have been an accurate portrayal of the typical well meaning American in a culture he could never understand. Years later, when I happened to be in Shimoda, where the film is set, I found a small Japanese Museum, that commorated the self-sacrifice of the Japanese woman, the lovely Okichi, to her community. It depicts the 'facts' of the movie in a totally differnt light.
This movie really deserves to be put on DVD !!