Rating: 
Summary: A superb mood piece.
Review: This film is a superb mood piece. Viewers who try to understand the plot should know that it is really quite simple. Everything that happens is set in motion in the first scenes. The rest is a brilliantly assembled puzzle that ends with the greatest shocker in movie history. The celebrated bedroom scene is one of the few depictions of erotic love in the movies that seems completely natural and justified by the story. Donald Sutherland and Julie Christie give excellent performances. It is a pity that Nicolas Roeg never again directed a film as good as this one.
Rating: 
Summary: Venice eh?
Review: After reading Empire's Greatest Horror Movies of all time collectors edition of the mag, I was truly happy that this film surfaced finally on DVD as the review it had been given in said magazine was high praise indeed. I would finally get a chance to see what the fuss was about. Pretty much everything you've heard about this film is true, the sex scenes do seem 'very real' (hint, hint), the cinematography is breathtaking yet surreal and offputting (the whole point) and the final scene is truly shocking. However, what comes along with these positive elements is a rather turgid and lacklustre film that rather than building up an oppressive atmosphere rather begins to shuffle back and forwards over an endless stream of Venice bridges till the climax. Though I had waited a long time to see this film, about three quarters of the way my attention began to wander as too many strange things were suggested and occasionally seen but not explained. Cool if you like that sort of thing (and I usually do). It's just that when it never seems to take you anywhere, that's about the point I tune out. This is an extremely slow film in every sense of the word and if there's one trait you must possess to get something out of this film, it's patience. For those who persevere, the ending is worth the lengthy running time whereas for others, it may be a little too easy to turn the film off and not spare another thought about it's conclusion.
Rating:
Summary: A stuningly beautiful supernatural thriller
Review: As a fan of films with a supernatural theme, I've heard of "Don't Look Now" from other such fans for years. I recently rented the DVD from netflix.com and found that it is one of those rare films that live up to the hype.The cinematography, baroque musical score, acting of all major roles, art direction and location shooting are all top-notch, almost beyond description. This is a film that could easily have been cheesy given the theme (dead daughter's ghost haunts guilty parents), but "Don't Look Now" never descends to the cheesy level. This is definately a masterpiece of the genre that deserves to take its place with others such as "The Haunting" (original version), "The Shining," "The Woman In Black," "The Wicker Man", Hitchcock's "Vertigo" and most of all, Jack Clayton's psychological/supernatural masterpiece, "The Innocents." Remarkably, although "Don't Look Now" is almost 30 years old, it has aged extremely well (if you can excuse Donald Sutherland's "mod" '70s hairdo). If you are a fan of classy, well-made, intellegent supernatural thrillers, grab this film, and watch it again and again. It is one of those multi-layered films that shows you something new with every viewing, and that leaves enough unanswered questions and untied loose ends to keep you coming back for more and more. A stunning achievement, and one that makes me deeply regret that Nicholas Roeg hasn't been more productive over the years. Now, if we could only get someone to release a DVD version of Jack Clayton's "The Innocents. . ."
Rating:
Summary: Redrum
Review: Nicolas Roeg was building his name as a director of mysterious and edgy films in the early 70s. "Don't Look Now," which followed "Walkabout" and preceded "The Man Who Fell to Earth," featured Julie Christie and Donald Sutherland in Daphne Du Maurier's tale of ESP and death in Venice. Paramount has released the film as part of its Widescreen Collection. Alas, there are no extras beyond a first-rate trailer. "Don't Look Now" is best remembered for its shocking ending and for the stars' did-they-or-didn't-they? sex scene. (My vote: ... yes, watch her face). The movie has lost none of its terrible beauty, or its ability to trigger near-heart attacks. Roeg's cameras wander the back streets and swollen canals of Venice, soaking up the ages in Technicolor. A lot of the film is cast in shadows, with low-light grain present in many of the indoor scenes. The Dolby Digital audio is OK, forcefully delivering the organ music of doom.
Rating: 
Summary: If You Don¿t Look, You Won¿t See Much
Review: Nicholas Roeg's stylish thriller "Don't Look Now" is made with such nerve-jangling invention it's guaranteed not to look or move like anyone else's work. From start to finish it's an original, so marvelously textured and polished, you want all the artful technique to have a point beyond the penny-dreadful purpose underlying it. A former cinematographer, Roeg's movies are almost compulsively "visual," all angle, light, color, texture and editing. One bravura sequence follows another: the opening drowning of Christie and Sutherland's daughter; their famous tussle together in bed; Sutherland's nearly fatal accident as he examines a decaying mosaic, all shot and cut in quick, impressionistic fragments, interwoven and juxtaposed with silky fluency. And the pleasures aren't purely technical, with plenty of wry touches at the edges: the obsequious behavior of the Italian hotel clerk where Christie and Sutherland are staying, for example, or the barely concealed eagerness with which the masters of an English school shepherd a nervous Christie out of their house. It's all wonderfully sophisticated and understated. When wed to the conventional thriller requirements of "Don't Look Now," though, this floating, languorous anxiety seems just a tad too self-consciously pretty to be entirely appropriate. The atmosphere of everyday dread resulting from Roeg's touches works, all right, but it borders on the insulting to have so much skill lavished on such trashy material. This is a story, after all, that requires we believe in warnings from the Great Beyond, that invites Blind Faith as a form of therapy and that posits the possibility not just of precognition, but preternatural insight thousands of miles from the event. Paramount has done an uncharacteristically good job of serving the movie in the DVD. In fact, the transfer is perhaps a touch *too* good. Images nearly unintelligible in projection here have a vivid presence that both works for and against the thriller premise. With so much more visible, the sense of rot and decay is almost palpable. On the other hand, sequences that rely on the darkness tend to get blunted a bit when everything is out in the open to be seen. Which is perhaps another way of saying that the disc's producers responded to what gives the movie its distinction, the sexy, sensuous surfaces, rather than the Gothic horror that are their excuse.
Rating: 
Summary: Don't look now...or you'll be bored to death
Review: The famous "encounter" between Christie and Sutherland aside...well, I remember seeing this movie with a number of my friends when it first came out...and about half way through it, we started making up our own plot just to keep awake. I don't want to give away the ending, but ...well, at least we got a good laugh from that. Otherwise, it's a great cure for insomnia.
Rating:
Summary: MOST TROUBLING, POIGNANT, HAUNTING SUSPENSE-HORROR IN YEARS
Review: Those who reject the notion of coincidence and dare to inspect a more fragile geometry of space and time will embrace this spellbinding classic which was overlooked in 1974 due to the brouhaha over "The Exorcist" and its camp shenanigans. John Baxter (Donald Sutherland) returns to watery Venice, Italy on the heels of his young daughter drowning to work on the church façade restoration of the face of Christ. The art restorationist spirals deeper into a web of ESP and quantum physics which he dismisses as "mumbo-jumbo", and refuses to confront his intuitive side... and his profound sense of guilt. Director Roeg seduces viewers with a split-second 8 minute what-was-that-I-think-I-saw opening unlike anything ever conceived, then turns suspense and horror cliches inside out to reveal a heartbreaking portrait of a married couple wrestling with the worst grief - the death of a child. "Don't Look Now" remains one of the most thought-provoking, troubling films ever made; Julie Christie shimmers as Sutherland's fragile wife. Massimo Serato turns in an enigmatic performace as the troubled Father Barbaraggio, who "wishes he didn't have to believe in prophecy" and whose "father also died in a fall." Pino Donaggio (Carrie, Blow Out) delivers his first film score in all of its Venetian, Vivaldi-induced splendor and melancholy; those organs rushing in at the 'denouement' chill to the bone as the sweet strings fall soon behind, and Christie's radiance in the foreground of that music remains one of cinema's greatest moments. Music lovers will also appreciate his tribute to the "Lover's Concerto" during the erotic, tender love scene much discussed on these pages. "Don't Look Now" warns all with its title to overlook, to forgive, to get on, but the great, gothic trick is that no one who looks outside himself for meaning can take his eyes off of it. Needless to say, viewers who think "Scream" is a horror film will be lost and/or bored. This is the thoughtful, reflective man or woman's territory, not for consumers who want to be babysat for two hours. In other words, slow-going for ADD-oids, and sublime provocation for everyone else.
Rating:
Summary: Beautiful and Uncensored!
Review: Paramount has finally released Nicolas Roeg's classic film on DVD in a stunning anamorphic widescreen transfer AND with the Julie Christie/Donald Sutherland love scene completly uncensored; this version is slightly more explicit than what was released in U.S. theaters and video and it makes that famous scene even better. "Don't Look Now" is a great film and one of the best horror films ever made--a ghost story that not only evokes the atmosphere of Daphne Du Maurier's story but elaborates on its themes of grief and dislocation. It's Unsettling, frightening, sad, beautiful and really stands the test of time.
Rating:
Summary: A GREAT film...an average DVD
Review: I can still recall when I was 12 years old and I saw only the ending of "Don't Look Now". What an impact that had. I thought to myself "What on earth happened in this film for it to end this way?" I have since seen it countless times and it still amazes me that I can see something different in it each time. It is a complex, puzzeling, chilling horror film and it one is one of Nicolas Roeg's greatest achievements as a director.
I had an old VHS copy of it and apparently Paramount used the nastiest print they could find for release. I suffered with this beast for years and when I heard that it was finally coming to DVD, I was very excited at the possibility of seeing the film the way it was meant to be seen. If you love this film as much as I do then GRAB THIS DVD!!!!!
When I first saw this DVD I must admit I was a bit thrown. I had seen the film for so long on tape that when watching it on DVD it's like seeing a different film. Apparently Roeg shot it in 1:33:1 and simply matted it to 1:85:1 for release. This means that information is lost at the top and bottom of the screen but I assure you this is not a promblem. The composition of the shots are much better in 1:85:1. The colors are VERY strong and the picture is sharp and clear(although there is grain visible in some shots). My only complaint is the audio. It's in mono and it is very weak and sounds tinny at times. A full stereo mix would have been great.
And one more thing. This is the EXTENDED VERSION of the film and that means a steamier love scene between Sutherland and Christie. Some extra features would have been nice but I'm happy just to have it on DVD at last.
Rating:
Summary: Take a Look at "Don't Look Now"...
Review: The first time I ever heard of Nicolas Roeg's "Don't Look Now" was in an audio interview with British singer, Kate Bush. She said she pratically begged actor, Donald Sutherland to be in one of her music videos, after viewing this film.This aroused my curiousity and the first chance I got, I saw it.Well, now I understand what Miss Bush was talking about, because "Don't Look Now" is simply a brilliant puzzle of a film.This psychological (or should I say psychic) thriller involves a married couple (actors Donald Sutherland & Julie Christie)who experience the tragic death of their young daughter.While trying to get over their grief, they go on a business trip to Venice, where Sutherland is helping to restore an old Catholic church.It is during this trip, that the couple get involved in a horrifying psychic adventure.Director Nicolas Roeg has constructed a fascinating, enigmatic film, which will leave you on the edge of your seat.The city of Venice that he presents is downright eerie in atmosphere with a sense of forboding for the main characters.Actors, Sutherland & Christie both give amazing performances of a loving couple, who are trying to sort through their grief.This is simply great acting.In one of my favorite scenes of the movie, Roeg shows the couple making love, while he cross cuts shots of them getting ready for dinner.I think this is one of the most artful, sensual & erotic protrayles of two people making love ever shown in a mainstream film.The sexual act is protrayed as simply another moment of tenderness in the life of a caring, married couple.This is great film which is loaded with atmosphere, suspense and finally horror.The 'Twilight Zone'-like ending literally made me jump out of my chair.This is one of those movies (like "The Sixth Sense") where multiple viewings are required to pick up all the clues that are presented.It is a film that stays with you long after it is over.For an evening of suspenseful entertainment watch "Don't Look Now".
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