Mad Max (Special Edition)

Amazon.com

The Road Warrior is already a classic, sans condescending genre distinctions like "sci-fi" or "action." But the story of Mel Gibson's stately antihero begins in Mad Max, George Miller's low-budget debut in which Max is a "Bronze" (cop) in an unspecified postapocalyptic future with a buddy-partner and family. But unlike most films set in the devastated future, Mad Max is especially notable because it is poised between our industrialized world and total regression to medieval conditions. The scale tips towards disintegration when the Glory Riders burn into town on their bikes like an overamped cadre of Brando's Wild Ones. Representing the active chaos that will eventually overwhelm the dying vestiges of civil society, they take everything dear to Max, who will exact due revenge. His flight into the same wilds that created the villains artfully sets up the morally ambiguous character of the subsequent films. --Alan E. Rapp

Description

Setting Mel Gibson on a sure path to superstardom, this highly acclaimed "crazy collide-o-scope"(Newsweek) of highway mayhem "cinematically defined the postapocalyptic landscape" (TV Guide). Featuring eye-popping stunts that are "electrifying and very convincing" (Variety) and "an authentically nihilistic spirit" (The Village Voice), Mad Max is "pure cinematic poetry" (Time). In the ravaged near future, a savage motorcycle gang rules the road. Terrorizing innocent civilians while tearing up the streets, the ruthless gang laughs in the face ofa police force hell-bent on stopping them. But they underestimate one officer: Max Rockatansky (Gibson). And when the bikers brutalize Max's best friend and family, they send him into a mad frenzy that leaves him with only one thing left in the world to live forrevenge!

Customer Reviews:

Blah.......2007-09-01

I thought this movie was boring and it didn't let you get to know any of the characters. The only good thing in this movie is a young, cute Mel Gibson.

Better Than Ever!.......2007-08-31

Mad Max Special Edition is great!!! Not only does it contain the actual aussy voices from the cast (Not American Overdub Like The Original), the second DVD offers the making of Mad Max and the history of Mel Gibson and his acting career. Mad Max was always a cult classic, on DVD it's a new experience.

Thomas

An awesome DVD! (Original Australian language track included!).......2007-08-22

Right off the bat, I want everyone who reads this review to know that Mad Max Special Edition contains the original Australian language track.
I was mislead by another review, it said that MGM's Mad Max Special Edition didn't have the original track, but the old discontinued Orion version of Mad Max did. Well, that was false information, because after all the time, effort, and money it took to track down that elusive version, it turned out to only play in the US Dubbed English Language track! So disregard the information in that review and buy this one.

PROS: Plays in both Fullscreen and Widescreen!
In addition to the US Dub, this DVD contains the option to switch the Language track to the original Australian track!
Contains 2 Documentaries, "Mel Gibson: The birth of a Superstar" & "Mad Max: The Film Phenommenon!"
Theatrical Trailers.
Audio comentary with Jon Dowding, David Eggby, Chris Murray, & Tim Ridge.
"Road Rants" Movie Trivia & Fun facts about the movie!
Photo Gallery
TV Spots
And More!

CONS??? Well... Since the DVD is double sided, it's harder to hold it without smudging it, I guess that's a con...?

Overall: Mad Max is an excellent movie that's fun to watch, easy to follow, easy to appreciate, and exciting to boot! Combine that with the original Australian language and a whole lot of special features, and all you have to ask yourself is, "Do I want my popcorn buttered, salted, or both?

Overall Rating: 5 Stars!

Man Stripped Down. .......2007-08-15

To his feral state. Yes, I'm aware of the feral child character in Road Warrior but in Mad Max we see the beginning of this imagined society's serious decline. It's rather humorous that a film that seems so low budget to us today can be as entertaining and riveting as this one is. Watching this now, for the fourth or fifth time, I have to say that this very young Mel Gibson, did he not already possess a legitimate level of talent, would not have been so believable in this role due to his physical appearance. His polish and chiseled features really don't fit in amid the band of miscreants that is the cast, but we soon forget our initial impressions due to his performance. The people in Mad Max are far closer to man's actual state than most of us care to admit. The audience can completely relate to Max's reaction at the end of the film and we cheer for him and long to press our feet even more heavily upon the accelerator.

mad max US edition.......2007-08-13

when i bought mad max(eu edition) it had no extras the sound was 1.0 dolby that was it but complete original soundtrack, then in the US a version was brought out with Aussi sound 5.1 and a documentary so i bought this one aswell, when viewing the movie i soon found out that the soundtrack is not complete, for instance in the opening chase going after the nightrider the guy in the interceptor eventualy says ï'm gona ram him he repeats this many times, í only heard it twice in the US edition, but still the US editon comes with many more extras

Average customer rating:

No future in feudalism and slavery
Everthing and everone he knew is gone
The End of Max?
Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome
Lush continuation of 'The Road Warrior'. Buy It.

Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome
Starring: Mel Gibson , Tina Turner , Bruce Spence , Adam Cockburn , and Frank Thring
Director: George Miller (II) , and George Ogilvie
Manufacturer: Warner Home Video
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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ASIN: 0790731932
Release Date: 1997-07-30

Amazon.com

Although Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome, the third part of George Miller's post-apocalyptic Mad Max trilogy, is certainly the least of the bunch (Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior is the undisputed masterpiece, and maybe the best action movie ever made), it has still got a good share of imaginative industrial-wasteland-pastiche imagery. And casting Tina Turner as Aunty Entity, the queen of Bartertown, was a masterstroke. Mel Gibson's character Max is pitted in a battle to the death against the bizarre Master Blaster in the Thunderdome, flying around on rubbery straps inside a sort of gigantic overturned colander with bloodthirsty spectators clinging to the outside. Miller's producing partner, Byron Kennedy, was killed in a helicopter crash while scouting locations for this film. Miller was devastated, only agreeing to direct the action sequences--and, somehow, you feel his heart wasn't entirely in it. --Jim Emerson

Customer Reviews:

No future in feudalism and slavery.......2007-08-13

The motor vehicles are going to be there, even a plane. The desert is going to be there too. But the whole world has regressed for a reason we don't know - but do we care? - losing all its technology and its energy. But Mel Gibson takes the orientation that humanity will not regress in inventiveness nor even in intelligence, which means it will reinvent some kind of civilization by developing new sources of energy, this time the energy that can be produced by pig slime, the gas that comes out of it that can be used in plenty of machines and for might. Thus they reinvent a civilization based on pig slime (and that is a Pauline element that must not be neglected: it is neither Jewish, nor Moslem) as the source of energy of their society. That's the positive point. But there is another side that is less positive. The necessity to establish some protective body and some protection against the outside world and outsiders that may try to intrude, some captured power and established their absolute authority over the others in a society that cannot afford the luxury of democracy, just some kind of rules that are not really written but chanted at any crucial moment like a performative prayer. Hence they reinvent feudalism for most people and slavery for some. They reinvent circus games to entertain the masses and control human emotions and passions. Gladiators reappear as such public performances: two men go in and one leaves, provided he kills the other one before. If he does not then he breaks the deal and has to face the wheel that can give him any kind of violent end, death by what ever torture you may imagine, the best choice (at least you survive some time without any direct physical torture and maiming) being the Gulag: to be sent in the heart of the desert and die there, at best of thirst. But Mel Gibson is already taken by the divine devil of some religious vision more or less inspired by the Bible. So the whole story is told by the survivors a certain hero-messiah-savior has helped escape this hell in order to move back to the derelict and ruinous cities of the old days. And this salvation is in fact a union of him, Mad Max, with these outcasts in order to re-enter Bartertown, the city of the dominant society that lives on pig energy. There they are able to recapture some vehicles to escape this world, at first a "train" that runs on rails, and, at the end of the tracks, a plane that was waiting for some opportunity to serve, with its pilot and a kid enjoying their permanent idleness. A rainbow alliance of all against this tyrannical society of Bartertown. And they manage to escape except Mad Max who has to sacrifice his own life to enable the others to fly away. And he will be left there in the middle of the desert to die of thirst probably. But what can we say about this vision of the future after the final catastrophe that will bring humanity back to antiquity? First the tyrannical society is led by a woman, mind you black, and she is a more violent and exacting leader than any fascist leader you can have met in history textbooks. Women, and black women at that, are not representing a soft and comfortable future. But maybe only black women will be able to govern the people to survive these dire straits? That's an idea. Especially since the one who is telling the story of Mad Max the Savior is a woman too, though white. Maybe after all women have to become central because of their role in procreation, and surviving in difficult circumstances is not a question of sex, or sex does not make the slightest difference, and yet the gladiators are men (listen to the chant) and the savior is a man. Is there some sexism and a touch of racism in Mel Gibson's vision? What's important after all is to be able to impose the discipline necessary to survive as a group with some indispensable hierarchy. Humanity will not regress to any inferior level of intelligence, as H.G. Wells had thought for example in The Time Machine. What will regress is the social order, the mode of production. No more supermarkets for humanity but only bartering. No more democracy but feudalism. No more free labor market but slavery and serfdom for most. No more virtual games and entertainments but real gladiators games and fights to the death. And no escape from this hell on earth but thanks to a savior that will lead the outcasts of this society to a migration back to the old cities and skyscrapers of the past where they will have to reinvent what is indispensable for humanity to become better, a religion based on a human savior who is also divine since he was the savior and died in his self-imposed mission. We can smile at the naivety of the idea, but it is inescapable and true that there cannot be any real humane civilization without a spiritual ideology or attitude, and that is called a religion or a philosophy, and these civilizing factors are based on the personality of one person, a savior in the Christian tradition, a prophet in the Jewish or Moslem tradition, or a founder in the Buddhist tradition. And it does not matter whether it is a myth or whether the action of the man has been distorted to stick to some kind of rite. What is important is that such a figure is the inspirer of humanism and human life. Humanity cannot be human without a religion of some spiritual belief.

Dr Jacques COULARDEAU, University Paris Dauphine & University Paris 1 Pantheon Sorbonne

Everthing and everone he knew is gone.......2007-06-06

He had a wife and son, both gone. I like that is set in parts of Austraila.
Tina Tuner, Mel Gibson

The End of Max?.......2006-09-24

The original concept for MAD MAX BEYOND THUNDERDOME didn't even include Mad Max. The original idea was about a group of orphaned children living out in the wild alone and a man who finds them. Then someone came up with the idea of Max being their "savior" and the film soon became a "Mad Max" project.

In MAD MAX BEYOND THUNDERDOME, Max is left alone to "die" in the desert. He makes his way through and comes to Bartertown, a city of last resort that has been able to maintain some of the technological capabilities of our former civilization. Bartertown might have been influenced by old Western bordertowns, but it reminded me of a poor-persons version of Mos Eisly from STAR WARS. Anyway, Max finds himself in the middle of a power struggle in the town and ends up fighting in a Coliseum like place called the Thunderdome, but people in Bartertown don't fight fair and after the fight Max is banished from the city into the desert. There he is found by a group of orphaned children who believe he is the pilot of their plane that crashed many years ago. Some of the children believe it is time to leave and return to their true home and they follow Max, but before they can return to their place of origin, they have to go through Bartertown.

MAD MAX BEYOND THUNDERDOME had the biggest budget of any Mad Max film. It re-united star Mel Gibson with director George Miller and a second director was hired so Miller could focus on the vehicle chases and action sequences. The film also has Tina Turner playing the villain, Aunty Entity. With all that going for it the film should have been something extraordinary.

Instead MAD MAX BEYOND THUNDERDOME ended up being the least thrilling of the Mad Max films. There's more action in the film than in the previous films in the series and Aunty Entity is a nemesis with more character than ones we've seen Max face before. And of course there's an awesome chase sequence at the end of the film.

The major problem with MAD MAX BEYOND THUNDERDOME is that there is too much going on in the film. ROAD WARRIOR had a very strict plot and even MAD MAX with all the back-story and character build-up had a fairly simple plot, but BEYOND THUNDERDOME is filled with all sorts of convolutions. The movie opens promising enough with a little bit of humor (the opening scene reminds me of an INDIANA JONES humorous moment), but when the action moves to Bartertown things get complicated. First there's the whole idea of how Bartertown is operated. Then there's the power struggle that we have to be acquainted with. There's also the concept of the Thunderdome and the purpose it serves and why it exists. Along the way we also discover that there's a entire class system to Bartertown: the lower classes and untouchables are forced to work in the sties of pig poop that power the city and they are on the verge of revolting. Had the action been confined to Bartertown, things wouldn't have been too bad. But just as one thinks the movie is ending and entire new element is added: the orphaned children living in the wild who think Max is Captain Walker come back from the land beyond to save them. Of course, after the kids are introduced you just know that they are going to end up fighting the evil overlords of Bartertown and they do. The lost kids really screwed with the movie big time. In MAD MAX the bad guys ran over children for pleasure. In BEYOND THUNDERDOME we sense that these baddies are bad, but not bad enough to actually kill the kids. They just want to enslave them or raise them up as heirs. So, instead of enriching the movie, the second act ends up twisting it; think of INDIANA JONES AND THE TEMPLE OF DOOM and how all those stolen children screwed up that film. Of course, there's also the problem of Tina Turner. She's about as convincing as an evil powerful warlord as Paris Hilton is as a spokesperson for being celibate.

Still, MAD MAX BEYOND THUNDERDOME does have its moments. George Miller knows how to film chase scenes and the final chase that makes up the last act of the movie is an extraordinary bit of filmmaking involving a flying machine, a train, and lots and lots and lots of other cars and motorized vehicles. Of course, there's also Mel Gibson as Max. ROAD WARRIOR was a superior movie, but the Max in BEYOND THUNDERDOME is the most likeable; he has all the wisdom and experience from the first two films, but regains the compassion and joy he had during most of the first movie. Maybe Max isn't so mad anymore.

Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome.......2006-08-10

so far so good . Have not watched it yet. Ocean7739

Lush continuation of 'The Road Warrior'. Buy It........2006-08-05

`Mad Max, Beyond Thunderdome', directed by Kennedy - Miller, and starring Mel Gibson and Tina Turner, is an obvious and explicit sequel to the iconic sleeper, `The Road Warrior'. In many ways, `...Beyond Thunderdome' is a better movie, but when all is said and done, `...Beyond Thunderdome' does just a bit too much copying of its precursor to stand on it's own two feet, like `Aliens', as an independent movie.

Some of the many things which are better are the acting, the believability of the heavies and their back story, the sound track, including two terrific performances by Tina Turner, and the subplot involving the gang of `lost boys' in the second half of the movie.

And yet, the story seems just a little contrived. Both the master-blaster character pair and the `lost boys' story seem just a bit too contrived. On the other side of the coin, the development of what may be called `The Lord of the Flies' premise, where children are left to their own devices, is masterfully done, enhanced so well by morphing the language from modern Australian slang to something bordering on a new dialect makes one want to check that the script wasn't written by Anthony Burgess (see his `Clockwork Orange', as realized by Stanley Kubrick).

My primary objective in writing this review is to celebrate my adoration for this movie, which affected me almost as much as `2001' and `Lord of the Rings', even though these are far superior movies overall. A fairer comparison is to `Silent Running', the ecodisaster story featuring Bruce Dern and a soundtrack of Joan Baez songs. Both movies simply struck a chord with their very effective warnings about how mankind may shoot itself in the food.

Unfortunately, both movies are also not strong enough to sustain an effective suspension of disbelief to last beyond the walk to the theatre doors after seeing them for the third or fourth time. Where `Alien' and `Blade Runner' work, these work just a bit less well.

But they are still important films.

Average customer rating:

the giant waste of time
It's just plain ol' fun
Lotsa fun, lotsa redundancy. . .
The Giant Behemoth - DVD edition
Fed up waiting

The Giant Behemoth
Starring: Gene Evans , André Morell , John Turner , Leigh Madison , and Jack MacGowran
Director: Eugène Lourié , and Douglas Hickox
Manufacturer: Warner Home Video
ProductGroup: DVD
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ASIN: B000OHZJIC
Release Date: 2007-06-26

Description

Radioactive waste dumped in the Atlantic Ocean awakens a prehistoric monster than can project electric shocks and radioactive beams. After the beast terrorizes the English coast, officials decide against attacking the creature with conventional weaponry because such a strategy would spread a dangerous amount radioactive contamination over the entire country. Meanwhile, the monster approaches London...

Customer Reviews:

the giant waste of time.......2007-09-10

What a disappointment! I had not seen this since the late 60's, when I was just a boy. The name of Willis O'Brien lured me, but the very ordinary commentary tells us that Obie had very little to do with the production. Incidentally, the two doing the commentary seem to know less about the movie than I do! Try as I might, I can't recommend this to any monster movie enthusiast.

It's just plain ol' fun.......2007-09-02

This is a type of movie that you would watch when nothing is on the Tube and you want to relax and enjoy yourself with a nice cold beer and a pizza. It is a fabulous experience to watch these movies and imagine what it must have been like to be in a drive-in seeing these movies for the first time on a friday night.
It take a unique individual with a love for the classics B Moster movies to enjoy these classics. I would recommend this, it rates up there with The Thing with James Arness or Them. Enjoy!

Lotsa fun, lotsa redundancy. . . .......2007-07-22

THE GIANT BEHEMOTH (great title, but "Behemoth" is a synonym for "Giant", so it's the Giant Giant!) is finally available on DVD, in a very clean letterboxed transfer with good, sharp sound. And, the Ferry Sequence is included! Pete Peterson and Willis O'Brien's Beast looks pretty darn good, considering that this is from 1959, with a fairly small budget. The London sequences are the best, with the animation fluid and the set-pieces consistently interesting. The Ferry Sequence works nicely, but, of course you can't make water bigger or smaller, so the model looks, well, pretty much like a model. Hey, what the heck, it's fun! Enjoy! I did!

And, as a bonus, the DVD also includes the original trailer and bemused commentary from effects pros Dennis Muren and Phil Tippett. They're a hoot!

So, pull up a mini-sub, make yourself comfortable, and have a ball with the GIANT GIANT. . .er, the BEHEMOTH BEHEMOTH. . .well, the big ol' prehistoric radioactive city-stompin' whatever it is!

The Giant Behemoth - DVD edition.......2007-07-20

Good news movie fans, the newly released DVD edition of "The Giant Behemoth" has the ferry scene in it! This scene was missing from the VHS copy, which many of the reviews here are talking about. So for all of you out there (like me) who have been waiting for a better copy of this movie, go for the DVD version!

Fed up waiting.......2007-07-19

I'd love to write a review, but as of 19 July, it hasn't arrived. Perhaps others should be aware of the inordinate time it seems to take to get stuff to the U.K.

The Road Warrior / Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome (Double Feature)

Average customer rating:

A good collection, don't know what everyone's griping about...
anoid
POINTLESS
Absolute Rubbish! Do not buy.
A FULL SCREEN rip-off

The Road Warrior / Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome (Double Feature)
Starring: Mel Gibson , Bruce Spence , Michael Preston , Max Phipps , and Vernon Wells
Director: George Miller (II) , and George Ogilvie
Manufacturer: Warner Home Video
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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ASIN: B000NA1WGS
Release Date: 2007-05-22

Description

All roads lead to excitement for Mel Gibson's Mad Max! In a world destroyed by the ravages of nuclear war, gasoline is a currency of the realm. Enter Max, champion of underdog survivors living in a fuel-depot camp. Make way for him and The Road Warrior [Side A], the Apocalypse on wheels that put Gibson on the Hollywood map for keeps and ranks as one of the most mind-blowing stunt movies ever made. Our hero returns for more astonishing adventures in Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome [Side B]. This time, Max defends the future - a group of abandoned children - and enters the gladiatorial maces-and-chainsaws combat inside Thunderdome arena. Awesome!

Customer Reviews:

A good collection, don't know what everyone's griping about..........2007-07-13

I've always been a fan of the Mad Max movies, but never got to see "The Road Warrior" until I found this DVD. It was only $9.99 at Kmart, and I figured, "2 movies on 1 DVD for 10 bucks, including the one MAD MAX movie I've never seen, sounds great!" So I bought it, watched it, and loved it!
Alot of people are complaining about the DVDs Full Screen aspect ratio, lack of special features, and poor picture quality... I have to say, I don't know what everyone's talking about... I can't stand Wide Screen (16:9) format, looks like you're squinting all the time! I'll admit, "The Road Warrior" didn't have many special features, but "Beyond Thunder Dome" had plenty. As for the DVDs picture quality, it looks fine. Although "Road Warrior" looked a little fuzzy, it was definitely better than anything I've ever taped off of TV.
I don't regret buying this DVD, and I'm happy with it.
I got 2 great movies on 1 disc for cheap, so I've got nothing to complain about.

If you're like me, and just want to watch MAD MAX 2 & 3 at home on your DVD player, then buy this DVD.
If you're a cinema junky who's obcessed with dual aspect ratios and loads of special features, then you're better off buying each movie separately.

anoid.......2007-07-08

These movies contain subtitles whether you want them or not I found this terrably distracting considering these movies are in english already. I cannot recomend this double feature. If other versions don't have the subtitles I'd go with that.

POINTLESS.......2007-05-26

FULL SCREEN?? Upon waiting and waiting for rerelease of The Road Warrior only to find it an even lesser format is quite a disappointment. Especially having paid for something I would have never wasted the money on if not being MISLED by the product information.
I can only hope someday Warner Bros. will do justice with a decent DVD release of the only worthy & brilliant follow up to Mad Max.

Absolute Rubbish! Do not buy........2007-05-24

Despite what the Product Details state, both movies are in Full Screen only, what a waste. (Unless you like Full Screen, then you're welcome to it). These movies have a solid audience, why can't Warner Bros. realise this and put out a decent version on DVD? The movies on this disc don't look much better than the ones I taped off television... a decade ago. I would send mine back, but I'd already opened it before I discovered what a ripoof this was. Had the Format been accurately stated, I wouldn't have purchased it in the first place. Very disappointing.

A FULL SCREEN rip-off.......2007-05-24

There's no excuse for these two films to be full screen only. Even at under $10 bucks it's a major rip-off. A resounding boooooooo to Warner Bros. for this botched double-feature.

Eyes Without a Face - Criterion Collection

Average customer rating:

Eyes Without a Face - A must see!
A horror film, with no blood?
Transplant Terror
Poetic Horror
not your typical french flick

Eyes Without a Face - Criterion Collection
Starring: Pierre Brasseur , Alida Valli , Juliette Mayniel , Edith Scob , and François Guérin
Director: Georges Franju
Manufacturer: Criterion
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ASIN: B0002V7O0Q
Release Date: 2004-10-19

Amazon.com

Georges Franju brings a haunting poetry to this lyrical and horrifying 1959 French classic. Dr. Genessier (Pierre Brasseur), a famed plastic surgeon, lures a young woman to his secluded mansion with the help of his mistress Louise (Alida Valli), where he proceeds to remove their faces in an attempt to restore his daughter's scarred visage. Christiane (Edith Scob), disfigured in car accident caused by her guilt-ridden father, hides behind a spooky blank mask that exposes only her sad, lonely eyes, which seem to lose a little more life after each failed graft. Franju's cool presentation gives an unsettling edge to the picture, from the uncomfortably quiet family dinners to Christiane's hesitant explorations of her father's laboratory to the unflinching views of Genessier's bloody operations. Reminiscent of Cocteau's fantasy imagery in Beauty and the Beast, Franju creates an eerie poetry of the doctor's sadistic experiments, culminating in an astonishingly brutal and beautiful finale. The screenplay was cowritten by Pierre Boileau and Thomas Narcejac, authors of the novels which became Les Diaboliques and Vertigo. Originally titled Les Yeux Sans Visage upon its original French release, the film was cut, dubbed, and renamed The Horror Chamber of Doctor Faustus for American distribution in 1962, but was restored years later for American re-release. --Sean Axmaker

Description

Secluded in the French countryside, a brilliant, obsessive doctor attempts a radical plastic surgery to restore his beloved daughter's once-beautiful face, but at a horrifying price. Lauded as a true rarity of horror cinema, Eyes Without a Face (Les Yeux sans visage) has influenced countless films in its wake and stunned audiences around the world with its shocking yet poetic imagery. The Criterion Collection is proud to present Georges Franju's lyrical black-and-white classic in a long-awaited, high-definition DVD edition.

Customer Reviews:

Eyes Without a Face - A must see!.......2007-08-12

"Eyes Without a Face" (also known as Les Yeux San Visage) is an excellent and brilliant movie from it's time. Made in 1959 in Italy with French actors, the movie details the life of how deep a father's love for his daughter parallels the depth of his ongoing madness for redemption, forgiveness and hypocrisy.

Pierre Brasseur plays Doctor Genessier. Doctor Genessier is renowned for his brilliance in the medical field and takes great pride in his work. In this film, like any father, he is dedicated to his job, but his true love is that for his daughter, played by Edith Scob (Christiane Genessier).

Doctor Genessier, prior to the movie's opening, was in an automobile accident which left his precious daughter's face marred and disfigured. Distraught over this, the entire film focus's on his quest to fix her, all-the-while following a road that is harmonic to that of a mad man's.

Christiane is mostly seen wearing a white mask which was made for her. She is unhappy. She doesn't seem to leave the mansion and often spends her time either crying or snooping around to see what her father is up to.

Her father's trust-worthy assistant, Louise (played by Alida Valli) always seems to be scattered all over the place, often luring young girls to help in Doctor Genessier's master plan to help Christiane's face back to normal.

Louise, who is a very creepy woman (and who, by the way, reminded me of the Wicked Witch of the West from "The Wizard of Oz", simply because whenever she'd appear on screen, the same music would come on, letting the viewer know she was on the make), assists Doctor Genessier in abducting girls so that he can remove their face to place onto Christiane's face to make her normal once more.

Christiane seems to long for death. She does not want to be part of this hideous plan and wants to have a life of normalcy. She misses that part of her life where she could be herself. The part where she was engaged to be married to Jacques Vernon (played by Francois Guerin). Often, she would call him and not say a word, simply to hear his voice.

Without giving more of the story away, the movie focus's on the three central characters and the costs of trying to undo what can't be done - and that is, to turn back time and fix past mistakes.

The movie is nothing sort of iconic and brilliant and is a must-see for old-time thrillers. The acting, perfect! The setting, well done! The ending, truly freeing and satisfying.

A horror film, with no blood?.......2007-06-02

This is the ultimate achievement in horror, an incision of art into the insane. It's too easy to make a standard slasher flick, a madman on the loose with people scrambling in fear. Lots of blood and macabre to gross out the audience. None of that here. The fear generated in this movie is not that superficial.
This story is stitched around some normal people(it seems). A brilliant plastic surgeon has an incessant determination with his new project--the transplanting of living tissue from one human to another.
The match that lit his experimental fire was stricken by his beloved daughter, whose precious face was mutilated in a car accident. So the good doctor hunts down some unwillingly ladies and attempts to transplant their beautiful visage to his favorite patient.
There are some disturbing images and sequences that really stick with you, like the facial surgery, the eyes peering from behind the mask, the experimenting on animals. I think some other more recent films were heavily influenced by this classic, like Vanilla Sky and Face Off.
There are some deep layers of psychology this film sifts through and scatters around. Self-esteem, pride, selfishness, love. Plus it exemplifies the need for limitations on modern science.
Criterion comes through again, this is a movie that will freak you out and stick with you long after it's over. A creepy-crazy-good film!

Transplant Terror.......2007-05-05

"Eyes Without a Face" shines like a scalpel in sunlight in the pantheon of horror history. This is a great achievement considering the film emerged from France in 1959, amid the rise of the French New Wave and the colour gothic horrors of Hammer. But Georges Franju's monochrome masterpiece is strongly steeped in a French cultural heritage that includes influences from surrealism and Grand Guignol theatre. The social allegory of the film also pre-empts the modern horror film. The film's artistic credentials are assured by a narrative subjectivity, with character motivations not clearly delineated, this allies the film with the burgeoning art cinema that began to emerge in the uncertain 1960's. But Franju manages to bridge the gap between the populist formulaic aspects of the horror genre (images of transgression and excess) and the personal expression of the film artist in a way uncommon in the horror genre. For audiences this means that the film both satisfies the hardcore horror fan and those more interested in artistic merits. The film is given further impetus by an allegorical subtext which evokes the haunted spectre of World War Two and the holocaust and the role that France played in that terrible conflict. The stark images of hospitals, surgery, the breakthrough in cosmetic surgery and Dr. Genessier's experiments on animals, remind us all to painfully of Nazi experiments. The the role of the victim Christine further muddies the subjective waters of the film by being complicit in the murders that surround her. The film doesn't totally veer away fro the gothic though; a suitably isolated gothic chateau is the main setting, a deep ambivalence toward modernity and a tormented gothic heroine allies the film to gothic conventions.

This excellent DVD courtesy of the Criterion Collection also contains Franju's earlier surrealist documentary "Blood of the Beasts", which is as important a work as "Eyes Without a Face" and contains within it all the concerns Franju would return to for his horror feature. This is an essential item for fans of horror and art cinema alike.

Poetic Horror.......2007-01-23

Georges Franju's version of a mad scientist trying to play God tells about a brilliant but controlling and obsessive doctor who is trying to restore the face of his own beloved daughter that was horribly disfigured in a car accident caused by his reckless driving. He requires tissues of recently deceased young women that look like his daughter and he is not going to wait for them to die in an accident - he creates the accidents with help of his loyal secretary/nurse/lover/former patient Louise (Alida Valli of "The Third Man") who kidnaps the unsuspecting girls and brings them to the secluded mansion in one of Paris's suburbs where Doctor Génessier is ready to perform the fascinating and horrifying surgeries.

"Eyes without a Face" is a very impressive, classy picture that has inspired many later horror movies. The music by Maurice Jarr adds to the uneasy and creepy atmosphere - it makes you feel like on the never-stopping ominous merry-go-round and you can't get off it.

not your typical french flick.......2006-12-21

Excellent film. The criterion version features in the extras a few interviews with the director and a disturbing 22 minute documentary about french slaughterhouses in 1949.
This movie has a chilling performance by the head doctor, and amazing special effects for the time it was made. Very stylishly done film. I would recommend it to fans of Psycho.

Average customer rating:

An Interesting Misfire
Travolta does it again...
Another one of Travolta's flops
NOT MAD ENOUGH TO BE ENGAGING
Great Suspense!

Mad City
Starring: John Travolta , Dustin Hoffman , Mia Kirshner , Alan Alda , and Robert Prosky
Director: Costa-Gavras
Manufacturer: Warner Home Video
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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ASIN: 0790734737
Release Date: 1998-03-31

Amazon.com

This earnest effort at media criticism is never convincing enough to stir a viewer's outrage in the way filmmaker Costa-Gavras (Music Box) might have intended. John Travolta plays a barely educated museum guard who is laid off from his job and ends up holding his former boss (Blythe Danner) and a bunch of schoolchildren hostage. Dustin Hoffman is a former television-network journalist making a grab at the limelight again by pushing and controlling press coverage of the story. What follows is by the numbers and not nearly as enlightening or enthralling as other films (such as Dog Day Afternoon or Billy Wilder's Ace in the Hole) about simple events manipulated into a media circus. Despite Travolta's tragic performance and Hoffman's impassioned one, the film breaks up over efforts to blame electronic voyeurism for social chaos. The DVD release has optional full-screen and widescreen presentations, production notes, theatrical trailer, television spots, optional French soundtrack, French or Spanish subtitles, and Dolby sound. --Tom Keogh

Customer Reviews:

An Interesting Misfire.......2006-07-10

Lord knows the media is a worthy target for social commentary. However, it is also an easy one, and has been often targeted in the past. Thus the central problem with "Mad City," Costa-Gavras' updating of Billy Wilder's "Ace in the Hole." The film spends nearly two hours denouncing the media---namely print and television news---for a variety of social ills, for not all of which it can so easily be blamed. And those things it can be blamed for, we kind of already knew.

Nonetheless, an excellent cast works hard to bring off this story of reporter Max Brackett (Dustin Hoffman), who `lucks into' an exclusive when a disgruntled, laid-off security guard (John Travolta) takes his former employer and a group of kids hostage in a museum while Brackett just happens to be in the bathroom. Travolta is to be commended for taking on a part that is not particularly sympathetic, in the form of a character that is not very bright. He and Hoffman carry the film as far as it can go, but by the end you are likely to feel that you're being hit over the head with the simplistic central message, such that the tragic coda loses impact. It's not a bad film, and with these talents it can't help but have its moments, but overall it's a bit of a missed shot.

Travolta does it again..........2006-06-07

... he battles against the greatest obstacle an actor can face and almost pulls it off. What's that obstacle? you ask. Well, it's having a script that's so paper thin that it must have been written on toilet paper. Travolta proves over and over again that good scripts are not neceesary to prolong a career in Hollywood.

I once met John Travolta at a charity event in Bel Air. I said to him, "Hey Travolta, who the heck is your agent and why do you keep taking these cripey roles?" I give him credit though, he looked back at me very cooly and said, "I fly airplanes and I'm married to Kelly Preston, you're wearing an enormous sombrero and spandex bike shorts -- who are you to judge me?"

Touche, Senor Travolta. Touche.

Another one of Travolta's flops.......2005-03-24

Ever since winning a Best Actor Oscar for his role in 1994's PULP FICTION,John Travolta was relentlessly,to this day,making films. This one,was his first post-PF flop. His previous flops include PERFECT,TWO OF A KIND,SHOUT and THE EXPERTS. This film was theatrically released on November 7,1997 and released on video on February 24,1998. In this film,Travolta is a former security guard who takes museum patrons hostage,very similar to what Tim Robbins did in 1990's CADILLAC MAN. Max Brackett(Dustin Hoffman) is a news reporter who covers the situation. Great support from Alan Alda. Travolta's follow-up film PRIMARY COLORS was much more successful than this. Despite the critical and box office disappointment,some of Travolta's fans loved this one.

NOT MAD ENOUGH TO BE ENGAGING.......2004-08-22

Apart from the parallels one could draw with Dog Day Afternoon or Network, there is really very little to say about this media clunker. Which is sad because the script had a lot of potential and the production quality is top notch.

The theme is not altogether incredible in our times -- an embittered employee going berserk and threatening violence. Problem is that Travolta is saddled with the challenge to potray this unwitting hostage-taker, part antagonist and part victim. I'd contend that he failed to bring out this delicate dichotomy.

Even Hoffman's full-blooded newsman with a childish, self-centered ambition and some very sardonic light moments in the earlier half, cannot save the film from its maudlin second half, by which time it's already too late for us to care.

An ok rental perhaps, especially if you're interested in an insider peep into the lives of news networks. But not something I'd watch more than once despite its uncanny ending.

Great Suspense!.......2004-06-04

This is a great suspense movie.

Gives a realistic view of how the media circus sometimes go to far.

Customer Reviews:

Great Film - Horrible Quality DVD Release.......2007-09-01

This is purely a technical review.

Be forewarned before you purchase this - Vanguard Video has really botched this release. It's 4:3 widescreen, low resolution, massive compression (the entire disc contains only 3.8gb of data). Worse, there's a "Special Features" option on the main menu - but just try to click it. Go ahead and try! It won't work. Why? Because they apparently decided to leave off the special features but *neglected to remove the option from the menu*. Certainly a trailer was all they were going to offer, and there was still more than enough room on the disk for that.

Oh, and the subtitles are burned directly onto the video. What you have here is a DVD version of the VHS master. And I thought Strand was the hands-down winner of DVD butchery. I can master a better DVD than this, and I don't get paid to do it.

I love Arne.......2006-04-22

After first encountering Mads Mikkelsen as the breath-taking Tristian in "King Arthur" not more than a mere two months ago, I have prowled the internet in search of any film having the privilege of being graced by his presence. Having added "The Green Butchers", "Pusher", "Wilbur Wants to Kill Himself", and "Shake It All About", to my formerly non-existent DVD collection

Disappointing.......2005-07-11

Despite some fine acting, here's a failed attempt at black comedy. The Editorial Review is mistaken when it claims the main characters "turn their lives around." As people they do not--not that that would matter if the film worked. The film suffers from a schizophrenic quality: it's as if visitors from Goodfellas have taken up residence at a "kro" in a forest in Jutland (think: Joe Pesci eats herring). I have no idea where this "heart" that others have mentioned appears in the film. The main characters, depicted as permanently damaged goods, emphasized by some surreal childhood flashbacks, never seem to experience any major transformation or revelation. No scene of absolution or contrition ever occurs. Even scenes leading in the direction of change are soon thwarted by more violent behavior (it's late in the film when the main character punches an innocent, albeit annoying, pregnant woman in the nose). Want to see a great recent Danish film? Buy The Inheritance, also with the talented Ulrich Thomsen, this time in the lead.

A fine danish pastry.......2003-09-03

Famed Danish writer Anders Thomas Jensen (Mifune, Open Hearts, King is Alive, In China They Eat Dogs) does a great job of mixing genres in his directorial debut. Part violent black comedy, part crime film, and partly an emotional buddy film about friendship. Cast includes such Danish mainstays as Ulrich Thomsen, Iben Hjejle, Soren Pilmark, Mads Mikkelsen and others. Should become a cult classic here.

Great black comedy.......2003-03-10

One of my favorite movies of the past year. Looking forward to its release on DVD. Amazing black comedy that is directed by Oscar Winner Anders Thomas Jensen (who also wrote Mifune and Open Hearts). Stars the biggest names in Danish cinema in a film that won't soon be forgotten. The Danish version of the Coen Brothers but maybe with a tad more violence and a tad more heart.

Average customer rating:

killer tree
The Woman Eater
A Difficult Meal To Digest
Needs One More Scene
THE TITLE SAYS IT ALL.....

The Woman Eater
Starring: George Coulouris , Robert MacKenzie , Norman Claridge , Marpessa Dawn , and Jimmy Vaughn (II)
Director: Charles Saunders
Manufacturer: Image Entertainment
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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ASIN: 6305836833
Release Date: 2000-05-09

Amazon.com

The Woman Eater starts out as all carnivorous plant films should: with a bunch of Brits heading off into the jungle. The intrepid (and just slightly mad) Dr. Moran leads his party to the home of an ancient tribe, conveniently arriving just in time for a sacrifice. ("Stop it, you devils!") Five years later we're back in England, neatly glossing over how Moran got his giant man-eating plant through customs. With the help of native drummer Tanga, Moran is feeding the daughters of England to his plant in the hopes of developing a serum that will bring the dead back to life. (Well, sure!) Soon the lovely Sally arrives to help with the housekeeping, and tension rises as we wait to find out if she'll become Miracle-Gro. The Woman Eater has almost too many pleasures to mention: bubbling beakers, lovely victims, stagehand-powered plant arms, natives wearing costume pieces from every jungle movie ever made, and of course the drums! Oh, the drums! Watch it today and keep an eye on your begonias. --Ali Davis

Description

SEE the nerve-shattering Dance of Death! SEE The Woman Eater ensnare the beauties of two continents! SEE its hideous arms devour them in a death-embrace! It devours only the most beautiful! Half-mad scientist James Moran (George Coulouris--The Long Good Friday, Citizen Kane) returns from the Amazon jungles with a sacred tribal tree which feeds on beautiful, young girls. The sap he extracts from the tree will, he believes, revive the dead. A blonde showgirl, Sally (Vera Day The Prince and the Showgirls, Quatermass II), is slated to be Moran's next sacrifice. Will she become another victim of this woman-devouring tree or can the police and Sally's boyfriend save her from the cannibalistic tree? No beautiful woman is safe from "The Woman Eater!"

Customer Reviews:

killer tree.......2007-01-04

surprise surprise
good story and plot and good actors
interesting english horror movie
was weary about getting the movie but was pleasantly surprised
good little movie
have a look

The Woman Eater.......2006-08-02

Fairly typical movie from the period. I enjoyed the offbeat performance of the "servant".

A Difficult Meal To Digest.......2006-05-03

Have you read the cover of this DVD?

SEE: The nerve shattering Dance of Death

SEE: The Woman Eater ensnare the beauties of two continents

SEE: The hideous arms devour them in a death embrace

Who writes this stuff? Well I did SEE this movie and guess what, no nerves were shattered. There are a couple of attractive women such as the popular British model Vera Day and a young redheaded beauty named Sara Leighton in her one and only movie appearance.

And what about the horrific Woman Eater with the hideous arms and death embrace? Just imagine a very large, bristly pipe cleaner with appendages. Got the picture?

Needs One More Scene.......2004-03-09

George Coulouris and Vera Day star in this silly tale of obsession and plant monsters. British explorers witness an African tribe sacrifice a maiden to a plant monster. Five years later, with no explanation, one of the explorers has the monster and priest on his estate where he is doing experiments on raising the dead.

Women are given to the plant (it apparently does not like men) and fluid is drawn that become the elixir of life. The explorer, actually a doctor, falls for a new employee at his estate and appears to go slightly mad as his experiments near completion.

But add the girl's boyfriend (possible fiancé), madness, love, hate, a fanatic priest and a killer plant and you wind up with a film that climaxes and stops suddenly. It could have been better by simply explaining how things went from jungle to estate. One scene would have done it. It would have been in character for the doctor to gloat some more and give the explanation of his genius.

The ending is not what one expects but it does work into what little story there is. A must see movie for fans of bad monster films as this is one of the worst, but don't expect much.

THE TITLE SAYS IT ALL............2003-05-26

I'm a little embarrassed to admit it, but I love this movie. Lurid title and all. It's a b&w low budget British pot boiler about a crazed scientist who brings a big cheesy looking "tree" back from the Brazilian Amazon that eats women---but only pretty ones. Mumbo jumbo about tribal rituals have intoxicated the doctor (George Coulouris) into believing the serum derived from the tree can restore the dead to life. But AFTER it's eaten a pretty woman. So, he lures young women home---drugging one (Joy Webster from "Burn Witch Burn") with a "funny cigarette"---to his laboratory/dungeon. There, his whacked out "Brazilian native" assistant Tanga (Jimmy Vaughan) dresses them in a sexy outfit complete with bracelets and puts them in a trance by wildly beating bongos. Tanga gets VERY turned on (and sweaty) and pushes the girls into the writhing lobster claw arms of the tree. Will the doc's blonde and pretty new "housekeeper" (Vera Day) be the tree's next meal? And will the nosy OLD "housekeeper" wind up a zombie? Turn your brain off and watch this 70 min. wonder and just enjoy. Nice DVD print from Image makes this rainy day flick a keeper for lovers of old b&w cheesy horror movies like myself. Oh, and that's beautiful Marpessa Dawn (from the Oscar winning "Black Orpheus"---also 1959) at the beginning as the jungle sacrifice to the tree. Interesting career leap. Thanks Image.

Average customer rating:

Great lesser known title!!
A Man And His Brain...
Tribute to the power of a plot premise
He shoulda stuck with monkey brains...
creepy

Donovan's Brain
Starring: Lew Ayres , Gene Evans , Nancy Davis , Steve Brodie , and Tom Powers
Director: Felix E. Feist
Manufacturer: MGM (Video & DVD)
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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