Rating: 
Summary: "You????" Better Not Miss This One!!
Review: Chaplin, the Little Tramp, stumbles into a chance encounter with a poor, tattered blind girl selling flowers on the sidewalk for a living in the big city. He feels sorry for her, and decides he must do something to help her regain her sight. This skeletal plot unfolds into Chaplin's best film (in my opinion), and has one of the top 3 best endings in all of film. You'll be unable to stop crying your eyes out! "You??" Yes, you! Touching beyond belief. If you haven't seen this silent classic, see it!! You will be richer for having done so. That is no exaggeration. A truly touching, beautiful, and magnificent film! END
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Summary: Best Chaplin, and maybe best film ever Made.
Review: "City Light's" is by far Chaplin's greatest film. Some may say "The Gold Rush", but myself, and I know a lot of others, will say this one. I think its maybe THE greatest movie ever made, just maybe. Chaplin was by far the greatest film maker of all time, and this is his most finest work. You have to see the movie for the end scene alone.Chaplin plays the part of his world famous Tramp character. He meets this flower girl (Virginia Cherrill) who happens to be blind. She mistakes him for a rich "gentleman". The little Tramp immediately falls in love with her, and he throughout the film, tries to help her see again, by getting money to pay for this operation. The little Tramp saves this rich guy from committing suicide, and the man becomes his friend.....when hes drunk. When the man is sober, he does not want to see the tramp. When hes not, he is kind, giving him money, letting him borrow the car, etc. The Tramp goes through a number of jobs, to get the money for the blind girl, including amongst a few, a prizefighting boxer. He gets into a lot of different bits of trouble, but he gets th money to pay for the operation. He ends up late rin prison. When he is free, he sees the girl, and she can now see, and his true identity is revealed. The end part, is the greatest scene in movie history. There is nothing possibly better than it, except it would be teamed with the "Cheek to Cheek" scene in the Fred and Ginger movie "Top Hat", of course. Those are the two most wonderful scenes ever filmed. The film was released in 1931. the "talkies" had been around a few years now, but Chaplin managed to stay silent. He composed the muisic for this film, and added a few sound effects. The film is though, really a silent, or as it says at the beginning of the movie: "A Comedy Romance in Pantomime". This is the perfect movie, and the cinematography is the best. But yes, this film even beats Chaplin's other masterpieces in my opinion, such as "The Kid" and "The Gold Rush", and the much underrated among Chaplin fans, although one of my personal favourites, "A Woman of Paris". "City Light's" is an essential movie to see. Although I enjoy Chaplin's talking pictures, they do not come close to his silents. As for people who prefer Keaton, well, he was brilliant too, but Chaplin was so much more. This DVD Edition, is presented on 2-Discs. This DVD, along with the others in the Chaplin Collection box set, is by far one of the best ever produced. This comes with an endless amount of extras, including featurettes, a brief 10 minute look at a scene from "The Champion". The fight scene, that is. The DVD has a screen test with Georgia Hale, its full of great little things. Extras are what make a DVD great. Other than that, the restored print looks absolutely amazing. This is a must, must have for a DVD collection.
Rating:
Summary: Best Charlie Chaplin Film and Beautiful Masterpiece
Review: There may be funnier comedies out there but this one truly has a heart. Oh is this film great. I'm a huge Charlie Chaplin fan because he not only makes me laugh with his sillyness and body language but he also warms my heart at the same time. Most people can't sit through silent films but this one is so worth it that if anyone reads this I really suggest that you give it a chance. If you like humor with a hefty dose of sentimentality this is a great film to watch. You won't be disappointed. Charlie Chaplin has a lot of nice movies and shorts but my other favorite full-length masterpiece film by him is The Gold Rush.
Rating:
Summary: He's a genius....and great ending!
Review: This is the kind of movie you have to own. It never gets old and it'll make you laugh and cry every time. Charlie Chaplin is so cute, that never gets old either. It's such a beautiful story.
Rating:
Summary: Chaplin's Masterpiece...and Oh Those Last Five Minutes!
Review: Let me join the consensus and call Charlie Chaplin's "City Lights" a masterpiece. It's only 81 minutes long, but they are among the best 81 minutes you could spend at the movies, and the last five minutes are simply exquisite. Keep your Kleenex box at arm's length as I doubt if there has been a more honestly heartbreaking scene captured on film. When the formerly blind girl gives the Little Tramp a flower and ultimately says "Yes, I can see now", the scene takes on such emotional gravity as to defy explanation.
Chaplin was at his zenith in 1928 when he started a journey of more than two years to develop and film this story, and the Little Tramp had already been a familiar character to audiences for over a decade. He had already made the classics "The Gold Rush" (1925) and "The Circus" (1928) starring his character, so it's obvious he felt a need to take a slightly different direction and deepen the character this time. The advent of talkies didn't stop Chaplin from making this "Comedy Romance in Pantomime" (as he subtitled it), as he knew giving the Little Tramp a voice would limit his appeal as a universal character. What I particularly enjoyed in this film is how the Little Tramp fancies himself as a well-mannered gentleman in spite of all the circumstances that bring him down, even going to prison for love. It is this self-delusion and his subsequent mistaken identity as a millionaire that leads him to the blind flower girl, played in an effectively plaintive manner by Virginia Cherrill. Her performance is a greatly underrated element in this film, as she displays the right amount of vacant innocence to make the last minutes so memorable. Simply compare her to the screen test shown of Georgia Hale, Chaplin's leading lady in "The Gold Rush" and an obviously more experienced actress than Cherrill, as Hale struggles to show the right balance between condescension and beatific revelation when she realizes the Little Tramp is the "wealthy" gentleman who paid for the restoration of her sight.
Of course, this would not be a Chaplin film without the brilliance of his comedy routines and there is a treasure trove of classic scenes - the rising and lowering of the street elevator, the shifting musical chairs scene at the nightclub, the mock suicide at the canal and especially the boxing scene, which has been imitated by so many lesser filmmakers (and was according to the footage included as a DVD extra, inspired by an earlier Chaplin short "The Champion" from 1915). Even a simple moment, for example, when the Little Tramp mistakes a piece of thread from his vest for a ball of twine, is impressive for the sheer delicacy of the moment. And special mention needs to go to Chaplin's musical score, where he beautifully interweaves José Padilla's "La Violetta" as his love theme.
The transfer to DVD is very good, and the 2-DVD set has plenty of extras though they vary in quality. The Serge Bromberg documentary provides an informative supplement to the film, and the footage of Chaplin from a Vienna press tour is fascinating since it captures the long-forgotten worldwide frenzy he created back then. The aforementioned Georgia Hale screen test is a worthwile addition but runs on a bit too long. The 10-minute home movie of Chaplin's trip to Bali has a certain anthropological interest but seems rather pointless otherwise. Regardless, the movie itself is rewarding enough and an exquisite jewel that completely justifies Chaplin's reputation as one of the world's leading filmmakers.
Rating:
Summary: You can't beat the classics
Review: Charlie Chaplin's "City Lights", is one of those movies that the vast majority of audiences today would dismiss in an instant on being informed that it was made in the 1930's, is black and white and is a silent movie. However, if you allow yourself to give it a chance, you may find "City Lights" to be a truly moving experience.
The story focuses on Chaplin's romantic interest in a blind flower girl played so well by Virginia Cherrill who, oddly enough, did not get on with Chaplin at all, and vice versa.
"City Lights" is a such a sweet, delightful movie with a lot of heart to it. Chaplin plays his usual character of the tramp, and as always is unforgettable, and Virginia Cherrill is so effective as the flower girl, your heart just cannot help but go out to her. Also, I challenge anyone not to shed at least a tear during the closing scene, which is one of the most heartfelt, emotionally moving scenes in cinematic history.
Hopefully, films like this will never be forgotten. There is a wealth of cinema classics out there and this is one that should not be missed.
Rating: 
Summary: City Lights (1931)
Review: Chaplin was a genius. He did it all, writing, directing, producing, acting and even the musical score. This is a wonderful film full of many hilarious moments as well as a touching romance. The scenes with the drunken millionaire are laugh-out-loud funny, particularly the one with the switching chairs in the restaurant. Another hilarious moment is when the little tramp accidentally switches his co-worker's cheese with a bar of soap. Very funny!
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Summary: A world unto itself
Review: *SLIGHT SPOILERS BELOW*
Here Chaplin does what all great cinema (in my opinion, all great art) should do: he creates a self-sufficient world, a state of mind. In my opinion, his Tramp is the most sympathetic, truly human character ever realised on the screen. He is not poor because he is lazy, or because he wastes what he earns on useless pleasures: he is poor because he gives of himself far more than most of us would be willing to. At the same time, he is not a saint: he tries to maintain his status in class society, even when it is hopeless (for example, just before his final meeting with the blind girl). In other words, the Tramp is proud, opportunistic, irreverent, and yet gentlemanly, selfless, and endlessly suffering: it is so easy to relate to the Tramp, because in so many ways, we ARE the Tramp.
Often this is simply refered to as a comedy, and I think that is a dreadful mis-labelling. This is fundamentally a drama, with what comedy there is serving to cushion the force of the drama, and make it bearable. To summarize the plot, if you do not know it already, the Tramp meets and falls in love with a blind girl, who through a coincidence, thinks he is wealthy. He also saves a drunken millionaire from suicide, and despite his gratefulness, immediately forgets all about the Tramp whenever he is sober. The blind girl and her grandmother will be evicted unless they can come up with money quickly; the Tramp promises to give her the money, despite his own poverty. He then sets out to earn it any way he can, no matter how undignified, and fails. Ultimately he runs into the millionaire again, who lets him take as much money as he needs; the millionaire comes to and thinks he has been robbed. The Tramp gives the blind girl the money and says goodbye, knowing he will go to jail for what he did not do. Coming out of jail in an even more impoverished, and this time dejected state, he runs into the blind girl, who can see now, thanks to the money the Tramp provided for an operation. She does not recognize her benefactor, and makes fun of him, until she touches his hand. What happens next cannot be described in words. All I can say is that, wonderful as all the movie is, this scene is the most singularly poingant, sublime moment in all of cinema. Everything comes together (the acting, the music, even the slight breeze passing through the blind girl's hair and the trafic passing by) to create a unified impression of time standing still. I find it hard to imagine that anyone could not be profoundly affected by this film.
Rating:
Summary: Knockout Funny
Review: The boxing scene in City Lights must be one of the funniest scenes of all time. When I watched a tape of this movie, I had to keep rewinding that part because I was crying so much with laughter that I found it impossible to see it all the way through. The movie is also of interest as being a late silent production. Sound was already established and Chaplin was considered to be taking a great risk by producing another silent. Much of City Lights will seem maudlin and melodramatic to a modern audience but its important place in movie history and yes, that boxing scene, make it a must for any movie fan.
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