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Full Metal Jacket

Full Metal Jacket

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Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Awsome and moveing
Review: This is one of the best Stanley Kubric movies by far! Boys become men and learn the terror of war and at the same time learn to love it. This movie makes you relize what war is all about.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: First Half (: Second Half ):
Review: I like to think of 'Full Metal Jacket' as Stanley Kubrick's only short film. The first forty-five minutes is pure Kubrick. His style is there. I'm glued to the screen for every second of that section. Very well crafted. It's probably Kubrick's best use of his dehumanization theme. The remainder of the film, though, is a puzzler. It barely feels like a Kubrick film. And it barely keeps my attention. The rest of 'Full Metal Jacket' dosen't know where to go. I'm just glad it wasn't Kubrick's last film.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Full Frame???
Review: What on earth?? I bought the Stanley Kubrick Collection and this movie (one of my all-time favorites) and the Shining are Standard Format! What's up with that? The rest of the films are widescreen, but these two are not. You've been warned!

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Good Movie but a Stinker of a DVD
Review: I enjoyed this movie, but the DVD was a rush release if I ever saw one. No widescreen and only the center channel is used for sound. What a rip-off. I recommend you rent this before you buy.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Classic depiction of basic training.
Review: In viewing Full Metal Jacket I realized two things.1. I'm glad I went to the Air Force, and 2. Lee Ermey's depiction of Basic Training on Parris Island is unbelievable. I was captivated by the first part of this film. Kubrick has a way of pulling you into the screen and making you a part of the action. From the Private's getting their hair scalped to the incident in "the head", Stanley Kubrick 's attention to detail is unmatched. The second part of the movie failed in comparison. Overall I felt is was a good movie with a few great performances. Matthew Modine as Private Joker, Vincent D'nofrio as Private Pyle, and most of all, Lee Ermey as the D.I. The first part was so powerful and superbly acted there's no wonder there was a letdown in the second half. For someone who has not seen this movie, I would recommend the movie for the basic training portion of the movie alone.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: great film, shown in proper ratio!
Review: Look, all these people going on about how it's not letterboxed and that's the only way to see it don't know what they're talking about. Kubrick used a a film stock (as Scorcese did with Age of Innocence) that has lines that show the director what the widescreen dimensions are, but is not a widescreen format, like, say, Panavision. What Kubrick has done in asking MGM to release the DVD full screen is to present the entire picture he saw through the viewfinder. This is NOT pan-and-scan. Very little information is lost on the sides, and a great deal is added to top and bottom--if anything the staging is more attractive this way. For example during one training scene, the DI is way off to the right and a flag is foreground before the trainees. In the theater, you saw only half the flag--here you see the DI, the flag, everything in a perfectly composed picture. The film itself is great, but to really appreciate it's power as part of Kubrick's ouevre you must also see Paths of Glory (which is an emotional as Full Metal is cool) which also ends with the face of a young woman and a lot of soldiers looking at her (to completely different effect) and Clockwork Orange, which sets the stage for the theme of men as killing machines and the danger of trying to control them. The sound is mono, but very vivid. Also Vincent D'Onofrio is totally brilliant.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Cannot believe this edition is NOT letterbox
Review: This has got to be one of the worst dvd transfers I have ever seen. The video quality is at best average and the sound transfer is terrible. To cap it off, it's not even in letterbox format.

This is a great example of how to DESTROY a great movie during the dvd film transfer process.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Not letterboxed? MONO? Worthless!
Review: Ever since the DVD format was introduced Full Metal Jacket was one of a handful of movies I have been eagerly waiting to be released. Imagine my disappointment when I put the disk in, pressed play, and saw the "This film has modified from its original version. It has been formatted to fit your screen." - disclaimer. And mono? MONO?? I can't believe Warner Bros. even released this. And Kubrick supposedly "approved" this edition?

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: DVD is MONO! Don't waste your money
Review: Keep your tapes...at least the VHS is Hi-Fi. Dont' waste your money on the DVD. Serious viewers will be highly disapointed with this poor release of a great movie.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: My least favorite Kubrick film.
Review: "Full Metal Jacket" is a two-part film -- the first part hard realism, the second ineffective drivel sprinkled within some brilliantly stylized battle scenes. Combined, they reflect a rather unsatisfying viewing experience, at least, for me.

The first half of the film is a jarring, realistic look at basic training, and reveals Kubrick's obsession with perfection. Although I wasn't in the Marines (I was drafted into the Army during that period), these scenes sparkle with realism (we had a couple very sadistic D.I's running our company). Too bad Kubrick chose to end the basic training section with a ridiculous (almost comic) performance of a soldier gone mad (shades of "The Shining" -- but way, way over done).

The second part of the film shows both Kubrick's wonderful camera work along side some of the lamest excuses for Vietnam-era lingo that I've ever seen/heard (boring, sing-song dialogue that should have bristled with realism). The part where the general chastises Private Joker, then salutes him, was agonizing to watch. Another scene where we see one soldier after another play to a newsreel camera, each speaking a little verse, is strictly out of the 40's. There is also a scene onboard a helicopter where the gunner is shooting villagers and telling Joker that he doesn't have to lead as much when killing the women and children. Sorry, this doesn't work either as comedy or as satire. But true to Kubrick, while this ridiculous and unbelievable scene unfolds, Private Joker's friend is listening and trying not to throw-up (whether it's the helicopter ride or listening and watching the gunner -- I'm not really sure). It is this scene that is done to perfection (honest, I think the kid was actually losing his cookies!).

There is much to really love in this often brilliant, sometimes shocking film, but alas, there is almost as much to hate. Between 1 and 10, "Full Metal Jacket" gets a 6. I just wish Kubrick would have deleted those cheesy scenes that I listed, because they really brought this movie crashing down from Kubrick's normal brilliance to uncharacteristic mediocrity.


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