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Blackmail, Murder & Mayhem

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Blue Velvet

Blue Velvet

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Rating: 5 stars
Summary: A Trip Surreal
Review: David Lynch takes us to a place we have never been before.His editing and point of view camera work is extremely disturbing.

Lynch wants to have it both ways and he does.What we see is bizzare and surreal and what we dont see is even more macabre. A quiet little town..and a subtext of the unreal..or more important a sadistic edge of existence.

Dennis Hopper plays.....himself mostly..with veins bulging insisting on Blue Ribbon Beer. A Hate story..A Love Story..A Meller, and everything else one can think of.

You wont take your eyes off of this film !

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Watch Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
Review: The one thing that many people don't realize about this movie is that is essentially a retelling of the movie Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1941). Key clues: Isabella Roselini is the daughter of Ingrid Bergman who plays essentially the same role in Dr. J. Dennis Hopper is Mr Hyde, and Kyle Machlachlan is Dr. Jekyll. Both films deal with evil as it is manifested in male sexual aggression. Dennis Hopper and Machlachlan are two sides of the same man. There are many other similarities and parallels, just watch Dr. J and find out for yourself (I don't have time to go over all the ones I've noticed). The subtext adds another dimension to this already great film.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: The Best Film of the 1980's
Review: I just recently saw David Lynch's "Blue Velvet" on the big screen (and in widescreen) for the first time. Having seen it now in its original aspect ratio, I can't bear to go back to my pan-and-scan videotape. Thank goodness that it's coming out on DVD. "Blue Velvet," quite simply, is the best film of the 1980's; the only film that comes close to it is Scorsese's "Raging Bull." "Blue Velvet" was so ahead of its time when it was first released back in 1986. In fact, it remains so today, judging by the bewildered faces of people who were at the revival showing I attended. The film precedes "American Beauty" in blowing the doors off of the closet that Suburbia keeps its skeletons in, telling the story of a young college kid who, after finding a severed human ear, gets caught up in murder and mayhem in his hometown of "Lumberton USA." Lynch goes to great lengths to set up his picture-book depiction of small-town American life (complete with bright red fire trucks, white picket fences, and blue skies) before taking a wrecking ball to it. Like he did in his debut, "Eraserhead," Lynch shows us what we look like (tedium and all) but purposely twists our view of it, like a mad optometrist giving us the wrong eyeglass prescription. Apart from the fine directing, "Blue Velvet" boasts an excellent cast that delivers each line with patented Lynch-quirkiness. Kyle MacLachlan plays Jeffrey Beaumont like a modern-day Dante, travelling through the Inferno he never knew his hometown was. Isabella Rosselini is spectacularly disturbing as Dorothy Vallens, a lounge singer whose husband and son have been abducted. Her character is a first: a femme fatale who is more dangerous to herself than anyone else. And in what may be one of the top ten tour-de-force performances of all time, Dennis Hopper, as oxygen-huffing crime boss/hedonist Frank Booth, makes you laugh one minute, and cringe with fear the next after realizing that such a person probably does exist. You may not agree that "Blue Velvet" is the best film of the 80's but you'll have to do some digging to find one more original. It is a contemporary film noir classic that deserves to withstand the test of time like older noir classics such as "Double Indemnity" and "The Big Sleep." So far, it appears to be holding up. It's a strange world and "Blue Velvet" (both the film itself and the fact that it was made) is solid proof of just how strange it can be.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: I can't believe the press this thing gets!
Review: Do you ever FINALLY get around to seing a movie that everyone is always referring to and then when you see it, you wonder, what the HECK were they talking about! The acting was terrible, the erotic scenes were distrubing, and the plot was totally weak. Maybe if I had seen this movie 15 years ago the first time I would have been impressed but I just ended up being mystified at what all the noise was about...

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: A classic David Lynch film
Review: This is the movie that made me a fan of David Lynch. Contains all the elements of a typical David Lynch film; erotism (to a kinky level), soft violence action and a soft exotic melody that remains in your mind. Isabella Rossellini is marvelous with her uncommon and unbeatable beauty. This movie can be classified as a classic that must be present in every collectors shelf

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: YES!
Review: FINALLY! I'm hoping this is the beginning of a Lynch DVD renaissance, as Eraserhead, The Elephant Man and Wild At Heart are sitting idly by, waiting for the royal treatment they deserve. As for the lack of special features, Lynch is of the Kubrick variety, he wants his movies to speak for themselves, so don't expect any commentary on his DVDs. At least its in widescreen! Blue Velvet, along with Raging Bull, is arguably the most important film of the 80's. It heralded a new artistic peak in American filmmaking and established independent film as a commercially and critically viable industry, not to mention one where original, high-risk stories could be told. Blue Velvet is a very dark and sensual masterpiece. The fans know what's up. The uninitiated should check this film out.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Sexy, Scary, and Provocative
Review: This is the movie that got me hooked on David Lynch's movies. Its a film about the seedier side of suburban life that lives just below the surface of what and who we see every day, however, being a Lynch movie it takes this synopsis to new and freaky heights. The movie begins with Maclachlan finding a severed ear. Eventually leading him to the apartment of Rossellini, where he witnesses a bizarre sexual triste between Rossellini and Hopper. I'm not going to say any more about the plot, but trust me it gets better. Anyway, I thought Hopper was at his coolest as a sexual psychotic, really mean and paranoid. I highly recommend this Lynchian masterpiece, which is one of his finest works, (plus the storyline is easy to follow, unlike some of his movies)

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: "NO HEINEKEN...ONLY BLUE RIBBON PABST!"
Review: To describe the aura of David Lynch's 1986 masterpiece would be challenging. Not only is the atmosphere of the non-descript Smalltown U.S.A. simple and innocent, it manages to have that same bleak and weary feel we've become so used to seeing in Lynch's films. The story is original: boy finds ear in field, boy wants to know more about why he found a severed ear, boy gets confidential information regarding the case, boy hides out in a crimescene closet, boy gets discovered by bad guys and then boy endures punishment etc... But the real keepers here are the scenes with Dean Stockwell. A scene not to be missed is "A candy colored Clown they call the sandman", when Frank (Dennis Hopper) demands for Stockwell to sing to him Roy Orbison's 'In Dreams'. During the course of the song, Frank can't take it anymore, the music is too powerful, overwhelming him with beauty and therefore stops the tape. There are many more scenes that left me breathless and gasping for more, but I will leave that to you the viewer to go out and discover.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Shocking, harrowing and brilliant
Review: The dark underbelly of a typical suburban town is uncovered in this dangerous and innovative film that is David Lynch's best work, if you ask me. Lynch has made several solid films, although his style may be a little too strange for clear analysis. "Blue Velvet," however, is top-of-the-line filmmaking that leaves a taste in your mouth that is bad in a very good way. Dennis Hopper sucking from his oxygen mask as he rapes Isabella Rosselini is one of the most unsettling and memorable images of modern cinema. At first, Kyle Maclachlan's character seems like a young guy who lives such a normal, mundane life that it is hard to not be able to relate to him. However, after what he sees in the events that follow, it is hard to imagine what frame of mind I would be left with. It starts with finding a human ear in a grassy field and, after the rape, tracking down Dennis Hopper's character, and coming across a slew of subversively perverse people, he witnesses an enormity of violence to cloud anyone's perspective. Depending on what kind of moviewatcher you are, I would rent this one first, because it's not for all tastes. Personally, I think that, next to Martin Scorsese's "Raging Bull," this is the best film of the 1980s.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Lynch at his Best
Review: David Lynch's best work to date is the story of a typical all-American USA town where all things seem perfect and normal. That is...until we see what a strange world it is. The boy finds a severed ear in a nearby dirt path on the way to the hospital and sets the story in motion. The cinematography has to be some of the best around, especially noticable in the opening scenes with the bright pastel colors of the town, the reds, the blues - so vivid - to give you the small town USA look. A detective mystery story told in Lynch's world where the weird only gets weirder. Dennis Hopper in one of his best roles as the wacked-out methyl junkie who holds a child hostage. If you like odd, this is your film. Not for the squeamish.


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