Rating: Summary: What a Pleasure Review: It is so great to finally have these two films on DVD, and even better to have them both in one package. Pink Flamingos is always fun to revisit, particularly with all the extras that were included in the 25th Anniversary edition, but the gem here is Female Trouble. This is Water's crowning achievement. He and his Dreamland crew were never sicker and never funnier. Buy these discs and you will ask yourself the same question that has puzzled me for years: where is Water's lifetime achievement Oscar?
Rating: Summary: Uncut, uncouth, & hilarious! Review: John Waters, in his pre-"Hairspray" days, used to make extremely raunchy comedies about White Trash, predating the "Jerry Springer Show" by decades and actually SHOWING his audience the behavior that most actual guests on "Springer" only talk (or dream) about. Thankfully, Waters' films are FAR funnier than anything served up on TV or in recent films, for that matter. Water's two crowning achievements are now included here on one release."Female Trouble" is probably Waters' best film. It features the greatest performance by Divine ever captured on film. The story traces juvenile delinquent Dawn Davenport from her days as high-school misfit to her notorious days as a crime celebrity who has been brainwashed to believe "Crime Is Beauty." "Pink Flamingos" is hands-down Waters' most notorious film which deals with the competition between two rival families for the title of the "Filthiest Person Alive." Both films contain hilarious commentary tracks by Waters, who is as funny or funnier off-the-cuff than written. It's as if you're watching these flicks with your wittiest, chattiest, most gossipy friend who happens to have all the inside dirt on the productions. Also, for those out there who have already seen "Female Trouble," this is a cut which restores two sequences which were deleted from many theatrical and video releases! These are great black comedies, not for the faint of heart...Together with the DVD release of "Polyester/Desperate Living," this is all the Waters you'll need.
Rating: Summary: Now for a review by someone who has actually SEEN the dvd... Review: This is, by far, the best John Waters dvd two-pack. With "Female Trouble" as one of the films, how could it not be? As others have noted before, "Female Trouble" is John Waters' best early film, and perhaps the best film of his career. Notable facts about this dvd release: "Female Trouble" has been "restored" to the "original uncut full-length version". Many scenes are longer, some significantly so. Some of the lines which have been edited out over the years are truly priceless, such as Aunt Ida saying to Taffy: "If you ever get tired of being a Hairy Krishner [sic], you come live with me and be a lesbian." What surprised me is how much was cut. The Castro Theater in San Francisco periodically features "Female Trouble," and the print they use has always contained a few additional lines here and there. The version on this dvd goes much further. While I didn't see "Female Trouble" in its initial theatrical release (I was only 12 years old!), I assume that the packaging is correct and that the film now appears in its original length. The audio has definitely been improved over the previous VHS tape release, particularly noticable on some of the music clips; the video also looks cleaner. Included on the "Pink Flamingos" disc are deleted scenes. I haven't listened to the commentary tracks yet, but based on John's commentaries for his other films, I'm sure they'll be a hoot. Definitely a must-own for John Waters fans or anyone with an appreciation for high camp.
Rating: Summary: Yes, this stuff is trash... DIVINE trash! Review: Still shocking after all these years, these are Waters' two best films. If you're afraid you might not like them, don't bother, they were never meant for YOU. Horrifyingly funny, deliciously deviant, appallingly brilliant. You gotta see them to believe them. Humor of the darkest shade. Some of us have been waiting for YEARS to own them. Getting both in one package, especially with Waters' commentary, is just like Christmas with cha-cha heels!
Rating: Summary: Fun for the entire family Review: ... Pink Flamingos is a great movie to put on at Thanksgiving to get the fun started. I've only seen this movie once, and that was three years ago, but I will never get some of those images out of my head. Not a first date movie, mind you, unless your date is into masochism and eating poo, but definitely second date material when you're trying to score (after watching this movie, you'll look like Brad Pitt, and if you're Brad Pitt, you'll look like young Sean Connery). If God was a transvestite man named Horace, he'd be Divine.
Rating: Summary: Move over "Citizen Kane"... Review: ...."Female Trouble" is THE ultimate american story. This fantastic film predates the Springer set by decades and hits the white-kids-in-suburbia buttons WAY better than any Aaron Spelling/Dawson whatever-pretty-white-kids-with-problems(thanks MadTV) modern dreck that spackles the airwaves now. Waters and his crack production team were visionaries of the REAL american life. THIS disc set is THE DVD release of the year! (Oh, and Pink Flamingos is pretty cool too.....)
Rating: Summary: Indeed it's trash - DIVINE TRASH!!! Review: ...Granted, I always forward through the chicken scene in Pink Flamingos, it's waayyy disturbing. But Female Trouble is a brilliant movie, full of laughs, highly irreverant and Divine is in HER (not its, as a previous unenlightened reviewer labeled her) element. The additional scenes are great, I don't understand why they were cut out of previous VHS versions. This is a movie to pop in every Christmas. Pink Flamingos is a ground breaker as well (probably a wind-breaker too, but that's another scene entirely). Very funny in many parts, and the soundtrack is great, unfortunately the music on the scene where Divine driving with her son Crackers has been changed - real fans notice this stuff - it just complemented the scene so perfectly before. Don't let that keep you from viewing trash at it's finest! Nice girls don't wear Cha-Cha heels!...
Rating: Summary: FEMALE TROUBLE: One of the best comedies of all-time! Review: "Female Trouble" is, by far, John Waters' best film. Ironically, it is also the most sadly neglected of all of his films. Long unavailable for several years, I am ecstatic to see it remastered and rereleased on DVD (with "Pink Flamingos" added in). There's a reason why the majority of reviews of this release focus on "Trouble" instead of the more well-known "Flamingos": "Trouble" outclasses "Flamingos" in almost every respect. While "Flamingos" may be more visually shocking, "Trouble" is much funnier ... and meaner. While Waters' skills as a director have improved immeasurably since 1974, "Trouble" is his best script. In conclusion, "Flamingos" is an occasionally funny freakshow, while "Trouble" is a masterpiece and should be ranked with "Duck Soup" and "M*A*S*H" as one of the best film comedies ever made.
Rating: Summary: PINK FLAMINGOS and FEMALE TROUBLE Review: PINK FLAMINGOS is the film that made John Waters a household name as a director in the world of low-budget cinema! The story is about people who compete for the title of "Filthiest Person Alive." We have people making love to chickens, we have people licking furniture to perform voodoo rituals, we have pregnant women being kept in pits, we have people eating dog waste, and we have much, much more! The story of this film is really just an excuse to show people doing disgusting and perverted things that nobody in there right mind would ever think of doing...and I mean that as a compliment. If this film doesn't shock you the first time you see it, then nothing else will. FEMALE TROUBLE is a classic John Waters film that tells the story of a woman named Dawn Davenport. We follow Dawn from her days as a teenage delinquent, to her rise to fame as a criminal, and then to her death in the electric chair as a convicted serial killer. This is one for any John Waters fan to put in his/her collection.
Rating: Summary: Sick, gross and thoroughly entertaining!!! Review: Both of these movies are so demented, you'll make a mess in your pants...either from laughter or revulsion. The arrogant critics in LA who balked at this film and the acting are simply components of the Hollywood machine which breed thought void of perspective and scope. Both "Pink" and "Female" are poorly filmed. There are no special f/x, and they cost next to nothing to make. That's what makes them good. Learn the lesson, Hollywood. Pretentious films with pretentious actors and directors don't impress me, visionaries do, and John Waters embodies vision. Buy these films and enjoy them for what they are...fun.
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