sampleman411-1
Joined Feb 2002
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sampleman411-1's rating
An American-Asian Quilt woven by worthy hands.
Four women and their daughters tell their life stories in a stunning film worthy of Industry respect. Pearls of wisdom come from the mothers, engendering more understanding of our parents (regardless of their ethnicity), and how youth seems more concerned with peer pressure than with their individuality (and unique, ethnic nature).
Understandably this epic story becomes all too melodramatic in its unfolding of maternal traumas throughout the older women's years (such as infanticide and the dishonor suffered by unwilling concubines), but it is still worth viewing. The younger women (the daughters) go through a spiritual evolution, and are the better for this.
Four women and their daughters tell their life stories in a stunning film worthy of Industry respect. Pearls of wisdom come from the mothers, engendering more understanding of our parents (regardless of their ethnicity), and how youth seems more concerned with peer pressure than with their individuality (and unique, ethnic nature).
Understandably this epic story becomes all too melodramatic in its unfolding of maternal traumas throughout the older women's years (such as infanticide and the dishonor suffered by unwilling concubines), but it is still worth viewing. The younger women (the daughters) go through a spiritual evolution, and are the better for this.
Extraterrestrials land in Florida and, instead, become victim to desperate, elderly Earthlings wanting to cling to the beauty of love and life. Their are no real villains in this film and, because of this, only adds realism to a story that deals more with humanity, than it does a 'flight of fancy.'
Cast: Maureen Stapleton's trembling lips speak volumes. A motley crew of veteran theater and big-screen actors given a worthwhile opportunity to effectively emote and stand center-stage, in what I consider to be a winning swan song vehicle (today, some of these actors are no longer with us).
What should have ended up on the cutting-room floor: "May the Force be with you!"--Steve Guttenberg's farewell
Director: Ron Howard did miracles with material that, unlike the film "Close Encounters of the Third Kind," moves the human spirit and treats its actors like three dimensional beings, and not pawns to be foisted smack-dab in special-effects that threaten to take over the entire picture.
Ameche took home the "Supporting Actor" Oscar. If you ask me, the entire supporting cast should have been given a Herscholt Humanitarian Award.
Rather than your ears and eyes, listen and watch "Cocoon" with your heart. The film's climax is a metaphor, and it's up to the viewer to decide what type of metaphor this is.
Cast: Maureen Stapleton's trembling lips speak volumes. A motley crew of veteran theater and big-screen actors given a worthwhile opportunity to effectively emote and stand center-stage, in what I consider to be a winning swan song vehicle (today, some of these actors are no longer with us).
What should have ended up on the cutting-room floor: "May the Force be with you!"--Steve Guttenberg's farewell
Director: Ron Howard did miracles with material that, unlike the film "Close Encounters of the Third Kind," moves the human spirit and treats its actors like three dimensional beings, and not pawns to be foisted smack-dab in special-effects that threaten to take over the entire picture.
Ameche took home the "Supporting Actor" Oscar. If you ask me, the entire supporting cast should have been given a Herscholt Humanitarian Award.
Rather than your ears and eyes, listen and watch "Cocoon" with your heart. The film's climax is a metaphor, and it's up to the viewer to decide what type of metaphor this is.
A priest and a psychiatrist battle against the devil to protect Regan's soul.
'Would've's' and 'Should've's' abound, but they are necessary...
'Heretic' is not a horror film by any viable gradient, but it is still worth watching. Unfortunately it might make one want to occasionally snicker, and only become horrified when one asks him/herself that the 'makers of this one could have spend the production dollars on less lofty pursuits, and gotten a tidier profit in the offing ('Heretic' bombed, and bombed badly at the box-office!).
'Heretic' is unjustly underrated for not living up to the horror success and excess of its predecessor. This sequel features excellent histrionic contributions by actors Von Sydow and Jones (as the two admirable father figures'), fantasmagorical cinematography and sound (Whitlock mattes don't hurt either) and a plot/storyline that could have really gone somewhere if the makers had instead decided to write a seriously gripping novel first, and a so-so adaptation second.
Von Sydow returns as a much younger Fr. Merrin. The actor's role should have been further expanded, allowing for less unintentional audience laughs caused by other characters.
Fletcher and Burton, both talented actors in their individual right, only make matters worse by agreeing (or allowing) to break from their characters and trust the other to further ruin the storyline. For instance, why does the, initially responsible, and highly professional, psychiatrist suddenly trust the priest to commandeer her mutually-hypnotic sessions with Regan, when the priest has not been properly briefed and trained?
Fletcher herself somewhat physically resembles actress Burstyn (who played Regan's mother in the original film), so it seems an even better (and preferable) creative effort to have merely cast her as such, instead of allowing for her character to further muddle a storyline (as evidence points in the original film, science has nothing to do with Regan's condition) that only gets more confusing as it comes to its grinding halt ending.
Some video releases retain the ridiculous survival of one particular character, who gives a groaningly transparent attempt to seem victorious and biblical. Other video versions did away with this character altogether, sparing its audience further torture' and allowing viewers to catch their breath from having laughed so hard.
Why Linda Blair thought this script was worth being a part of is anybody's guess. She was, no doubt because of her tender age, going through her own brand of inner turmoil and couldn't see straight.
'Would've's' and 'Should've's' abound, but they are necessary...
'Heretic' is not a horror film by any viable gradient, but it is still worth watching. Unfortunately it might make one want to occasionally snicker, and only become horrified when one asks him/herself that the 'makers of this one could have spend the production dollars on less lofty pursuits, and gotten a tidier profit in the offing ('Heretic' bombed, and bombed badly at the box-office!).
'Heretic' is unjustly underrated for not living up to the horror success and excess of its predecessor. This sequel features excellent histrionic contributions by actors Von Sydow and Jones (as the two admirable father figures'), fantasmagorical cinematography and sound (Whitlock mattes don't hurt either) and a plot/storyline that could have really gone somewhere if the makers had instead decided to write a seriously gripping novel first, and a so-so adaptation second.
Von Sydow returns as a much younger Fr. Merrin. The actor's role should have been further expanded, allowing for less unintentional audience laughs caused by other characters.
Fletcher and Burton, both talented actors in their individual right, only make matters worse by agreeing (or allowing) to break from their characters and trust the other to further ruin the storyline. For instance, why does the, initially responsible, and highly professional, psychiatrist suddenly trust the priest to commandeer her mutually-hypnotic sessions with Regan, when the priest has not been properly briefed and trained?
Fletcher herself somewhat physically resembles actress Burstyn (who played Regan's mother in the original film), so it seems an even better (and preferable) creative effort to have merely cast her as such, instead of allowing for her character to further muddle a storyline (as evidence points in the original film, science has nothing to do with Regan's condition) that only gets more confusing as it comes to its grinding halt ending.
Some video releases retain the ridiculous survival of one particular character, who gives a groaningly transparent attempt to seem victorious and biblical. Other video versions did away with this character altogether, sparing its audience further torture' and allowing viewers to catch their breath from having laughed so hard.
Why Linda Blair thought this script was worth being a part of is anybody's guess. She was, no doubt because of her tender age, going through her own brand of inner turmoil and couldn't see straight.