Rating: Summary: Good horror, great directors Review: This movie is based on the writings of Poe. The first film is okay. It drags a little, but once things pick up it gets very interesting. The second film is probably the BEST horror short ever made. If you're a fan of episode horror films, (Creepshow, Trilogy Of Terror and the like), then this is a MUST HAVE DVD. The extras alone are worth the purchase. It's a limited edition, so make sure you snag it up before it's gone!
Rating: Summary: Good horror, great directors Review: This movie is based on the writings of Poe. The first film is okay. It drags a little, but once things pick up it gets very interesting. The second film is probably the BEST horror short ever made. If you're a fan of episode horror films, (Creepshow, Trilogy Of Terror and the like), then this is a MUST HAVE DVD. The extras alone are worth the purchase. It's a limited edition, so make sure you snag it up before it's gone!
Rating: Summary: good buy for horror fans Review: This promising Dario Argento/George Romero effort had all the potential to be a masterpiece, but somehow the episode directed by Romero (The Facts in the Case of Mr. Waldemar) turned out to be a terrible misfire, baddly acted and baddly written, and unfortunatelly weakened the movie as a whole.However, Dario Argento's The Black Cat is able to make you watch it on the edge of your seat, a gut-wrenching horror episode wonderfully enacted by the always great Harvey Keitel.The Blak Cat is brought to life thanks to Argento's talent, who knows like no one else the right way to move his cameras, bringing to the screens an original and classy art, and how to add sharp tension and suspense to his pictures. Although very short, The Black Cat is reminiscent of Dario's masterpiece Deep Red. In conclusion, Two Evil Eyes is a good buy for horror fans, because even with the boring episode by George Romero, Argento's work saved the picture.
Rating: Summary: Fast foward through the first 40 minutes and you'll love it. Review: Two Evil Eyes is an updated addaption of two Edgar Allen Poe stories directed by George Romero and Dario Argento. Romero's half is about 40 minutes long and not worth watching. This is do to Tom Savini's cheezy effects and Romero's lack of heart. He doesn't really want to make this film and it shows. Directed by Dario Argento, the second half of the film is a masterpiece. Argento manages to get an excellent preformance out of Harvey Keitel and some of the greatest special effects of Tom Savini's career. Romero's half is worth sitting through, just to see the unexplainable greatness of Argento's addaption Poe's The Black Cat.
Rating: Summary: Dissapointing effort from the leading names in horror! Review: Two Poe stories that are'nt linked, one with a greedy wife, who with the help of her doctor, tries to murder her rich, sick husband and the other about a sadistic photographer who murders his girlfriend and walls her up with a black cat. Personally, I liked the second better, but even with Argento directing it is rather dissapointing!
Rating: Summary: A highly entertaining and macarbe duo. Review: Two tales from the archives of Edgar Allen Poe are re-animated here into a highly entertaining 115 minutes. Romero (famed for such titles as the fabulous "Dawn of the Dead") takes the helm of the first story, and includes his trade-mark zombies, in a tale of greed and deceit. The second feline fantasm is conducted by Argento (famed for "Suspiria" and his association with the fantastic score music by "Goblin"). Both shows are well worth watching, and well reflect the talents of their directors.
Rating: Summary: Animal-Handling AND Masonry: Components for Perfection Review: When directors get together, they have the potential to make interesting things happen. When great directors join forces and decide to take on a project, even better results areexpected. It honestly doesn't matter what type of material they're doing or if the viewing population has tasted it time and time again. They, the silver screen's version of power coupling, know their art, understand the little versions - or perhaps perversions - of atmosphere that balance the viewing scales, and have the most cards to play when it comes to forging complete pictures. Unfortunately, both don't always deliver a knockout punch like you'd like. In this initial piece, it's a story you've heard before. An older fellow with dollarsign-laced pockets decides to marry a younger woman. People jeer it in the community and friends seem appalled by it, but attraction is attraction and a little IWantATrophyWife-itus is sometimes what wealth is all about. In our tale, we join an ex "airline hostess" and her much older husband as he's teetering on that painful plateau just outside of dying. Plans are in the works on how to acquire some of his fortune before his estate and the long years of "settling" are addressed, with hypnosis and the application of falsified doctor reports working fairly well. It all seems to be going splendidly, too, and three million dollars is all set to arrive in two weeks - providing the wife, Jessica, can keep her husband around that long. As movies would have it, however, he dies and the planning gets worse and worse and worse until.... This Romero addition to the power duo has some serious flaws in it. The plot is thin, the effects are a little drowsy, and what seems to start off well dances down the corridors of lackluster architecture. Honestly, it's a good thing that things happen the way they do in these tales, because the atypical plan thrown into this type of movie would normally end up with someone going to jail for a very long time. Money or not, you wouldn't want to bury someone in your own backyard with a couple of bullet holes in them and you wouldn't want them kicking it with you ice-cream and getting freezer burn. This is worse than that in some ways, however, because it seems to say that a master in his field and Savini can't get together and make something that hasn't been seen a hundred times over. Instead of illustrating a story the way an audience knows they can, they take a Poe idea, splash a little effect work on it, and somewhat go through the motions. In Argento's version of The Black Cat, things play out a lot better. Our focal point, a man with a gruesome day job, brings home a little hatred and finds himself in a not-so-happy position of trying to conceal what he's done. When things get a little stressed and push come to shove (and hack and slice), it seems that things can get a little ugly at home. This seems especially when you're the owner of a cat you hate and don't want to keep up with, and moreso when you're half of a marriage that will ultimately self-destruct. Without giving all the gray matter away, this ultimately becomes a testament to revenge going awry, why you should treat animals a little bit better, and why post-it notes are a good thing if you don't want to leave out any small details to a crime. In my personal opinion, the Argento piece is a short film made in gore heaven. Not only does it make a show of force with all its little pieces coming together and working out all-too-well, but it also gives little shout-outs to other Poe stories as well. And then the eye candy begins to make its rounds. The first effects, mutilated bodies, birth even better effects. The deaths seem to get worse and worse until, in one place, I saw something that I could almost feel because of the way the image evoked words like "pain." Still, it didn't stop there. With little kitties doing things little kitties shouldn't do; hairless, nasty, and bathed in the debris brought to you by a mind that has imported images of this variety time and again, it gets even more graphic. And that's all I really ever wanted. Combine that with build, a good plan that twists until it morphs into something horrific that the main character couldn't foresee, and nice acting and you can even overlook Romero's shoddy addition to this collection. Simply be warned that it does have a little kick in the "gruesome" department.
Rating: Summary: For ROMERO and ARGENTO completists ONLY! Review: Where do I start without offending fans of either Director? Okay, if you are a hardcore fanatic of either Argento or Romero THIS IS A MUST OWN TITLE(YOU KNOW WHO YOU ARE)! It is too awesome to pass up Blueunderground's release of this Title(we probably won't see it again!) Okay now they are out of the way, This is a double feature that includes, first a short film directed by Romero and second a film directed by Argento! I differ from many reviewers here because, the Romero's Zombie movie carries more chills than Argento's Black Cat attempt! Romero takes the cake here with his trademark Zombie work! On the other hand, Argento's Black Cat disaster is so predictable and not scary at all! It is fun to watch though, for two reasons: For the eerie atmosphere Argento always seems to create in his films, And Harvey Keitel's performance is top-notch! The bonus disc is a Horror fanatic's wet dream! You get to tour Tom Savini's home, 'nuff said to those who know who he is! Steer clear of this picture casual horror fans! Fanatics whip out those credit cards and get this CLASSIC WHILE YOU CAN!
Rating: Summary: Two horror greats in one film. Review: While George A. Romero and Dario Argento worked together on the production of Dawn of the Dead, this was the first movie the two actually 'worked' on together as directors. Each contributed a short film based on a story by Edgar Allen Poe. Romero adapted The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar while Argento chose The Black Cat. Romero's comes first and it is routine EC comic style stuff, solidly made yet hampered by pacing that is a tad too methodical. But the payoff is worth the trip and the cast (Adrienne Barbeau, Ramy Zada, and Bingo O' Malley) contribute nice work. Argento's segment is far more energetic, a surreal trip into madness as a crime scene photographer (Harvey Keitel) is driven by his art to kill his live-in girlfriend's black cat. Of course the cat returns, again and again, and things get even worse in that surreal nightmare way that only Argento can pull off. Not content to just adapt The Black Cat, Argento also tosses in references to other Poe stories; namely The Pit and The Pendulum, The Tell-Tale Heart, Bernice, and several characters have famous Poe names (Usher, Pym, etc.). If he didn't go overboard, then he wouldn't be Argento, now would he? Blue Underground has done another first rate job with this wonderful disc. The maligned movie has never looked or sounded this good and the extras are more than worth the bonus disc. Romero and/or Argento fans will love it. Recommended.
Rating: Summary: Two horror greats in one film. Review: While George A. Romero and Dario Argento worked together on the production of Dawn of the Dead, this was the first movie the two actually 'worked' on together as directors. Each contributed a short film based on a story by Edgar Allen Poe. Romero adapted The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar while Argento chose The Black Cat. Romero's comes first and it is routine EC comic style stuff, solidly made yet hampered by pacing that is a tad too methodical. But the payoff is worth the trip and the cast (Adrienne Barbeau, Ramy Zada, and Bingo O' Malley) contribute nice work. Argento's segment is far more energetic, a surreal trip into madness as a crime scene photographer (Harvey Keitel) is driven by his art to kill his live-in girlfriend's black cat. Of course the cat returns, again and again, and things get even worse in that surreal nightmare way that only Argento can pull off. Not content to just adapt The Black Cat, Argento also tosses in references to other Poe stories; namely The Pit and The Pendulum, The Tell-Tale Heart, Bernice, and several characters have famous Poe names (Usher, Pym, etc.). If he didn't go overboard, then he wouldn't be Argento, now would he? Blue Underground has done another first rate job with this wonderful disc. The maligned movie has never looked or sounded this good and the extras are more than worth the bonus disc. Romero and/or Argento fans will love it. Recommended.
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