Reviews

Although I am more of a Joan Hickson fan than a Geraldine McEwan fan, i had a great time watching the newer version, and I understand that modern scriptwriters must change a few things. In contrast to some of the other reviewers, I did not find that the depiction of Hinchliffe and Murgatroyd's relationship was too overt; on the contrary, I found it very touching. Other couples are portrayed every bit as romantically...Patrick and Julia Simmons for instance. I did think that their relationship was revealed a bit too early; it should be held back more, in order to keep the reader in suspense. One of the characters that was removed from the 1985 version was the vicar's wife, Mrs. Harmon. She was instead replaced, to a certain degree, by Miss Murgatroyd (in terms of her friendship with Miss Marple). Although I missed the presence of Mrs. Harmon, I realize that the 1985 movie took two and a half hours to fit her in, and it is only natural that this version had to cut a few people out. Overall, it was an excellent movie that I would certainly recommend.

Normally I'm not much of a one for sci-fi or adventure movies, but I enjoyed watching "I, Robot" because it not only held my attention with its constant action and plot twists, but it also made me think about the future of Earth. Humans destroying themselves through technology and the differences between the rational and the emotional mind are important themes of this film. I did have a problem with Will Smith, just because he seemed caustic and somewhat unsympathetic. On the other hand, I appreciated the character of his assistant (played by Bridget Moynahan) because, with her rational and analytical mind, she was almost as much a robot as the metal things surrounding her. The concept of a free-thinking robot such as Sonny, who relies on his heart instead of his head, is also extremely interesting. The entire movie makes one wonder what the future will be like, and as robots are very likely to become more important in coming years, it is enough to strike fear into one's heart.

I am a huge fan of Weezer's, so I suppose I may be biased when I write this, but I thought this was an excellent DVD. I had never before seen any Weezer videos of any type, so all the content was new to me. The music videos were all exceptionally well done (I would recommend especially "Say It Ain't So," "Island in the Sun," and of course "Buddy Holly." The live and acoustic performances were fun to watch, and the parts where the recording process was shown were very informative and interesting. Some of the video quality was not very good, but the graininess and rough sound only made it all the more real. There was some humor and weird behavior by people, but the seriousness of the rest of the videos more than balanced it out. One listen to the commentary, though, was enough for me; it was basically the band members laughing and cracking jokes. However, overall I learned a lot about Weezer from watching this, and I cannot wait for their next DVD.

I remember the first time I saw this movie. I had read the book "And Then There Were None" half a dozen times before I went to my friend's house to watch this, but I ended up kneeling on the floor in front of the VCR, biting my knuckles with excitement. It does a great job of keeping everything suspenseful (even for those who know the story), but still not taking everything too seriously. And although I always like a dramatic and gory ending, I was so in love with Philip Lombard that I was extremely happy when he and Vera did not die. Also, I don't know how, in a 1940's movie, it would have been possible to kill everyone off without being corny or melodramatic. This was the first movie I had ever seen Barry Fitzgerald in, and he got my attention immediately with his role as the fatherly but nevertheless mysterious judge. Every other actor in the movie was excellent as well. The only problems I had are that the character of Anthony Marston was altered and turned into a ludicrous Russian prince (which confused me the first time I watched it), and the humor in the movie did not amuse me at all (but then, it was made in 1945). I'm waiting for someone to make some really intense modern version of "And Then There Were None," but for now the best substitute I can recommend is this one: suspenseful but fun.

I enjoyed this movie very much. Cinematically it is very clever and the acting is excellent. My only problem with it is that the first half is somewhat repetitive, and the first time I watched it, I took awhile to understand what was going on. It gets better every time I view it, though. The ending is very clever and unexpected (though I won't go into details), and the whole plot is clever in that it makes fun of how boring people's lives can be and how fascinated the most insignificant things make them. While watching this, I could tell that every moment of it was carefully filmed and meticulously edited; there is a lot of work with angles, color, and distorting shots. My favorite shots were filmed from inside the box, as if the viewer was seeing everything from the point of view of the box's mysterious contents. All in all, a very fun movie to watch. If you like satire, humor, and suspense, I would definitely recommend watching "Parcel."