Rating: 
Summary: Pure Chemistry With Grant & Hepburn!!!!
Review: Cary Grant & Audrey Hepburn were a magical team to see on screen, and I can't think of a better movie to illustrate it than Charade. A comedic spy adventure accented with additional stars like Walter Mathau and James Coburn, this movie will keep you laughing in between the thrills of a classic 60's spy film. Henry Mancini's music is a fantastic companion to the story line and truly captures the time period. I love this movie and never tire of watching it. For every: Grant / Hepburn fan, fans of 60's spy films and people who love humour, you must see this. They just don't make movies like this anymore, and they don't make stars like this either.
Rating:
Summary: Criterion scores again!
Review: I got this DVD for Christmas and I wasn't disappointed. Stanley Donen, director of musicals such as "Singin' In The Rain" starring Gene Kelly, brought together Cary Grant and Audrey Hepburn (who looks luminous, as always) in this wonderfully-written story about a Parisian widow (Hepburn) who is being pursued by three dangerous men (two of which are played by George Kennedy - an excellent "heavy" - and James Coburn at his most menacing) who want to find out about a large sum of money her dead husband supposedly had. Grant is the helpful stranger but eventually you begin to wonder: is he working with these men? Does he want the money for himself? Or is he really the handsome, older man Audrey finds herself falling in love with?Enhanced by a lush score by the late Henry Mancini, photographed beautifully in Paris and containing first-rate acting and deliciously wicked dialogue by writer Peter Stone, "Charade" is a film that should be in every serious DVD collection. Grant is older but better, like fine wine, and Ms. Hepburn ... well there have been millions of words used to describe her and I can't add to them other than to say the world lost a marvelous talent at her death. You'll enjoy "Charade" for a long, long time.
Rating:
Summary: the original is always better
Review: and lucky for you this is the original. loved it.
Rating:
Summary: An Example of Pure Class
Review:
I personally think, whenever anyone wants to make or write or watch a suspenseful mystery with wit and real style, they should stop, get a copy of Charade, get comfortable and prepare for one of the best treats they're ever going to experience.
From the word go, you're experiencing pure class. Cary Grant, who was never better (Father Goose, perhaps- and also written by Peter Stone), and Audrey Hepburn had chemistry that I don't think either ever had with anyone else. In fact, they may be 'the' example of chemistry. Age difference? Really? You would never know it, seeing the love unfold between them.
Add James Coburn, Ned Glass, George Kennedy (an example of a pre Bond villan if ever there was one)... and Walter Matthau. It doesn't get any better. They hold their own with terrific performances against two of Hollywood's best- and that's no easy feat.
The story unfolds the way a great mystery should. Who killed Lambert, and what has happened to the money that has drawn them all together? It keeps you guessing- as does Grant's identity, right til the end. Peter Stone's dialogue, pacing and wit lift this from period piece work to timeless entertainment. It doesn't matter what generation watches this- they'll learn the lines and introduce it to others.
One of the things I always found interesting about it- apparently Cary Grant was offered James Bond when the series was first being pitched (as was James Mason). Both would only do one movie and the producers knew it was going to be a series of films. If anyone ever wondered what Grant's Bond would have been like, watch this film. I swear the future Bond screenwriter's did. Listen to the great one liners! The fight on the roof with Herman's hook and the " I left him hanging around the American Express building! "
This is another one for the personal library. Pure fun and what entertainment is really all about.
Rating:
Summary: Beware of used older non-anamorphic DVDs
Review: As mentioned by maynard255 in May, 2004, the initial version of the Criterion Collection DVD was produced in a non-anamorphic format. On a new widescreen TV, this will be stretched across the screen, but with the letter box bars still on top and bottom. This means that you have to recable your DVD player to the TV in such a fashion that you can send the picture to the TV as if it were 4:3 letterbox, then expand the picture to fill the screen.
Better to buy a new version of the DVD, that is anamorphic. A small correction to maynard255's comment. Criterion is offering the upgraded DVD to existing owners, not for $15 dollars, but for $15 off the list price, in other words, for $25 plus $5 for shipping.
Rating: 
Summary: what could be better???
Review: ...than Hepburn and Grant starring in a movie together. This movie is funny at sometimes, frightening at others, and romantic throughout! I laughed at a friend who told me this was a scary movie...but it is! Also there is so many twists and turns that you don't know what will happen next!!!
Rating:
Summary: Can a film be more amusing and interesting?
Review: Story: A group of WW2 soldiers were supposed to deliver gold from the O.S.S (C.I.A. predecessor), but decided to stash it for themselves later. Years later, the hunt is on, for the gold is not where it was hidden. Audrey Hepburn's husband snatched it and tried to run,but got tossed from a train. But, where's the gold? Hepburn doesn't know, and neither do the thieves, Ned Glass, George Kennedy, and James Coburn. And, who is Cary Grant, and how is he involved?
This film is the most Hitchcockian non-Hitchcock film I've ever seen, in the pace, the music, the tension, the snippets of romance and comedy, and the style. How could there not be style, with Audrey Hepburn and Cary Grant as the leads?
Thoroughly enjoyable!
Rating: 
Summary: Not perfect, not Audrey's best, nor Cary's, BUT
Review: stuill a thoroughly enjoyable flick. Suspense, comedy, great character actors, killer setting, intriguing plotline.. what more can you ask for, really? A nice evening's entertainment. BTW, I cannot remember what version I bought, but it cost me $6 in a national retail chain, and also had a bonus of a VERY obscure low-budget flick from 1953 also called Charade, starring James and Pamela Mason! This version even had a trivia quiz!
Rating:
Summary: "How Do You Shave in There?" The Timeless Question...
Review: ...that Audrey Hepburn poses on Cary Grant (discussing his chin cleft, of course) in CHARADE, an excerise in both anachronism and experimentation.
Suspenseful and charming, funny and frenetic, and making full use of its Parisian location and capable cast (as well as a memorable Mancini score), director Stanley Donen pulls together a superior film that, in many ways, serves as a signpost of the changing times.
CHARADE was released at the end of 1963, after JFK's assasination (in fact, that word was used in the film by Audrey Hepburn, and was dubbed out in certain showings during its initial release), and on the eve of the Beatles invasion. Viewed today, it plays almost like a marriage of the Golden Age of Hollywood and the darker, more explicit modern era of film.
Fortunately, CHARADE moves from dark to light with ease, aided by the cast, with the two leads in fine form, and two more excellent performances from Walter Matthau and James Coburn. Even Grant himself can manage to be sinister at times, and the final chase scene (I won't spoil the ending) is particularly well done.
Another, more subdued sign of change- this was Cary Grants' final film as the romantic lead (he made 2 more films, but neither FATHER GOOSE nor WALK, DONT RUN depict him dashingly wooing or romancing anyone). To see him, even at age 60, playing with the ease and assurance that carried him through his career is a great joy. Hepburn is the perfect foil, and this once-in-a-lifetime pairing shows both to the best advantage.
I guess I got a little deep here, but CHARADE is highly recommended, and fans of both old and new Hollywood will find something to enjoy here...if you're expecting a typical romantic thriller, be forwarned- there is DEFINITELY more than meets the eye here...enjoy...
Rating: 
Summary: Charade
Review: This is a great Cary Grant , Hepburn film. BUT be forwarned. The Madacy Intertainment version DOESN't have captions for the hearing impaired. In Fact all the films I have bought from Madacy are WITHOUT captions. I don't patronize this company.
|
