Cesira (Sophia Loren) leaves war-torn Rome with her 13 year old daughter Rosetta, to travel back to her hometown village Ciociaria. In this mountainous village they are introduced to Michele (Jean-Paul Belmondo), a young intellect with communist views and here an awkward love triangle begins.
From Vittoria De Sica, director of The Bicycle Thieves, instead of a story showing the relationship between father and son, Two Women shows the bond between mother and daughter, a bond which Loren, who won leading Actress Oscar for this role, portrays so effectively. This is a bleak and absorbing piece of Italian neorealism that greatly benefits from a really powerful ending.
I also loved it very much. I also think the first event, older man having to leave his apartment with nothing but his pet is similar to Harry and Tonto (but then becomes totally different).
A couple small time crooks do a robbery, one of them gets shot, while the other shoots a police officer and is on the run. He quickly meets a young, naive girl who takes him home to meet her family. They have some feelings for each other but he's paranoid and takes the family hostage so he can hide out. I wouldn't call this a classic but I thoroughly enjoyed it. It's on the noir's list and it's less than 80 minutes long. If you want to scratch one off, you can squeeze it in quick while your wife shaves her back.
Not the worst one from Hamilton, but far away from the best. A couple of his signature marks, slow paced uninteresting chases and the annoying cop from Live and Let Die came back.
That Roger Moore is the softest of all the Bonds I already knew and I quite enjoyed that smoothness on LaLD, but here he's just a miss. This film required someone different... We also have another idiotic plan from a villain, even if the villain was one the few things I liked on this movie. Christopher Lee was a great actor that I enjoyed a lot to see here, or at least we reach the island part, that moment he just became harmless...
I liked the theme song but it doesn't work when it's played as an orchestral version during the movie like some other theme songs do. It gets annoying!
The Magician (1958) 4/5
I liked how Bergman intermingled elements of mystery, horror, farce, drama and comedy in this film. Also, black-and-white cinematography by Gunnar Fischer worked great at creating atmosphere as exemplified by the "locked attic" scene - in fact, it wasn't until that scene that I was fully convinced this was a great movie. That scene is worth the price of admission alone!
Last edited by this_is_the_ girl; 05-10-16 at 04:35 PM.
Amateur hour. That's the only way to describe the """acting""" in this picture. It's almost avant-garde just how inhuman some of these performances are. Calling it campy would imply a level of awareness that was clearly not present during production. It's amazing.
Outside of that, this is a rather middle-of-the-road camp slasher that's infamy can be chalked up to a shamelessly lifted Hitchcockian twist. Going in, I already knew the gist of the reveal, but had no clue how awkwardly it would be set up. Misdirection is a key element if you hope to surprise your audience, and the red herrings were glaringly fabricated every step of the way. Then again, maybe foreknowledge really makes the difference.
Now for a comparative analysis of violence. Friday the 13th worked around child death by setting the picture before the kids arrive. The Burning lets older campers perish and the younger campers witness it, sending them into hysterics. Sleepaway Camp might be the most taboo in letting very young children, on the cusp of puberty, get butchered. Despite that, this might be the least mean picture of the group, with many victims being outright ****** people. That's a trick that took Friday the 13th a few pictures to learn.
While The Avengers is still my favorite, this might be the best Marvel Cinematic Universe film on it's own. It signals another great wave of films to come as MArvel begins Phase 3!
One of the smartest films I have seen, while also being extremely stupid. This film does not hold back and it's all the better for it, Rogen has truly outdone himself. One of the funniest comedies in a long time.
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Amateur hour. That's the only way to describe the """acting""" in this picture. It's almost avant-garde just how inhuman some of these performances are. Calling it campy would imply a level of awareness that was clearly not present during production. It's amazing.
Outside of that, this is a rather middle-of-the-road camp slasher that's infamy can be chalked up to a shamelessly lifted Hitchcockian twist. Going in, I already knew the gist of the reveal, but had no clue how awkwardly it would be set up. Misdirection is a key element if you hope to surprise your audience, and the red herrings were glaringly fabricated every step of the way. Then again, maybe foreknowledge really makes the difference.
Now for a comparative analysis of violence. Friday the 13th worked around child death by setting the picture before the kids arrive. The Burning lets older campers perish and the younger campers witness it, sending them into hysterics. Sleepaway Camp might be the most taboo in letting very young children, on the cusp of puberty, get butchered. Despite that, this might be the least mean picture of the group, with many victims being outright ****** people. That's a trick that took Friday the 13th a few pictures to learn.
That`s a lot of trash for someone to talk when a film was released 33 years ago, had a shoestring budget and actually does primarily feature amateur actors in starring roles, which kind of makes your first statement about amateur actors relatively moot. And comparing this film to Friday The Thirteenth feels off except in terms of locale, I`d compare with something closer to a mixture of Slumber Party Massacre and Cheerleader Camp. I`m not telling you you`re wrong, I just respectfully disagree with your analysis, and don`t think you gave the film a fair shake as you yourself stated you`d heard about it beforehand, and knew what to expect from the film. And so it seems like you already kind of had an opinion formed before you went in, which I think jaded your experience.
That`s a lot of trash for someone to talk when a film was released 33 years ago, had a shoestring budget and actually does primarily feature amateur actors in starring roles, which kind of makes your first statement about amateur actors relatively moot. And comparing this film to Friday The Thirteenth feels off except in terms of locale, I`d compare with something closer to a mixture of Slumber Party Massacre and Cheerleader Camp. I`m not telling you you`re wrong, I just respectfully disagree with your analysis, and don`t think you gave the film a fair shake as you yourself stated you`d heard about it beforehand, and knew what to expect from the film. And so it seems like you already kind of had an opinion formed before you went in, which I think jaded your experience.
Calm down, buddy. Let's have a reasonable discussion here.
The actors being amateurs in no way vindicates terrible performances so much as it explains why those performances were terrible. I like terrible performances btw.
I don't know how you would walk away from this picture and not draw dozens of parallels to Friday the 13th. The twist ending might have been lifted from Hitchcock, but it was definitely inspired by Jason's mother as well.
I'm the one who brought up my prejudice. It's not like you're pointing out something that I hadn't considered. Were it possible for me to have my memory wiped, maybe I could have prevented that bias. Seeing as how that is not the case, I can only relay my personal experience. I don't see how it invalidates my perspective any more than somebody reviewing a film that they've seen at least once before.
Anyway, don't take it personally. I enjoy these movies even if I don't rate them very highly.
Haha, I didn`t take it personally, you`re the only one who assuming I`m even offended, and you yourself seem quite defensive friendo. As a fan of the trilogy, I just thought your view of the film was a little obtuse, no point in getting all offended, I recognized it`s your opinion and don`t have a problem with it.
I don`t draw parallels with Friday the 13th because I seem to have a wider pool of reference and it`s not my go to for comparison, as I can think of a few other movies off the top of my head that also take place at summer camps and star serial killers.
Don`t take it personally dude, you posted a review and just like anything, you should know someone will have a varying opinion, and they also have a right to speak it. All I said was that I respectfully disagreed with your analysis and provided reasons why, it`s yours to do with what you might, sir. Nobody values their opinion more than themselves though, and you`d be wise to remember that.
angela baker is sent away to summer camp with her cousin
1983. when these kind of flicks were selling like hotcakes
Sleepaway Camp begins with a melodramatic boating accident which kills little Angela's father and brother. flash forward 8 years, Angela now lives with Aunt Martha and a cousin, Ricky. Ricky is the cocky and sociable type, whereas Angela is shy and different. Aunt Martha sends the two young teenage cousins to Camp Arawak for the summer. and for the record, i have no reservations in saying the aunt is creepier than Mrs Bates in Psycho
once Angela and Ricky get to camp, we meet an array of characters. counselers, campers, a creepy cook, and the owner of the camp, Mel. the campers begin to make fun of Angela. Judy and Meg are the ringleaders and are pretty brutal to our main character. it's kids being kids in a summer camp setting. bad things start to happen. while many slasher flicks have a heavy revenge theme, i'd say this one is a bit more focused on bizarre sexual subtext throughout. the cast is full of amateur unknowns, which adds a fun and unique vibe to the story
Conclusion: this is a movie that would be really easy to spoil. i was lucky enough to not know its twist beforehand, which is pretty freaky. if i go further in depth it will spoil the movie for anyone who hasn't seen it yet. i found it to have its own strange and messed-up charm, and thought it a hidden classic of 80's slashers... as i hadn't heard of this movie until i began searching through titles to watch for this thread. Sleepaway Camp has an ending that is pretty scary and memorable... and adds a whole other layer to everything we think we just watched. would probably make for an interesting commentary movie
Favorite Kill: Mel getting an arrow through the neck may the be only kill where you actually see what happens. a lot of the kill scenes are a bit hokey in the sense that the kill is implied rather than shown. although, if i am interpreting this other one right, Judy is served her dose of karma by way of a burning hot hair curler inserted into her, well, nether regions. that seems to be what happened
Conclusion: this is a movie that would be really easy to spoil. i was lucky enough to not know its twist beforehand, which is pretty freaky. if i go further in depth it will spoil the movie for anyone who hasn't seen it yet. i found it to have its own strange and messed-up charm, and thought it a hidden classic of 80's slashers... as i hadn't heard of this movie until i began searching through titles to watch for this thread. Sleepaway Camp has an ending that is pretty scary and memorable... and adds a whole other layer to everything we think we just watched. would probably make for an interesting commentary movie
Actually I was lucky as well, we discovered it in grade 7 and it was a pretty big What the **** moment at 13 years old. My friends brother had all sorts of VHS horror flicks, we saw a bunch of weird **** at his behest, but I thank him for it today.
And I used to think the same thing about onscreen kills, but after I learned the budget was around 350k I realized it was more of a cost issue than anything to keep them offscreen and implied.
Special Correspondants - I left a longer 'opinion' in the review forum last night. I'd give it 3 out of 5 and recommend it only if you're a Ricky Gervais fan.
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