What Dreams May Come

Amazon.com

Robin Williams and Annabella Sciorra star in this visually stunning metaphysical tale of life after death. Neurologist Chris and artist Annie had the perfect life until they lost their children in an auto accident; they're just starting to recover when Chris meets an untimely death himself. He's met by a messenger named Albert (Cuba Gooding Jr.) and taken to his own personal afterlife--a freshly drawn world reminiscent of Annie's own artwork, still dripping and wet with paint. Meanwhile a depressed Annie takes her own life, compelling Chris to traverse heaven and hell to save Annie from an eternity of despair.

The multitextured visuals seem to have been created from a lost fairy tale. Heaven recalls the landscape paintings of Thomas Cole and Renaissance architecture complete with floating cherubs, while hell is a massive shipwreck, an upside-down cathedral overgrown with thorns and a sea of groaning faces popping out of the ground (one of those faces is German director Werner Herzog). Williams is the perfect actor to play against the imaginative computer-generated imagery--he himself is a human special effect. But the lack of chemistry between Williams and Sciorra is painfully apparent, and the flashback plot structure flattens the story's impact despite its deeply felt examinations of the heart and the spirit. Still, there's no denying Eugenio Zanetti's triumphant production design and the Oscar-winning special effects, which create a fully formed universe that is at once beautiful, eerie, and a unique example of movie magic. --Shannon Gee

Customer Reviews:

Very, Very Different.......2007-08-28

The cinematography and special effects are totally different than I had seen before. How did they do that? This movie keeps you guessing. Robin crosses the boundary between life and death for the love of his life and finds a life and death struggle. I believe you will either LOVE it or come away neutral towards it because of how different it is.

Good dvd for the price.........2007-08-14

Not an awful dvd, not too many features, but for the price its good quality and a great movie. Definitely worth it!

ONE OF THE BEST MOVIES EVER.......2007-07-12

OK, this is an old review. I watched this movie a long time ago, but recently I watched it again with my girlfriend. She was crying from start to finish. It reminded me of what an amazing movie this is. I'm no big Robbin Williams fan. That's not an insult. I like him. I'm just not a "fan". Never would I have imagined a comedic actor like Williams could produce such an amazing performance. Making people laugh is hard. Making them cry (in a good way) is harder, in my opinion. Williams, and everyone involved in this movie, should be proud of the contribution they've made to this genre. This is one to stand the test of time. This is one to say "If I do nothing else with my life, I did this". Buy it, see it, this movie will touch you.

me please.......2007-06-27

Found the item to be in condition that was said Thank you for your prompt delivery.

flat, unoriginal, and over-done.......2007-06-13

This is pretty bad: a guy dies and lives on in some bizarre afterworld, where he rights certain wrongs and gets an idiotically sentimental philosophical perspective on his life and love. Then, of course, he takes a dare and changes the destiny of his great love, etc.

The film totally failed to sweep me into some believable fastasy, but just came off as pretentious and emotionally flaccid. It is a total bore and there is nothing new whatsoever.

It seems that this is not a general opinion, given the other reviews, but this is how I saw iy and I cannot change that if I want to be honest. Not recommended.

Average customer rating:

Great movie
a poetic masterpiece in high definition
I can recommend this

What Dreams May Come [HD DVD]
Starring: Rosalind Chao , Jr. Cuba Gooding , Annabella Sciorra , Max von Sydow , and Robin Williams
Director: Vincent Ward
Manufacturer: Universal Studios
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: HD DVD

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ASIN: B000RF1QDI
Release Date: 2007-08-14

Customer Reviews:

Great movie .......2007-09-13

This is one of my all time favorites movies. Now in HD-DVD it cames with some nice features and with an incredible quality

a poetic masterpiece in high definition .......2007-09-01

If you want to demonstrate yr neighbours about your new HD equipment this is surely one of the top 10 HD DVD to use and to own.
as for the sound profesional reviewers said the sound is not at the level of quality like the picture... I think this is a very severe judgement.The sound dynamic is brilliant and clean. the surround effects are appropriate and the subwoofer channel is doing well.You don't need more for this kind of movie.

as for the film this a real surrealist poetic movie of it's own kind with fantastic acting of robin williams.
so conclusion =5 stars.

I can recommend this .......2007-08-18

As far as HD goes, the colors in the movie are quite amazing. They were bright to begin with on SD, and shine very bright in the HD version. Few specks or EE here and there, but nothing to write home about. This is a disc you can show friends. They will say "Whoa" freaky bright colors. In the "Hell" scenes it is very dreary and dark, and does a pretty good job with black levels. The only part the disc suffers is in Audio. Perhaps they dont do lossless sound because it's mainly a talky movie I dont know, I just wish the audio had more oomph. So, dont expect a WOW factor with audio.

Now as for the movie, you will either love it, or hate it. It's a head trip, and challenges your notions about God,heaven,hell, etc. If you dont want a "thinking cap" movie with a taste for the dreary at times, this is not for you. If you like "Different weird" movies, this is for you.

Average customer rating:

Penniless Playboy Marries Bookish Spinster....
Suspicion
Suspicion
Twisty, Entertaining and Diabolical -- In Short, Pure Hitchcock
Suspicion: A Must for Movie-Lovers and Meet the Actor

Suspicion
Starring: Heather Angel , Billy Bevan , Nigel Bruce , Leo G. Carroll , and Carol Curtis-Brown
Manufacturer: Turner Home Ent
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ASIN: B0002HOEOY
Release Date: 2004-09-07

Amazon.com

Repeated viewings can't dispel the shock of the final scene in this classic 1941 romantic mystery--a brief but disorienting confrontation that suddenly inverts the heroine's mounting conviction that she's married a murderer, forcing us to reconsider virtually every scene and line of dialogue that's preceded it. It's a masterful coup de grace for director Alfred Hitchcock, who has built a puzzle around the corrosive power of suspicion, threaded with deft ambiguities that toy with dramatic conventions and character archetypes in nearly every frame.

As embodied by Joan Fontaine, who nabbed an Oscar in this second outing with the director, Lina McLaidlaw is a buttoned-up, bookish heiress whose prim exterior conceals longings for a more engaged emotional life. Her solution materializes in the darkly handsome Johnnie Aysgarth, a gambler, womanizer, and spendthrift who flirts, then pursues, and soon marries her. As Aysgarth, Cary Grant is both irresistible and sinister, capable of deceit and petty theft, as well as grander designs on his bride's impending fortune. Lina's passion for Johnnie is clouded by each new revelation about his apparent dishonesty, from clandestine gambling to real estate development schemes; more troubling are clues implicating him in the death of his best friend, and the prospect that Johnnie may be slowly poisoning Lina herself. By the time we see him ascending a darkened staircase with a suspicious glass of milk, an image made all the more indelible through the spectral glow the director captures in the glass, the evidence seems damning indeed.

In fact, even as Hitchcock stacks the deck against Johnnie, and takes full advantage of Grant's skill at conveying such menace, the director also dots his landscape with visual clues to Lina's own neurotic (and erotic) obsessions. The final scene forces us to reevaluate her behavior while leaving enough of a cloud over Johnnie to rob him, and us, of a complete exoneration. It's a wicked, unsettling payoff to a brilliantly executed thriller. --Sam Sutherland

Customer Reviews:

Penniless Playboy Marries Bookish Spinster.... .......2007-09-11

Cary Grant and Joan Fontaine star in this Hitchcock thriller. Grant plays handsome but penniless playboy John Aysgarth, with Fontaine playing shy, bookish Lina McLaidlaw. She is also a general's daughter and an heiress.

John and Lina meet accidentally on a train - a motif Hitchcock used to great effect in "The Thirty-Nine Steps," and in "Strangers on a Train."

Grant woos and weds Fontaine, but she begins to worry that he has designs on her money and wants to kill her. Does he?

The movie has an interesting climax, and though it's something of an antique now(made in 1941), it's well worth seeing.

Suspicion.......2007-07-03

Not the very best of Cary Grant but an often looked-for movie with good quality acting by Joan Fontaine and Mr. Grant. The eyes tell it all.

Suspicion.......2007-06-25

Hitchcock's psychological thriller is as tightly plotted and crisply directed as any of the master's finest works. The tension builds slowly and inexorably, as the bookish, increasingly frightened Lina waits passively for her nightly glass of (poisoned?) milk, fearing the worst. Fontaine, who appeared the previous year in Hitchcock's "Rebecca," won an Oscar for her role as the rattled wife, while Grant is superb as a cynical charmer. "Suspicion" is sure to thrill anyone in the mood for subtle romantic intrigue.

Twisty, Entertaining and Diabolical -- In Short, Pure Hitchcock.......2007-04-13

"Suspicion" finds Joan Fontaine in the Academy Award-winning role of Lina McLaidlaw, a wealthy but shy young lady whose parents have lost hope of her finding a husband. That all changes when she meets the enormously charming Johnnie Aysgarth, who is played with a devilish ambiguity by Cary Grant. Are his intentions pure, or is he a cad? Alas, after the two are married, Lina's suspicions about her new husband become far more sinister than that. He turns out to be a compulsive liar, deeply in debt, and morally suspect; all of which leads Lina to the frightening conclusion that his cold-bloodedness may extend to murder -- first of his best friend Beaky, and then of her.

The story follows the conventions of an early twentieth century mystery novel -- specifically, it feels like something that the venerable Agatha Christie would have cooked up. There is even a female character that earns a living as a mystery writer, whose conversations about the plotlines of her own books add weight to the parallel. But what is so ingenius about the plot is that it goes beyond mere convention; imagine that you suddenly find yourself at the center of one of those mystery novels and you will understand something of the paranoia and bewilderment that Lina feels when she comes to believe that that is exactly what has happened to her. But is she right about Johnnie? Is her titular suspicion that he will try to kill her justified, or is she crazy?

Sadly, this question would be better explored in a later film by Hitchcock: 1954's Rear Window (Collector's Edition). It is explored even more deeply in two classic chillers by Ira Levin: Rosemary's Baby and The Stepford Wives, and also by their subsequent film adaptations. What goes wrong in "Suspicion" has to do with the misogynist characterization of Lina and the cheap Hollywood ending that the film slaps on. The latter is no fault of Hitchcock's -- the documentary in the special features explains that he was forced to change the bleaker climax by censors -- but those who take issue with the former will find themselves agreeing with critics who express distaste with Hitchcock's portrayals of women in his films. Lina's bland acceptance of Johnnie's faults could be passed off as a product of the times, but when she fails to do anything about her suspicions that he is plotting to kill her it is nothing short of ridiculous. Ironically, the Hollywood ending comes to the rescue here because it accidentally imbues her with a tiny degree of strength that the original climax would never have mustered.

Still, "Suspicion" is a remarkably well made film with excellent performances from Fontaine, Grant, and Nigel Bruce as Johnnie's friend Beaky. The directing is, of course, excellent -- though to get a full appreciation of what went in to it you should really watch the 30 minute documentary on the film as well. An example of one fascinating tidbit gleaned from it: in order to make a suspicious glass of milk that Johnnie brings to Lina stand out, Hitchcock contrived to place a light bulb in the glass -- giving it an eerie glow. Whatever your opinion of Hitchcock the man, one has to admit that Hitchcock the director was nothing short of genius.

Suspicion: A Must for Movie-Lovers and Meet the Actor.......2007-04-03

It does not matter how "young" you are, it does not matter if you watch only color movies. This BW movie is ageless as Cary Grant is in his movies. He is at his best and is highly entertaining as always having an infinite amount of energy. It is fascinating to watch the movie as it evolves with a rather surprizing ending. "Grab" this movie. The picture quality is excellent. This is the type of movie that you can watch several times and never get bored. It would be unfortunate if new generations do not familiarize themselves with such classics and such actors as Cary Grant.

Average customer rating:

Very Enjoyable
Terrible transfer to DVD.
Faithful adaptation of Forster's first novel
How can you turn a tragic movie into a commedy?
Overlooked fine adaptation of Forster's first novel

Where Angels Fear to Tread
Starring: Rupert Graves , Helen Mirren , Helena Bonham Carter , Barbara Jefford , and Judy Davis
Director: Charles Sturridge
Manufacturer: Image Entertainment
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ASIN: B000I2J6WI
Release Date: 2006-11-07

Amazon.com essential video

Where Angels Fear to Tread is a Merchant/Ivory production in all but name. Lilia (Helen Mirren, in fine form) is a wealthy widow on holiday in rural Italy with her companion Caroline (a dressed-down Helena Bonham Carter) when she falls for penniless local Gino (Giovanni Guidelli). Her horrified relatives promptly dispatch brother-in-law Philip (Rupert Graves) to break things up, but he's too late--she's already married and, in short order, gives birth to a child. Unfortunately, a happy ending is not to be (not for Lilia, at any rate). As with Maurice (Graves) and Howard's End (Bonham Carter), the author is E.M. Forster, but the director is Charles Sturridge (Brideshead Revisited) and, unlike Room with a View (which featured both actors), the tone is tragic rather than romantic. Another Forster vet, Judy Davis (A Passage to India), plays Lilia's sister-in-law, Harriet, while Oscar winner Rachel Portman composed the enchanting score. --Kathleen C. Fennessy

Description

While traveling through Italy on an extended vacation, Lilia Heriton (Prime Suspect's Helen Mirren falls for handsome Gino Carella (Fiorile's Giovanni Guidelli) and, against the wishes of her family, decides to stay in Monteriano. Dispatched by self-centered relatives to retrieve her, brother-in-law Philip (Maurice's Rupert Graves) and chaperone Caroline Abbott (Corpse Bride's Helena Bonham Carter) discover startling news that will alter the course of two families forever. Based on the novel by E. M. Forster (Howards End, A Room with a View), this insightful, funny, and sometimes tragic look at the collision of two different cultures features astonishingly beautiful scenery, a haunting score by Academy Award-winning composer Rachel Portman (Emma), and a memorable supporting turn by Emmy-winner Judy Davis (Barton Fink).

Customer Reviews:

Very Enjoyable.......2007-08-25

While sad, this is a lovely movie. Well acted and beautiful to look at.

Terrible transfer to DVD........2007-06-18

This is one of my favorite movies, and I was thrilled that it was finally available on DVD. But what a disappointment! The disk plays like a worn-out VHS tape. 5 stars for the movie, but no stars for this DVD transfer.

Faithful adaptation of Forster's first novel.......2007-06-12

This filmed version of WHERE ANGELS FEAR TO TREAD is quite faithful to the novel. It is well acted especially by the three female leads - Helen Mirren as the doomed Lilia, Helena Bonham-Carter, looking less attractive than usual, playing the sensible parson's daughter, Caroline, and Judy Davis as the truly horrid spinster Harriet. As in the short novel the contrast between the restrained, judgmental Brits and the passionate warm hearted Italians is a main focus of the story. Perhaps the film deserves more than three stars but like in the book I find the tragic climax caused by the inept meddling of Harriet so maddening that is greatly lessens my enjoyment of the story. To make matters worse Gino's ability to forgive these awful Brits sickens rather than uplifts me. I actually feel guilty for laughing at the genuinely funny moments at the beginning of the story after the awfulness occurrs. And I take another star off because the film really needs to be subtitled due to the soft tones of the speakers as well as the British and Italian accents difficult for American ears to fully understand.

How can you turn a tragic movie into a commedy?.......2006-03-14

The actors are wonderful, but the story it is very sad!!! I wish an old Italian RICH lady would have gone to England and married a poor man!! Than, her Italian family at the end would have killed the baby.......!!! But, this is not important for the writer, as long as there is a happy ending for the english world!!!!

I hate it !!! hypocrit!!!!

Overlooked fine adaptation of Forster's first novel.......2006-02-19

WHERE ANGELS FEAR TO TREAD got a bit lost in the shuffle of the film adaptations of E. M. Forster's novels that came out in the 1990s. Neither as much of a crowd-pleaser as A ROOM WITH A VIEW, as appealling to a gay audience at MAURICE, or as dignified and prestigious as A PASSAGE TO INDIA, this film instead featured the stars of each of the previous three Forster adaptations--Helena Bonham-Carter, Rupert Graves, and Judy Davis--and cast them very atypically in roles that seemed like poor fits for them each at the time but now in hindsight show off each of their considerable ranges. The widowed Lilia Herriton (the wonderful Helen Mirren, in a terrific performance) travels to Italy while chaperoning her younger neighbor Caroline Aboott (Bonham-Carter) on her first trip there, and marries a handsome young Italian man mostly to escape her interfering in-laws back in suburban London; they dispatch her brother-in-law Philip (Graves) to rescue her, but he is rebuffed by Lilia and her virile lover. But Lilia is miserable in her new mismatched marriage and dies soon after in childbirth; Philip and his puritanical sister Harriet (Davis) then return to Italy with Miss Abbott to get Lilia's baby at any cost. The story has often been classified as a comedy, despite the tragic deaths that occur in it, and the director, Charles Sturridge, plays up the comic elements of it considerably. Judy Davis dominates this film (as she does every film she's ever been in) with a raucous performance as a hysterical prude that is actually nicely shaded; while Bonham-Carter does much with the tough role of the unsteady Miss Abbott. Sturridge probably does not take as much advantage of the beautiful medieval towers of San Gimignano, where the work was filmed, as he should have, and relies too much on conversation (as might be expected from a director who has worked largely in television). But the film has nonetheless aged beautifully over the years (particularly since Davis's wild turn here is now less unexpected, and can be seen as more of a piece with her other later comic performances instead of as an aberration from her more subtle earlier dramatic work), and it deserves rediscovery in an American DVD version.

Average customer rating:

Great Movie
Mirren Breathes New Life into this Torrid Williams Tale
PRIMAVERA 2000 .....
"Youth Is a Cruel Gift"
It should have been better

The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone
Starring: Helen Mirren , Olivier Martinez , Anne Bancroft , Rodrigo Santoro , and Brian Dennehy
Director: Robert Allan Ackerman
Manufacturer: Showtime Ent.
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ASIN: B0001906VS
Release Date: 2004-03-23

Description

A beautiful cinematic adaptation of Tennessee Williams' first novel, The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone, tells the emotional story of Karen Stone (Mirren), an aging American actress who falls for a young Italian gigolo of captivating beauty (Martinez) after the untimely death of her husband, Tom (Dennehy). In typical Tennessee Williams fashion, Mrs. Stone finds romance, but ultimately loses control and steps into a dangerous world of chaos.

Customer Reviews:

Great Movie.......2007-08-29

I have never understood why this movie hasn't received more recognition. The acting is superb in both the original and the remake and I never tire of watching it. Although both movies are excellent, I feel the remake surpassed the original because it gave more insight into the cultural tension between American tourists to Italy of the 1950's and 1960's, and the Italians who resented them for having bombed/invaded their country during WWII scarcely one decade earlier. This was alluded to in the original film but it's much more palpable in the remake. I feel Helen Mirren was excellent as Mrs. Stone, as was Anne Bancroft as the Contessa. Olivier Martinez was very good also, but I personally liked Warren Beatty in the original better.

Mirren Breathes New Life into this Torrid Williams Tale.......2007-04-29

The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone
Though THE ROMAN SPRING OF MRS. STONE is not the greatest of Tennessee Williams' works, nor is this film version perfect, it is well worth seeing just for the pleasure of watching Helen Mirren work her magic as an actress. In terms of the film proper, the pacing is far too fast and Olivier Martinez, though dashing in his way, is rather unappealing as a "gigolo." It is hard to see what Mirren's Karen Stone sees in this lad, but c'est la vie. In terms of Helen Mirren's performance, it is nothing less than superb. Her Karen Stone is both elegant and simple, vulnerable and powerful, brilliant and dim. She shines like a beautiful sunrise and her work surpasses all the work of the other actors in this piece. All I wished for was that the camera would linger on her for much longer and give her the chance to communicate, as she does exceptionally well, in silence.

PRIMAVERA 2000 ............2007-03-08

RODRIGO SANTORO encapsulates it all by urinating in public in front of Karen Stone, played with appropriate angst by HELEN MIRREN -[come a long way from "Caligula" and "Savage Messiah"]. The rest? Typical decaying Rome - but then again, being the eternal or infernal city - it always seems to discard the excrement and bloom forth anew.

Fun moments with the ravenous Anna Bankcroft - paracitically living off everything within reach - reminded me strongly of the 'mother son' con artists [Sante something??]

Even Brian Dennehy shines through the moments allowed, gowns and glam abound, but there's always that slight erotic stench left behind ....as someone enters or leaves a scene .......

Forget Paolo Karen - the unwashed waif is far more interesting - and can be moulded .....

[Would be fun to see a future version with Karen played by George Clooney ....... "When In Rome" ......

"Youth Is a Cruel Gift".......2007-02-17

Karen Stone (Helen Mirren) is an over-the-hill actress who has just bombed in a stage production of "Romeo and Juliet." She, along with her husband, who is not "physical" with her, travels to Rome for a much needed vacation. While there, the husband dies; and Mrs. Stone goes through a series of young Italian gigolos furnished to her by the cruel and penniless Contessa (Anne Bancroft) culminating with the humpy Paolo (Olivier Martinez.) All three actors get right into their roles, giving it their all. Bancroft is at times a bit over the top. Mirren, as always, gives a flawless performance as we watch her lighten her hair, then darken it, then add lots of makeup in a futile effort to hang onto Paolo. She certainly goes into this relationship with her eyes wide open and finally does get up the courage to put him to flight. She cuts off his money, opines that "youth is a cruel gift" and calls the Contessa a female pimp. The film has a strange cryptic open-ended ending that lends itself to several interpretations.

Tennessee Williams-- the movie is based on a story of his by the same title-- writes about the fragile, older woman who falls for the younger, super-masculine worthless male over and over ("Sweet Bird of Youth"); but does it very well. His stories and plays usually translate very well to the screen. "The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone" is no exception.

It should have been better.......2006-06-19

Perhaps the admiration I have for both Helen Mirren and Anne Bancroft led me to expect more; but Bancroft seems to be reduced to a cartoon character procuress. Mrs. Stone is more fully rounded, but the limitations of a faithful translating of William's story to the film are very dominant. (I doubt if he could ever have conceived of a middle-aged woman having a fling with a younger man and having it NOT end badly!) I wished that I could have seen a greater self-awareness in Mrs. Stone; occasionally it began to rise up in Helen Mirren's eyes, then faded away, leaving me repeatedly disappointed. The background music was extraordinarily annoying, and I could have used at least a little exposition as to the significance of the beggar.

Average customer rating:

Substitute 2: School's Out
Treat Subs For Tom
SUBSTITUTE 2 Review!
ALMOST AS GOOD AS THE ORIGINAL
A pointless sequel

Substitute 2: School's Out
Starring: Treat Williams , Edoardo Ballerini , Christopher Cousins , Chuck Jeffreys , and Susan May Pratt
Director: Steven Pearl
Manufacturer: Lions Gate
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ASIN: B00005O5B4
Release Date: 2001-10-23

Amazon.com

The delicate issue of student discipline becomes dangerously pointed when a vengeance-seeking mercenary (the perennially underrated Treat Williams) sews a couple of tweed patches onto the elbows of his flack jacket and proceeds to add a few chalk outlines to the blackboard jungle. Although the premise of this intermittently entertaining sequel can't match the goofy novelty of the 1996 original, it does sport a couple of effective action scenes (the teacher's demonstration of the yo-yo's history as a lethal weapon is a highlight), and a talented cast (including Broadway star B.D. Wong as a shop teacher who cares a little too much about his tools) that's fully aware of the numerous absurdities depicted herein. An occasionally effective lowbrow action flick that, at the very least, sure beats the heck out of study hall. --Andrew Wright

Customer Reviews:

Substitute 2: School's Out.......2006-07-06

The whole series of Substitutes are excellent movies. Really like Treat Williams in the title roll, but would have loved to see Tom Berenger in more than just the first.

Treat Subs For Tom.......2004-11-25

Treat Williams steps into the role of mercenary-turned-vigilante in Substitiute 2. He plays a guy who's worked with Tom Berenger's character before(or at least has mutual friends). I've always liked Treat Williams. He's one of those actors that's actually very good, yet seems to get thrown into these movies all the time. You'll catch him once in awhile in major motion pictures as a supporting character, but in B flicks he's the star! He seems a little too nice to play the cold hearted mercenary type, but does it well. The plot's similar to the first film in the sense that he goes undercover at a New York high school to find out who killed his brother, get revenge, and take care of his niece. Along the way he brings a fellow merc, teams up with the half crazed Vietnam vet janitor and discovers a chop shop operation going on in the school. Nothing terribly groundbreaking, but it's fun to see Williams slapping up the gang banger students who think he's just some pushover teacher. Good mindless action fun if you like that sort of thing.

SUBSTITUTE 2 Review!.......2004-04-26

As is the case in just about every straight-to-video sequel, the original star is out and a newer somewhat lesser known star is in. Treat Williams does the series justice as a mercenary who fills for his slain brother's history class in a mean Brooklyn high school. It wouldn't be a "Substitute" film if he wasn't kicking and punching his students through the halls with the help of a few unlikely faculty members. Good straight-to-video fare with a decent cast featuring B.D. Wong, Michael Michelle, Eugene Byrd, and a few others but Angel David taking over Raymond Cruz's "Joey Six" role is about easy to believe as Tommy Lee Jones filling in for Billy Dee Williams. Oh wait! Anyways, you get what you pay for.

ALMOST AS GOOD AS THE ORIGINAL.......2003-12-19

ANOTHER MERCENARY [TREAT WILLIAMS] BECOMES A SUBSTITUTE TEACHER AT A SCHOOL IN WHICH CRIME IS RAMPANT. NOT TOO MUCH DIFFERENT FROM THE ORIGINAL, BUT IT'S ALMOST BETTER THAN THE ORIGINAL! TREAT WILLIAMS MIGHT NOT BE AS MEAN AS TOM BERENGER WAS, BUT HE'S STILL A PRETTY INTRIGUING ACTOR FOR THE ROLE THAT TOM BERENGER PLAYED. THIS IS DEFINITELY WORTH WATCHING. THE ACTION SCENES ARE PRETTY CLEVER. EVEN FEATURES AN APPEARANCE FROM GURU, WHICH IS THE MC FOR GANG STARR.

A pointless sequel.......2003-10-31

The original "Substitute" starring Tom Berenger and Ernie Hudson was an over-the-top but admittedly clever take on the "tough teacher/tough class" sub-genre started by "Dangerous Minds". Unfortunately, such movies typically spawn mediocre sequels to capitalize on even moderate interest, which leaves us with "Substitute 2: School's Out", starring Treat Williams instead of Berenger.

To say that this movie is unoriginal is an understatement. It more-or-less puts us into the exact same situation as the first film, only done worse than before. When his brother is murdered by a violent street gang called the Brotherhood in a carjacking, mercenary Karl Thomasson (Williams) decides to take on two roles. The first is to take care of his brother's daughter. The second is to become a subtitute teacher for his brother's Brooklyn high school class, which some of the Brotherhood thugs attend. He suspects that the school's auto shop teacher, Warren Drummond, is involved in a car-stripping operation with the Brotherhood and its violent leader, Lil' B. Naturally, it's up to Thomasson to teach the tough class while working to take down Lil' B and Drummond's operation with his mercenary pal Joey 6 and a janitor named Johnny Bartee.

The most dissapointing aspect of this movie is the acting. Before you say, "It's a B movie, so what do you expect?", consider the cast involved in this film. Treat Williams may be a direct-to-video actor for the most part, but considering his number of Emmy nominations and his achievements in "Everwood", you'd expect a little more from him. He simply comes off as too nice a guy to be a hardened merc. Longtime Broadway actor and recent "Law & Order: SVU" cast member B.D. Wong doesn't fare much better as Drummond; he's either over-the-top or very dull. Michael Michelle ("ER") as teacher and love interest Kara Lavelle and Angel David ("The Crow") as Joey 6 are both OK, but wasted for the most part. Daryl Edwards, who plays Johnny Bartee, ends up becoming very annoying in this film. And while rapper Guru (of Gang Starr fame) is one of the most gifted hip-hop lyricists around, he's no actor, and he really embarrasses himself as Lil' B in this movie.

Aside from the weak acting, the movie doesn't really do much with its characters or plot. The relationship between Thomasson and the gang-bangers in his class (one of the better points of the original film) never works at all, especially his attempt to connect to Mase (Eugene Byrd of "8 Mile" fame). At one point, Thomasson throws Mase's stereo out the window because he's playing rap music really loud in class. Mase gets angry and attacks him with a switchblade, but after Thomasson subdues him and leaves him in charge of the class for a moment, Mase later apologizes for what he did. In the space of one class, Mase changes from "I'm-a cut you up real good" to "yeah, I was wrong". Right.

There are other problems, too, including some ridiculously unrealistic action sequences. How does somebody manage to survive an attack by gang-bangers firing automatic weapons at them from BOTH SIDES of a narrow corridor? Beats me, but Thomasson, Joey 6, and Bartee do somehow. Equally bad is the scene where Drummond kills Lavelle by shooting her at point-blank range and then wipes her blood off his hands on a stuffed teddy bear AT THE SCENE OF THE CRIME. Oh, yeah, and I'm still very puzzled as to how they got that laser trick to work on the Brotherhood when laser sources are very easy to spot at any range. The hoods in Brooklyn may not be Ivy League material, but I really didn't think they all have the intelligence levels of rodents.

Amazon.com

Customer Reviews:

Very, Very Different.......2007-08-28

Good dvd for the price.........2007-08-14

Not an awful dvd, not too many features, but for the price its good quality and a great movie. Definitely worth it!

ONE OF THE BEST MOVIES EVER.......2007-07-12

me please.......2007-06-27

Found the item to be in condition that was said Thank you for your prompt delivery.

flat, unoriginal, and over-done.......2007-06-13

Average customer rating:

Wish they made more like this.
An Angel for May
An Angel For May
A keeper - a movie you can watch many times
Excellent Film

An Angel For May
Starring: Angeline Ball , John Benfield , Dora Bryan , Geraldine James , and Anna Massey
Director: Harley Cokliss
Manufacturer: Allumination
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

General | Comedy | Genres | DVD | Video

General | Drama | Genres | DVD | Video

General | Kids & Family | Genres | DVD | Video

Drama | Kids & Family | Genres | DVD | Video

4-for-3 Comedy | 4-for-3 DVD | Stores | DVD | Video

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ASIN: B0007939YI
Release Date: 2004-01-25

Customer Reviews:

Wish they made more like this........2007-06-08

I saw about 5 min of this movie at an RV show and the whole family said we had to get it. When it arrived we hoped it was as good as we had thought. We were not disappointed. It was the best movie/DVD we have seen in a long time. It was one of the few movies that I have watched where I did not want to get up and miss something. The movie people really need to make more movies like this. Better than anything coming out this summer.

An Angel for May.......2007-02-08

This is a nice family movie.
Good casting, good fictional adventure, it could show kids small kindness can change lives.
Only problem was some unanswered questions.

Good movie for your collection.

An Angel For May.......2007-01-19

My wife and I are a couple of "big kids" and we loved it. Being British we love films of that era whether they be childrens films or otherwise. It brings back memories. Thank you.

Simon Wainwright

A keeper - a movie you can watch many times.......2006-12-30

Finally, a movie for the whole family, with a lovely story.

Excellent Film.......2006-12-22

This is the best film I've ever seen about time travel.Tom is a young lad who's mom has a new fellow.Tom falls through the back of a fireplace in a burned out farm house with a dog.They end up in the dog's time.That is where Tom meets May a girl of his age.Tess is May's dog,and she went looking for someone to help May.This film is way to good to know much more about it.You have two kids by the end that have helped each other.Don't miss this fine film.

Average customer rating:

lethal lolita

Lethal Lolita
Starring: Ken Angel , Drew Barrymore , Lindsay Bourne , Gary Chalk , and Lawrence Z. Dane
Director: Bradford May
Manufacturer: Direct Source Label
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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ASIN: B000FUF6WW
Release Date: 2006-07-11

Customer Reviews:

lethal lolita.......2007-01-11

It was the best product that i bought for the price and that i realy what it so badly.you now

Average customer rating:

Victory is never present tense
A first-rate cast gets a third-rate script!
must see for Umberto Lenzi fans!

From Hell to Victory
Starring: Angel Aranda , Horst Buchholz , Capucine , Jean-Pierre Cassel , and Anny Duperey
Director: Umberto Lenzi , and Hank Milestone
Manufacturer: Trinity Home Ent
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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ASIN: B00097E6SG
Release Date: 2005-05-03

Description

Synopsis: On August 24, 1939, at a small French cafe, six friends are about to go their separate ways. They vow to reunite on that day each year at the cafe. The film follows each of their lives: one begins work with the French resistance, one joins the French commandos, another is forced to join the Nazi army, one becomes a flier, and the two others are just simple officers.

Customer Reviews:

Victory is never present tense.......2007-03-12

The taste of vistory is so fleeting that before you get to gloat. it is in
the past tense. Relive someone's else victory and you see it for what it really is. Sure, you can celebrate your D-days and your Iwo-Jimas and your
triumph over very ill and dying soldiers at Waterloo but it is only retained subjectively in your flawed memory machine.
Speaking of flawed memory machine, hey, isn't this like the 2nd war movie
and the third Drama George Hamilton & George Peppard were in?

A first-rate cast gets a third-rate script! .......2006-01-04

For those who haven't yet seen this forgotten Italian-made war film (aka Contro 4 bandiere), this movie has the lovely actress Capucine in it. That alone earns the movie at least three stars! Despite the great cast and the abundant action, this movie has so many cliches and corny dialogue that you'll need a dose of Aleve just to finish it. Don't get me wrong, I've enjoyed watching this war movie ever since I was a kid, only now I see all the plot holes and flaws. I mean come on, the "German" fighter planes are nothing but British spitfires with German insignia painted on them!

The movie begins on August 24, 1939, in a Paris cafe, where six friends (George Peppard, George Hamilton, Horst Bucholz, Anny Duperey, Sam Wanamaker, and Jean Pierre Cassel) from different countries (of course) are about to be torn apart by World War Two. They vow to meet again on the next August 24, not realizing that the war would still be raging then. All six join the Allies, except the lone German in the group, Horst Bucholz. Bucholz becomes a Panzer commander and eventually fights against his former friends in the battle of Normandy in June 1944. Each of the six friends takes an active role in the war, and from the British evacuation from Dunkirk to the liberation of Paris, they stuggle to survive and keep in contact with one another. Along the way, Capucine enters the picture as a heroine who will risks everything to save Allied pilots from being captured by the cruel Gestapo.

By the liberation of Paris, however, only three of the six (I won't say which) have survived, and they share a tearful reunion in the same Paris cafe where they had vowed to return. The battles scenes have plenty of explosions, but they are extremely unrealistic. With a cast like this, though, I absolutely recommend this guilty pleasure to fans of war movies. Just don't set your standards too high! By the way, a lot of the battle scenes in this are the same scenes featured in another European war movie (Partizanska eskadrila (1979), aka "Battle of the Eagles"). Unfortunately, since both movies were released in 1979 I have no idea which movie copied from the other.

must see for Umberto Lenzi fans!.......2005-10-03

I checked this out because I really like Umberto Lenzi and George Peppard. I was not disappointed, this is easily my favorite of Lenzi's WWII films. The film is about the effects of WWII on a group of friends, basically. Plenty of action and drama to keep you entertained. And George Hamilton is actually really kick ass in this, I was surprised!

The dvd ain't so hot, though. Its vhs quality but it is watchable and the sound quality is okay. Its worth picking up if you want to see a different side of Lenzi, are interested in Italian WWII films, or if you like George Peppard.

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DVD

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