The Big Parade [Blu-ray Book]

Excellent Early Film on the First World War
The Big Parade is a lengthy film but, for the most part, it is lively and fast-paced. At the beginning, I thought the film was the classic tale of a naive, spoiled rich kid (played by the great John Gilbert) drawn to the battle field by the parades and glamorization of the war. It is so much more than that. The main character, Jim Apperson, acually adjusts to soldier life very well. He quickly acquires two close buddies (played by Tom O'Brien and Karl Dane), demonstrates impressive innovation and ambition (creating a shower out of a barrel) and--of course--gets a French girlfriend, Melisande (played by Renee Adoree).

The first half of the film is a bit slow at times, although the antics of O'Brien and Dane provide comedy relief that is often hilarious (especially Dane's character). It is definitely worth the wait when Jim's unit goes off to battle. Melisande desperately clings to Jimmy not to leave (symbolism that foreshadows Jim's ultimate fate). Once on the battlefield, the...
A Great Film that Deserves a Proper DVD Restoration
In many ways, King Vidor's The Big Parade did for WWI films what Oliver Stone's Platoon did for Vietnam War films: it brought home the realities of the war in a fashion that better represented what had actually happened. In the process, it is thoroughly entertaining: scenes of typical silent melodrama are quickly replaced by serious thematics (eg, "patriotic" mob peer-pressure & bursts of nationalist fervor), fun male-bonding scenes, wonderful light romance and comedy, and finally, compelling and often very realistic scenes of warfare. The film is full of marvelous subtle allegorical references (eg, "mother knows best" comes to mind) and plays-on-words (the curse-rhyming soldier songs make one think of the title, which rhymes with the French-originated "charade"). I cannot praise this film highly enough for its modern story-structure and production values, which were eons ahead of the times.

I agree with the previous reviewer who said that the...
The Big Parade Of Life
This is a review for THE BIG PARADE (1925) directed by King Vidor. Apparently THE BIG PARADE is not offically available on DVD, only on a VHS videotape made by WB in 1992.
That is a sad situation, one that should be remedied before long.

I believe that THE BIG PARADE was the war film responsible for the spate of WWI films that came out in the mid to late twenties and early thirties and as such was a groundbreaker. But much more than a trend setter, THE BIG PARADE is a very human story about an idle rich kid, played by John Gilbert, who, when he experiences life in the army, finds himself and is ready for the relationship that comes his way in fields and farms of France with a farmgirl played by Renee Adoree. Along the way the wealthy young man sees and starts to understand how most folks actually live and in the war, how they die.

All of this helps make the young man into a responsible adult and despite his war injury spurs him after the war, into...
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Scooby-Doo: Mystery Incorporated the Comp Ssn 1

What's New Scooby-Doo?
Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated is probably the biggest animated surprise I've seen in recent years. Before watching it I would have never thought there was a way of recreating these characters in a new, interesting way. The show managed to not only breath new life in to archetypal characters everyone already knows by heart, but also manages to put them in engaging stories and develop them as characters. I cared about the characters in Mystery Incorporated, and wanted to know how they'd get through things. Pretty impressive given this is the Scooby gang we're talking about.

I'm 20 years old now, and I'm not a hardcore Scooby fan. Of course I loved the Hanna-Barbera cartoons when I was a child, but they didn't exactly have incredible lasting power as I got older. Various other attempts to revise the characters likewise didn't impress me much either. 2002's "What's New Scooby-Doo?" tried updating the stories, and character designs for modern viewers but fell flat,...
Why not Blu-Ray?
I was pleasantly surprised with Scooby-Doo: Mystery Incorporated when it debuted on the Cartoon Network. The clever writing paid homage to the original series and much of the cartoon's long history. We even saw glimpses of other vintage Hanna Barbera cartoons pop up now and then. The animation style of the characters is a little too stylistic for my taste, being a bit too angular but it is nice to see them in their original clothes. The backgrounds are bright and a bit impressionistic but they work well and add greatly to the artistic feel of the series.
Unfortunately much of this artistry is greatly diminished on standard definition DVD. These brilliant colors and great animation scream for Blu-Ray presentation. As a long time collector of nearly every Scooby presentation from Warner Brothers, I struggled to put off buying the piecemeal release of this iteration of the franchise but succumbed eventually. Now we have a new release of the first season in a complete package, but...
Overdone and Terrible!
The Scooby Doo franchise has already been overdone with too many direct to video films but THIS?! This is the absolute worst Scooby Doo series or any part of the franchise I have ever seen! I myself am not a huge Scooby Doo fans because I already thought the characters were bone- dry but this show is AWFUL! The monsters are gruesome, the setting is dark, the gang is not traveling and stuck in a dumb town, the characters are mean- spirited, the dialogue is awkward, and when it isn't, it is stupid! The "dad" wants nothing to do with his son, too. Here's my biggest problem with the show; Shaggy having to choose between Velma or Scooby! Not only don't I like the torn between two things story, but when Scooby accuses Shaggy of " cheating" on him--it's just STUPID!!! You can't date a dog! What the heck?! Overall, I really hate this show.
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The Haunting [Blu-ray]

THE PERFECT HAUNTED HOUSE MOVIE. ...WANNA KNOW WHY?
The story has, by now, been imitated endlessly. Four people on a haunted house just to study it. But this is just the premisse.

The great Robert Wise sets up the most perfect, most classic haunted-house film ever made. The screenplay is built on the principle that you don't have to see it (the gore, the blood, etc.) to feel the fear. So, this is one of those great films where the tension is constructed upon the things you hear... the things you know are there.

In the pre-CGI era, you really had to create something out of what you had. So, Mr. Wise had a great script (years ahead of its time), great characters, great actors, a great cameraman, and settings that are a wow!

This is what makes this film so much better than any other (not to mention its remake - who clearly goes for the predictable cheap-trick CGI effects).

The story is told in the most perfect classic form. From beginning to end, you follow the story in the most careful pace...
A chilling, sinister, sophisticated things that go bump
It is not often I love a book and go on to enjoy the Movie adaptation. To Kill a Mockingbird, comes to mind. But this is the case with the marvellous movie The Haunting. Since I adore spooky, sinister tales, I treasured Shirley Jackson's The Haunting of Hill House. And forget the silly, inane remake, this is the Mount Everest of Haunted House movies, only rivalled by The Legend of Hell House made nearly a decade later with Clive Revill, Pamela Franklin and Roddy McDowell and the Innocents with Deborah Kerr and Pamela Franklin. These three would make a super triple-feature of Houses with Things that go Bump, since all three deal not only with the supernatural, the complexities of the mind, but the force of the will lingering after death.

The Haunting is a rather faithful adaptation of Jackson's dark and spooky novel. The key word being spooky - not gory. If you are looking for buckets of blood, search on. This is a sophisticated movie that chills rather than shocks. Staring...
They don't make them like this anymore
Shirley Jackson's The Haunting of Hill House proved to be major force in the world of the ghost story and with its adaptation to film we have what may well be the all time best haunted house story. The movie is one of the last in the classic school of fright were the imagination is what gets you. With its gothic scenes and excellent use of shadow, The Haunting is that rare movie that delivers and continues to do so without having to rely on cheap gimmicks or gratuitous gore. A researcher invites a group of people to stay in the Hill House to determine if it is indeed haunted. We have two women, one an unmarried spinster, the other a free spirited lesbian. Both women have had psychic occurrences in the past and the spinster seems to have been taken by the house, her purpose in life is complete as she looks forward to becoming its caretaker. Yet the house does posses her and in a tragic turn of events claims yet another victim. Whether the house is haunted is undeniable, the actual...
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