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A Room With A View

A Room With A View

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Rating: 5 stars
Summary: If you love it, then you should buy it
Review: With A Room With a View, you either LOVE it like your firstborn child, or you think it's a trip down dullsville without any travel games to keep you entertained. I happen to think this is one of the greatest movies ever made, and I've probably seen this movie around 20 or 30 times. Yes, it's that good, and no, it doesn't get stale.

If you're a fan of the movie and you're wondering if you should get this movie, let me give you one word that should make you click on BUY NOW: Widescreen.

Only when you've seen a great movie on widescreen and THEN watched it in a Standard format can you truly appreciate how much is lost when you go from Widescreen to the standard "fit your TV" aspect ratio. I was so bugged at the lack of widescreen on one movie I recently purchased, that I had to stop watching it. Closeups were too close and the left and right sides of the screen were cut off (and you really do miss a lot when the left and right sides are cut off).

Get this movie because the Widescreen gives you a screen that you either forgot about or didn't even know was there. The picture and sound will naturally be better, but the addition of widescreen over CBS' standard format is like enjoying a big ol' bonus. For someone who's totally into this movie, it's a DVD you really have to get. You'll be short changing yourself otherwise.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Simply Spiffing! A Dreamy Delight.
Review: The original, quintessential, Merchant-Ivory film. Helena Bonham Carter as the lovely and lost Miss Lucy Honeychurch, on holiday in Florence with her cousin, played by Dame Maggie Smith. With Daniel Day-Lewis at his most uptight, and the only role Julian Sands can be proud of. When I was 16 my best-friend and I would put on our best Victorian threads and eat chocolates while we savored Freddy's hair, Lucy's Temper and "poor Charlotte". Not to mention George.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: My favorite movie of all time!
Review: Ah, how I long for the simpler times, when your biggest problem in life was not getting the room with the view you requested, and you just HAD to fall in love with an impetuous, romantic Adonis in lovely Florence, Itlay! Helena Bonham-Carter has the most fabulous hair on the planet- just had to say that. She plays Lucy Honeychurch, a young girl on holiday in Florence with her older cousin Charlotte (Maggie Smith), who is deemed her chaperone (remember those?). When Charlotte meets George Emerson (Julian Sands), her entire being is transformed, and she ends up finding him in "a field kissed with poppies" where he promptly and without warning gives her a full throttle kiss (and you can tell, this guy KNOWS how to kiss!). Charlotte happens to catch them, and promptly drags Lucy away. But as Lucy heads home for England and the security of "Windy Corner" (the family's estate), she cannot forgot George Emerson. To remove him from her mind, she agrees to marry Cecil (a VERY scrawny, pre-"Last of the Mohicans" Daniel Day-Lewis), a stuffy, over-the-top aristocrat who cares mainly for paintings, poetry, and how things look, rather than how they actually are. Lucy's perfectly crafted world comes to a screaming halt when inadvertently, Cecil finds a new tennant for the cottage down the street- you guessed it, George Emerson and his father move in. Where as George is relieved he's found Lucy, she is upset and scared, mainly because she knows how much this incredible man rocks her world and how his presence threatens her resolve and control. She denies within herself that she loves him, but as we know, love prevails over everything. A must have for your video library. Julian Sands is entirely lovely!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: "Oh, poor Charlotte!"
Review: I dare anyone to say anything negative about this movie. I cannot think of one element of this movie that disappointed me. I love the romance between Miss Lucy Honeychurch and Mr George Emerson. I adore the frustrating, "poor Charlotte Bartlett", Lucy's travel companion and thorn-in-her-side in matters of the heart. I love Cecil, wonderfully pompous Cecil. I want to be like Eleanor Lavish, the adventure-seeking, scandal-relishing novelist Charlotte and Lucy meet in Florence. Freddy and Mr Beebe provide delightful comic relief, as do the lovely Miss Allens. And who could not love George's doddering old Dad, Mr Emerson, especially when he upsets a tour group with his travelogue asides? If anyone is worried that their favourite book will suffer at the hands of uncaring, ignorant film makers, please, unfurrow your brow and see this movie. E.M. Forster's characters are brought to life by some of Britain's finest actors. The film is wonderfully scripted, beautifully filmed and majestically located. (There are only a handful of films that can claim to have created travel pangs in my Aussie-bound Dad.) It is a film I enjoy coming back to over and over again.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Incredible _film_ horribly mastered DVD
Review: I have seen this film dozens of time since its release in theaters. I find it the best of genre. I named my daughter Lucy! (after Lucy Honeychurch - Helena's character).

I have to warn others that the quality of the DVD is atrocious. So much so I believe it was mastered from a rented VHS copy! The video is mottled and not grand and beautiful as DVD should be. It doesn't play on any computer without stuttering either.

The lovers of this movie should press the companies involved to release a real master of this movie that does the creators justice.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Five stars to the movie, two to this DVD
Review: Any viewers who have a heraing-impairment, viewers who do not have English as their native language, or viewers that simply intend to watch this movie with a low volume-level, please be aware -- this DVD lacks both English subtitles and English Close Captioning. I had so looked forward to including this movie in my DVD library, but for some reason which is beyond me, the Image people were ignorant enough to leave out English subtitles/captions, rendering this film almost useless for me, and probably a lot of other people as well. All I can hope for is a Special Edition in the future, perhaps by another studio who takes the fine art of video production -- and us viewers -- more seriously.

However, if you have no need whatsoever for English subtitles, then go right ahead and buy this movie. It's romantic, it's fun, it's wonderful, and you will not regret it (see other reviews for more indepth content commentaries...).

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: buy this movie!
Review: great movie.....glad to see it finally make it to dvd. it's ashame the disc doesn't have any extras, but if you're a fan you'll still like it.... the picture quality is good and the new sound mix is nice....

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: I love this movie!
Review: A Room With a View has always been one of my favorite movies, from the time I first saw it in the theater. I've owned it on videocassette and watched it on laser disk, but this DVD is the best way to watch it! I'm new to the world of DVD (only bought 12 titles so far), but the DVD of Room With a View is the prize of my collection. I wish more early Merchant-Ivory films would be released to DVD - I'd buy them all. I think anyone who loves this film will love this disk.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: A hammer to a Michelangelo
Review: Only someone on the payroll of Image Entertainment could have anything good to say about this DVD. As far as I'm concerned, they should be prosecuted for defacing a great work of art in their shoddy and careless transfer of one of the great films in English: it reminds me of that lunatic who took a hammer to the Pieta. Unforgivable.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Great movie, greater DVD
Review: Merchant-Ivory's glorious adaptation of EM Forster's novel is given a beautiful presentation on DVD by the folks at Image Entertainment, who continue their commitment to release titles that the major studios are overlooking.

While it doesn't feature much in the way of supplements, their DVD of A ROOM WITH A VIEW features a transfer that blows away all previous video editions of the film. I compared it directly with my old CBS/FOX laserdisc, and the DVD wins hands-down. Gone is the gauzy look the old LD had, with poor contrasts and a generally blurry picture. The new DVD is sharp, colorful and gorgeous. It still has a bit of a soft-focus look to it (courtesy of Messrs Merchant and Ivory), but it's worlds beyond anything I've seen before. The disc also features a new 5.1 remixed soundtrack that may not be as active as the track on something like THE MATRIX, but gives the film a lush and pleasant feel nonetheless.

I highly recommend this disc to anyone who's a fan of the film or of Merchant-Ivory productions in general. You'll never seen a better-looking video presentation of this film, guaranteed.


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