Drama > H Drama > Universal

Advantages: Clever dialogue, decent plot, classic Hitchcock
Disadvantages: Simply too dated for 99% of people

...films deemed too irrelevant for the common movie-goer. Alas I just can't seem to give this DVD the thumbs up. You see, the thing is -if a black and white film, handicapped with the inevitable restrictions of movie-making in yesteryears, is to be an enjoyable experience for an audience today, it must have certain qualities of timelessness to it. Casablanca, The Seventh Seal and The Lady Vanishes are adored, remastered and distributed widely today ...
...to people still. I watched The Lady Vanishes (Hitchcock's last British film before he moved to America to make such international blockbusters like Vertigo and Psycho) prior to this DVD and found that to be suspenseful enough despite it being made around the same time with this film. However I must say that The Man Who Knew Too Much proved just too boring and sketchy for me despite having such a promising plot and such a decent cast. Vintage Hitchcock ... Read review

Advantages: Superb performance by Ingrid Bergman
Disadvantages: Quite slow to begin with

Introduction Just in case you haven't noticed, I'm a big fan of Hitchcock films, particularly the psychological thrillers, and although this film does not quite fit into that category, it is still a strong story directed by a master. Those of you who don't like to watch older films like this because they are black and white and old-fashioned don't know what you are missing. There may not be the special effects of today's films, but there is superb ...
...rarely seen today. And when they're free with newspapers, like this one, there's no excuse really. The director Although Alfred Hitchcock made his best-known films while in Hollywood, he was born in the East End of London and spent the first part of his career in the UK. When he finally moved to the US in 1940, he was already a well-known director, with films such as The Thirty-Nine Steps and Sabotage under his belt. The plot Alicia Huberman's ... Read review

Advantages: The reason why everyone should watch old films!
Disadvantages: Begone from my sight if you think there is a single flaw here

...steps. In many ways The 39 Steps is a comfort film for me; one of those films you can shrug on like a warm old overcoat and luxuriate within. Perhaps this is because The 39 Steps is just such unashamed good fun and at the same time so remarkably well constructed. The 39 Steps marked the emergence of Hitchcock as a major talent, for though this came on the back of his hugely successful, for the time and certainly in Britain, The Man Who Knew Too Much, ...
...the two films and the first of his films to have that central theme that so many Hitchcock movies have: the innocent man on the run from the law, having to prove his innocence. In many ways Hitchcock’s The 39 Steps bears no relationship to John Buchan’s novel. Hitchcock took the main idea and a few key scenes and allowed his screenwriter, Charles Bennett (though Alma Reville [the future Mrs Hitchcock] and Ian Hay are also credited though the script ... Read review

Advantages: Interesting
Disadvantages: Slow

...the amazing Tommy Lee Jones in it who is always fabulous. What we found though was that it was quite a hard going film which was slow and depressing but because it was based on true events it was fascinating. This review will tell you why it is worth watching but only when you are in the right mood. The story of this film is that a father gets a call from the military telling him that his son has gone missing from the base. His son has just come ...
...missing. The story is made in such a way that you believe it from start to finish and it is one of those where you are just so interested in what is going to happen and how it is going to end. The film is made well and the script pace fits the story very well. On the flip side although the scripts pace does fit the story I don't think it was quick enough for my liking. Due to it being slightly slow I got a little bored and my attention did waver ... Read review

Advantages: Far better performances than the film deserves.
Disadvantages: Let's see - sadistic, inhumane, dishonest, cowardly...

...and nasty Lars Von Trier, Breaking The Waves is, like his later Dancer In The Dark and Dogville, a cynical, misogynist melodrama that comes a hell of a lot closer to "Torture Porn" than anything Eli Roth has ever crafted. Emily Watson plays the childlike, mentally unstable Bess McNeil - the Holy Fool of the piece, pretty much - who, as a means of pleasing her recently paralysed husband Jan (Stellan Skarsgård), sets about prostituting herself to an ...
...far removed from Von Trier's. Breaking The Waves engages neither the soul nor the mind - it is an (admittedly well directed, for what its worth) insulting, offensive exercise in manipulation - a Sirkian melodrama shorn of heart or insight, loaded with bile and hatred in their stead. The performances, as is always the case in Von Trier's work, are wonderful throughout - far, far better than the film deserves. The handheld camerawork which would become ... Read review