Charade

Rating:
Summary: Great Movie...Low quality DVD
Review: As what you might call an "old movie fanatic" I have rewatched Charade again and again. It is a fun family movie complete with great cast, witty remarkes and a fun story. Although the quality of the dvd is not the best, I would definitally recomend this movie to all. Audrey Hepburn (my personal favorite) as well as Cari Grant are great together and fun to watch in this Hitchcock style murder mystery. Plus, if you are a fan of Stanely Donelson (the director)movies, this is another great one. Hope you enjoy one of my all time favorite movies!

Rating:
Summary: Great Movie...Low quality DVD
Review: As what you might call an "old movie fanatic" I have rewatched Charade again and again. It is a fun family movie complete with great cast, witty remarkes and a fun story. Although the quality of the dvd is not the best, I would definitally recomend this movie to all. Audrey Hepburn (my personal favorite) as well as Cari Grant are great together and fun to watch in this Hitchcock style murder mystery. Plus, if you are a fan of Stanely Donelson (the director)movies, this is another great one. Hope you enjoy one of my all time favorite movies!

Rating:
Summary: Dynamic Movie with Cary Grant and Audrey Hepburn!!!
Review: Audrey Hepburn play in this Alfred Hitchcock style movie as Reggie Lambert. When she returns home back to Paris after a skiing trip in the Alps, she finds that her husband has been murdered. From then on, Reggie is on the run from a group of sinister crooks who are searching for her husband's fortune and are convinced that she has them. But she has no idea what they're talking about! Everyone is on the search for the missing fortune. During this time Reggie is becoming very fond of a certain Peter Joshua (Cary Grant) who has come to her aid. But Reggie is having trouble distinguishing who the good guys are and who the bad guys are. Before she married her husband, was he involved in the stealing from the government? Did the gang members kill her husband? If not, who did? And more importantly, is Peter Joshua really who she thinks he is?

A wonderful blend of mystery and comedy, "Charade" will keep you fully entertained. The music is also wonderful, score by Henry Manicini, the song "Charade" which nominated an Academy Award for best song. Not only does it have the superb acting skills of Cary Grant and Audrey Hepburn, it all stars Walter Matthau, James Coburn, George Kennedy, Ned Glass, and more. If you like Alfred Hitchcock movies, trust me, this is a movie you just have to watch!!!

Rating:
Summary: Beware Of Which Transfer of Charade You Buy
Review: Charade has seen several different releases on DVD. Most of the releases use inferior masters. The only release that offers a clear picture and sound is the Criterion Collection release. The other releases are budget releases, and while watchable, are vastly inferior to the Criterion release. I do have one of the budget DVD's as the Criterion release is very expensive, and I enjoy the DVD, but I'm saving my pennies for the Criterion release for this one, or if the Criterion transfer is made available at a more reasonable price. Charade is a classic thriller/mystery with comedic touches that will leave you guesing to the end. Mancini's score is fantastic, and the chemistry between Grant and Hepburn is electric.This is one of Grant's finest on-screen moments. 5 stars for the movie and 2 stars for the budget transfer equal a total rating of 3.5.

Rating:
Summary: CHARADE
Review: CHARADE is a witty Hitchcock-type romantic thriller from ace musical director Stanley Donen. It stars Cary Grant at his peak, the inimitable Audrey Hepburn (of course dressed by Givenchy) & a who's who of supporting character actors who eventually became stars. A man is killed but his booty is missing. Both the French police & his partners in crime are looking. Grant & Hepburn who meet in the ski resort of Megeve, Walter Matthau in the US embassy, James Coburn & George Kennedy are some of those searching for missing fortune. Where is it & who's got it? They look all over Paris (it's never been more beautiful) before the meat markets of Les Halles were torn down, with memorable background music by Henry Mancini also at his tops. It is both suspenseful mystery & romantic comedy. They just don't make them like this anymore. When asked what movie he'd like to be stranded with on a desert island, Michael Caine replied, "Charade!" I agree. Review based on the Criterion DVD trasnfer.

Rating:
Summary: CHARADE
Review: CHARADE is a witty Hitchcock-type romantic thriller from ace musical director Stanley Donen. It stars Cary Grant at his peak, the inimitable Audrey Hepburn (of course dressed by Givenchy) & a who's who of supporting character actors who eventually became stars. A man is killed but his booty is missing. Both the French police & his partners in crime are looking. Grant & Hepburn who meet in the ski resort of Megeve, Walter Matthau in the US embassy, James Coburn & George Kennedy are some of those searching for missing fortune. Where is it & who's got it? They look all over Paris (it's never been more beautiful) before the meat markets of Les Halles were torn down, with memorable background music by Henry Mancini also at his tops. It is both suspenseful mystery & romantic comedy. They just don't make them like this anymore. When asked what movie he'd like to be stranded with on a desert island, Michael Caine replied, "Charade!" I agree. Review based on the Criterion DVD trasnfer.

Rating:
Summary: Watch Out!
Review: CHARADE is definitely one of the most fun films that I've seen in a long time. The actors and actresses must have had a whale of a time. The story is engrossing and fast-moving. The direction is confident and engaging. A lot of movies will try to dazzle the audience with a lot of excess complexity and subplots that are ultimately pointless. However, CHARADE is a film that takes its simplicity and goofiness for what it is and runs with it. The movie may sacrifice the plot for entertainment purposes, but the effect is well worth it.

Watching this film, one gets the impression that most of the cast were having a wildly entertaining time of it. They relish every line, and each joke is delivered perfectly. Even lines that don't seem to be obviously funny are dispensed with a certain amusing flair. Walter Matthau steals every scene he's in, which is particularly impressive given that he spends a fair portion of his screen-time talking to Audrey Hepburn through a prop phone. Cary Grant clearly enjoyed playing a character of apparently questionable loyalties and attacks the role with everything he's worth. The mysterious three men who show up also add a lot of amusement value. Of the main cast, only Hepburn plays her character utterly straight, though it completely suits the movie so it's probably just as well that no one seems to have told her that it was a goofy comedy.

The plot is a little weak, and there will be nothing here that you haven't seen before in other, more conventional, thrillers. There's a lost fortune totaling a quarter of a million dollars. There's a widow searching for her cash with three ominous men on her trail. The men want the money. So does the FBI. The woman is attracted to a much older man whose help she so desperately needs. Absolutely nobody is really who they seem, yadda yadda yadda. The advantage that this film has over the many similar movies that contain the identical plot is that it plays to its strengths. The bad guys are so obviously evil that the script went the extra mile of giving one of them a metal claw for a hand. Loyalties change amusingly at every opportunity. Characters, at times, will do things that don't seem to be quite logical. Yet the film confidently bounces forward, ignoring the details, and compensates for the occasional lack of substance with whole cartloads worth of style. At times, you're not even sure if you're laughing with the movie or at it, but that doesn't seem to matter; the film knows what its weaknesses are, displays them proudly for all to see, and thus provides the audience with great entertainment value.

Even the story gets a bit confused as to who's on which side, but it's entertaining enough that we forgive any flaws in the plot. At the conclusion we actually get a fairly standard, and surprisingly effective, thriller-type ending. Had the entire film been carried out in this fashion, it simply wouldn't have worked, but as a small, bite-sized ending to an entertaining film, it's a successful change.

The film quality on this DVD was not terribly good. It's certainly watchable for the most part, but there are several annoying jumps and skips. The picture quality is fairly clear, though I wouldn't go as far as to say it was sharp. The sound quality is acceptable, but for some reason there are portions that are completely out of sync with the picture. This gap varied in visibility throughout the feature, becoming more and less annoying as time went on. Also, this is the first Laserlight DVD without an amazingly over-the-top and hammy introduction (or, indeed, any introduction) by Tony Curtis. What gives? Give the people what they want!

As an inexpensive purchase, this DVD seems to hold up fairly well. The movie is quite a bit of fun and the disc itself is relatively good considering that you're paying for a budget release. This is definitely recommended as a movie that doesn't require much thought, but which is miles away from being mindless filler.

Rating:
Summary: Goofy as all get out
Review: CHARADE is definitely one of the most fun films that I've seen in a long time. The actors and actresses must have had a whale of a time. The story is engrossing and fast-moving. The direction is confident and engaging. A lot of movies will try to dazzle the audience with a lot of excess complexity and subplots that are ultimately pointless. However, CHARADE is a film that takes its simplicity and goofiness for what it is and runs with it. The movie may sacrifice the plot for entertainment purposes, but the effect is well worth it.

Watching this film, one gets the impression that most of the cast were having a wildly entertaining time of it. They relish every line, and each joke is delivered perfectly. Even lines that don't seem to be obviously funny are dispensed with a certain amusing flair. Walter Matthau steals every scene he's in, which is particularly impressive given that he spends a fair portion of his screen-time talking to Audrey Hepburn through a prop phone. Cary Grant clearly enjoyed playing a character of apparently questionable loyalties and attacks the role with everything he's worth. The mysterious three men who show up also add a lot of amusement value. Of the main cast, only Hepburn plays her character utterly straight, though it completely suits the movie so it's probably just as well that no one seems to have told her that it was a goofy comedy.

The plot is a little weak, and there will be nothing here that you haven't seen before in other, more conventional, thrillers. There's a lost fortune totaling a quarter of a million dollars. There's a widow searching for her cash with three ominous men on her trail. The men want the money. So does the FBI. The woman is attracted to a much older man whose help she so desperately needs. Absolutely nobody is really who they seem, yadda yadda yadda. The advantage that this film has over the many similar movies that contain the identical plot is that it plays to its strengths. The bad guys are so obviously evil that the script went the extra mile of giving one of them a metal claw for a hand. Loyalties change amusingly at every opportunity. Characters, at times, will do things that don't seem to be quite logical. Yet the film confidently bounces forward, ignoring the details, and compensates for the occasional lack of substance with whole cartloads worth of style. At times, you're not even sure if you're laughing with the movie or at it, but that doesn't seem to matter; the film knows what its weaknesses are, displays them proudly for all to see, and thus provides the audience with great entertainment value.

Even the story gets a bit confused as to who's on which side, but it's entertaining enough that we forgive any flaws in the plot. At the conclusion we actually get a fairly standard, and surprisingly effective, thriller-type ending. Had the entire film been carried out in this fashion, it simply wouldn't have worked, but as a small, bite-sized ending to an entertaining film, it's a successful change.

The film quality on this DVD was not terribly good. It's certainly watchable for the most part, but there are several annoying jumps and skips. The picture quality is fairly clear, though I wouldn't go as far as to say it was sharp. The sound quality is acceptable, but for some reason there are portions that are completely out of sync with the picture. This gap varied in visibility throughout the feature, becoming more and less annoying as time went on. Also, this is the first Laserlight DVD without an amazingly over-the-top and hammy introduction (or, indeed, any introduction) by Tony Curtis. What gives? Give the people what they want!

As an inexpensive purchase, this DVD seems to hold up fairly well. The movie is quite a bit of fun and the disc itself is relatively good considering that you're paying for a budget release. This is definitely recommended as a movie that doesn't require much thought, but which is miles away from being mindless filler.

Rating:
Summary: Great Movie...Low quality DVD
Review: I love Cary Grant and I'm working on building up my collection of dvd classics, "Charade" is a very welcome addition. This movie is a 'whodunit' that leaves you speculating the entire time - not only for the identity of the murderer but also what name/occupation Cary Grant is finally going to end up with. I didn't realize until the end that this was the movie Julia Roberts was watching in Pretty Woman, just before she goes downstairs in her robe looking for Richard Gere.

I didn't give this movie 5 stars because the quality was somewhat lacking - mostly this should be expected in such an old movie. But my biggest irritation was that, although it had been advertised as a full-screen format and the ratio wasn't too bad, it was NOT full-screen. Unlike seemingly the majority of the population, I prefer full-screen and when a dvd is advertised as such, that's what I expect to get.

Rating:
Summary: Very good classic, but a relatively low-quality dvd
Review: I love Cary Grant and I'm working on building up my collection of dvd classics, "Charade" is a very welcome addition. This movie is a 'whodunit' that leaves you speculating the entire time - not only for the identity of the murderer but also what name/occupation Cary Grant is finally going to end up with. I didn't realize until the end that this was the movie Julia Roberts was watching in Pretty Woman, just before she goes downstairs in her robe looking for Richard Gere.

I didn't give this movie 5 stars because the quality was somewhat lacking - mostly this should be expected in such an old movie. But my biggest irritation was that, although it had been advertised as a full-screen format and the ratio wasn't too bad, it was NOT full-screen. Unlike seemingly the majority of the population, I prefer full-screen and when a dvd is advertised as such, that's what I expect to get.