Casablanca

Rating:
Summary: Timeless Movie-Making
Review: It is hard to know beforehand what are the perfect ingredients to make a movie live forever, but it is easy to see it when they all coalesce before one's eyes. Casablanca, more than almost any movie, has earned the right to live on and on and deserves to be called a classic. It has one of the finest casts ever assembled for any movie from the starring roles of Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman to the supporting players such as Peter Lorre, Syndey Greenstreet, and the incomparable Claude Rains. If watched for the first time, the dialogue will seem famaliar as most of it exists in such a quotable form even outside the film. But just let that dialogue carry you away and you too will always have Paris. It is a joy to watch every time and a must for any video collection. A perfect film created when all the ingredients of movie making turned to magic and now can live forever.

Rating:
Summary: Pure Cinematic Bliss
Review: Casablanca may very well be the greatest movie ever made. It has action, romance, deciet, and some of the greatest one liners ever. The DVD features an incredible print of the movie. A must own for everyone.

Rating:
Summary: Don't play it again, Sam.
Review: Howlingly overrated World War II weeper, aimed squarely, I would guess, at the Women On The Home Front. *Casablanca* is the typical sort of "woman's picture", of the type that still exists in places like *Lifetime Channel*: treacly, sentimental, featuring a Bad Boy (Bogart) who, underneath, has a Heart of Gold that is at the moment broken by the morally superior Ingrid Bergman. But bet on it, Rick -- with some nudging by that same morally superior Bergman -- will eventually "grow up", Be A Man, et cetera. Humphrey Bogart is the wrong sort of actor for this Hack Writer's role; I should think someone along the lines of Robert Taylor would've fit the bill much better, besides giving the ladies something to look at. Bogart is just too, well, adult for this part -- he's very unconvincing carrying a torch, let alone being the type of guy who suddenly discovers moral wherewithal within himself. (Bogie always gave the impression that he knew himself already, which indeed was part of his appeal as an actor. No Method-induced whiny inner turmoil with THIS guy.) One suspects the real Bogart, over and above having long ago moved on from his Parisian affair with Bergman, would have continued his profitable business as a club owner, playing all sides against each other. On the plus side, the movie is beautifully, even experimentally, shot by director Michael Curtiz.

Rating:
Summary: Overrated and boring
Review: One of my least favorite movies on everyone's top 100 list. Bogart's lisp is so distracting that it is difficult to stay focused on the story. His weird facial contortions with his jaw moving unnaturally in every direction looks freakish. Bergman's constant near nervous breakdown into weepiness or breathy asthma seems forced and adoleescent rather than the mental state of a mature woman. Trying to picture the two of them in a romantic situation is repulsive. The idea alone is enough....Oh, and that line, "this is the stuff that dreams are made of" - supposedly one of the greatest lines in cinema, is great alright but mainly because it was written by Shakespeare, not some hollywood hack.

Rating:
Summary: VERY overated
Review: OK.. I don't understand why people praise this as the best movie of all time? I just don't find anything special in this movie. The film starts real sloooooooow and I almost fell asleep waiting for Bogart's character to appear and I waited half an hour for Ingrid's character to appear. A real dissapoinment!

Rating:
Summary: Good, but not great
Review: Sorry, but I just don't get it! I simply cannot understand all the critical acclaim that's been heaped on this movie. It is a decent enough piece of filmmaking, but to place it alongside Citizen Kane and The Godfather is just too much. The first time I saw it I found nothing remarkable about it, except Igrid Bergman's lustrous eyes as she looks up at Bogey. I've seen it several times since then, just to see if I've missed something. Unfortunately, my admiration for the film has not increased. This is unlike my experiance of my repeated viewings of Citizen Kane or the Godfather or Raging Bull or Lawrence of Arabia. Everytime I see these movies, I am simply blown away. But not with Casablanca!

Rating:
Summary: A little correction
Review: On my previous review for this film, I said that Sydney Greenstreet played Sam the pianist. The actor who plays Sam is named Dooley Wilson. Greenstreet plays Senor Ferrari, a black market dealer.

As I stated before, this is a great movie that should be viewed by everyone who loves a great movie.

Rating:
Summary: What more can be said?
Review: I don't know how I can expand on all of the praise that's already been given to the film, but I'll try. I've never seen the movie completely until a few weeks ago. I truly enjoyed it to the extent that it ranks in the top 5 of my favorite movies. It doesn't have a lot of action or suspense. What it does have is a great script, suberb acting by all and deservedly minimal direction. Honestly, I'm not a huge Bogart fan - I think he was way over-the-top in Maltese Falcon, but in Casablanca he is truly a gem to watch. I can feel for his pain and suffering as he relives old feelings. Ingrid Bergman is always a pleasure to watch and she shows why she was one of the best leading ladies in Hollywood. The rest of the cast is also good, even Peter Lorrie in a very small (but important) role. This movie tells a story that is still relevant today - it's all about the decisions you make in life. How some of them are not the best and if you're lucky, you may get a chance to redeem yourself later. Wether the story is set against the backdrop of World War II or today, it's still a story that has meaning to everyone. I bought this just to see what all the fuss was about. Boy did I ever "get lucky" with this one.

Rating:
Summary: Time May Go By, But Not This Film!
Review: Interesting how a film this small (in length) can still have such a powerful effect on us today. Though most would say it is a sappy, corny film for today; it is, however, a very romantic and potent film that deals with separated love and the rekindling of one's feeling for another, despite the fact that one is married with another man whom she loves, and the other has moved on with his life.

Directed by Hungarian director Michael Curtiz, a stock director of many Warner Bros. films, and starring Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman as Richard "Rick" Blaine and Ilsa Lund Laszlo, the lovers in question. With such powerful and mesmerizing chemistry, these two light up the screen as never before. Bergman shows such innocence and beauty to this role that you kind of wonder why she was nominated for an Oscar (she was, however, nominated that same year in 1943 for Best Actress in FOR WHOM THE BELLS TOLL, she lost to Jennifer Jones). Bogart, of course, brings the rugged charm and swagger of the American to the otherwise foreign country of Casablanca. (He was nominated for Best Actor that year for this role, but lost Paul Lukas.) Bogart and Bergman bring the tenderness to the film as well, when they flashed back to the time they met in Paris - dancing, drinking champagne, driving a convertible through France like lovers; all this just before Germany took over France. Then, they tried to escape together! Unbeknownst to Rick at the time, Ilsa was already married to another man, Czech freedom fighter and rebel leader Victor Laszlo, played with worldly charm by Paul Henreid. Ilsa leaves Rick for Victor, whom she thought was dead, and he takes off to Casablanca alone - well, not alone; he is accompanied by his black pianist and friend Sam, played by singer Dooley Wilson.

Months pass by and Rick sets up shop in Casablanca, Moracco. His bar/restaurant/casino is called Rick's, the place to be! It is the oasis in the desert! Everyone comes to Rick's, including the dreaded Nazis! Led by Major Heinrich Strasser, played by Conrad Veidt, he is on the look out for Victor Laszlo and others who are among the cause against Nazi Germany. Assisting Strasser is Captain Louis "Louie" Renault, played with comedic charm and sexist undertones by British actor Claude Rains, who received a Best Supporting Actor nomination for this role. You can tell that Rains is having fun with this role, smiling every so often that you can't help but like the guy, even though he's on the German's side.

There are others thrown in the mix of things. Sydney Greenstreet plays the overweight and tricky Ferrari; Peter Lorre is the drowsy-eyed, sniveling Ugarte, who has the courier papers to get out of Casablanca. And S.Z. "Cuddles" Sakall plays Carl, the headwaiter at Rick's. (NOTE: Bogart, Greenstreet, Lorre, and Rains all co-starred together in 1941's THE MALTESE FALCON and other films for Warner Bros.)

There are perhaps the most memorable lines in this film than any other. Such as: "Here's lookin' at you, kid"; "I stick my neck out for nobody"; "Louie, this could be the beginning of a beautiful friendship"; and "Of all the gin joint and all the taverns and all the saloons in the world, she had to walk into mine," (the latter has been used, altered, and changed for the years by other copycats that I'm not sure how it goes anymore); and the big speech of "you'll regret it; maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, but soon and for the rest of your life." Laszlo himself isn't without good moments, as we see him instruct Rick's orchestra to play the French national anthem and drowning out the Germans as they see their country's anthem. (A truly inspiring moment that even inspired me with my film PRISONER OF WAR!) There's also the romantic ballad that Sam plays on his piano called "As Time Goes By," the song that Rick and Ilsa remember as their love song. It stirs up old memories and rekindles the old flame again. And there's that wonderful score by Max Steiner, who also wrote the moving score to GONE WITH THE WIND.

Later on, after we've established their past, Ilsa and Victor need Rick's help in getting them out of Casablanca. But love triumphs in the end, and Rick gives them the visa papers (Ugarte had them hidden in Sam's piano). It all comes to an end when they meet one last time at the plane terminal. The plane takes off and both Ilsa and Laszlo take off just as Strasser appears! Rick shoots him dead, and Louie tells the guards: "Round up the usual suspects!" And it all ends, Rick and Louie walk away in the foggy night as the film plays the French anthem once more before fading out this truly classic film.

Winner of 3 Academy Awards including: Best Picture - Hal B. Wallis, producer; Best Director - Michael Curtiz; and Best Adapted Screenplay (from the play) - Howard Koch and Philip & Julius Epstein.

They sure don't make movies like this anymore. (What a shame!)

Rating:
Summary: Casablanca
Review: Amazing storyline, with amazing acting. I watched it with my father over 100 TIMES!!! I completely loved this movie, and it had great effects for a movie from the 40's. Humphrey Bogart played an excellent role as the tough to get man, overall, it was just a great movie. I love all of Humphrey Bogart's movies, with this being my favorite. All movie's with him are simply amazing.

A++