Rating: 
Summary: I'm still laughing!
Review: My second favourite Chaplin film. I still can't get over the Mechanical Feeder scene in MODERN TIMES - it's the funniest thing I have ever seen on film. I nearly split a gut! This wonderful film also combines a romantic innocence with classic hiliarious scenes. Chaplin was simply a genius.
Rating:
Summary: Among Chaplin's Best
Review: Next to "The Gold Rush," "Modern Times" is probably Chaplin's best film. There are many, many memorable moments (among others, the famous scenes in which Chaplin goes through the gears of a machine) along with social commentary, something that is present in most of Chaplin's feature films.
There is no better way to see "Modern Times" than on this two-disc DVD. The film is on the first disc. The picture is crystal clear and razor sharp, and Chaplin's interesting and memorable musical score sounds great.
The many extra features are located on the second disc. David Robinson, one of Chaplin's biographers, gives a good introduction. For the more serious Chaplin fans, there is a "Chaplin Today" documentary that goes in-depth about the production of the film, and also contains some analysis from filmmakers Luc and Jean-Pierre Dardenne (they did "Rosetta," which won the Golden Palm at Cannes). Unfortunately, the Dardennes' analysis is not particularly strong, and is obvious to even the least educated viewer.
Next, there is Chaplin's nonsense song uncut, along with a karaoke version of the song. There is a deleted scene which is fairly amusing, but rightly deleted. There are a bunch of archival films, including "Behind-the-Scenes of the Machine Age" (a government film), "Smile" sung by Liberace (!), and, best of all, a Cuban film called "For the First Time."
Extras are rounded out with an enormous photo gallery, a few trailers, a poster gallery, and some scenes from other Chaplin films.
Rating:
Summary: Brilliant swan song for Chaplain's Little Tramp
Review: The 1930s saw Charlie Chaplin appear in only two motions pictures, both of them silent, and both of them brilliant: CITY LIGHTS and MODERN TIMES. The latter is many things: the last major silent film to come out of Hollywood, the final film to feature the Little Tramp, and the first film to feature Chaplin's voice, albeit only in song. It is also Chaplin's last truly great film, though THE GREAT DICTATOR and even MONSEIUR VERDOUX had some marvelous moments. Although sound film had emerged from its infancy to reach full maturity by 1936, the things that Chaplin is able to do almost makes one regret the demise of the silent film.
Chaplin is so spry and active in this film that one can scarcely credit that he is 47 years old. In scene after scene he demonstrates his utter mastery of his own body, skating as brilliantly as he has in any of a number of shorts in the first years of his stardom, or as graceful as any ballet dancer skipping along an assembly line, squirting his coworkers with oil out of a can. Apart from perhaps Fred Astaire, was there ever a more graceful performer than Chaplin? His fellow silent star Buster Keaton was perhaps more purely athletic, but his was the physical prowess of the stunt man, while Chaplin's was that of the imp.
Unlike Keaton, who too often tended to have actresses far beneath his skills, Chaplin loved to have strong actresses with him. This one, Paulette Goddard he married (though she was later unable to present a wedding certificate). Fascinatingly, given Chaplin's legendary attraction to very young girls, teenagers even, Goddard's character, according to the credits "A Gamin," was a minor. That, and a host of somewhat risqué jokes early in the film, make one surprised that it managed to pass muster with the Hays office.
The official Amazon reviewer states that this is Chaplin's satire of the mechanical world, but that it not quite correct. It is true that in his films as a whole Chaplin never is at ease with machines the way that Keaton was in his (Keaton's two greatest films, THE GENERAL and THE NAVIGATOR, feature a steam train and a steam ship more or less as costars), this film is not focused as a whole on machines. The target is, instead, the world of capitalism, specifically, the plight of the proletarian. The Little Tramp is inept as a wage earner in a time that demands that one either be a wage owner or a wage payer, or else be unemployed and therefore unfed. Many of his struggles in the film have nothing to do with machinery or mechanization. Only near the end, when he briefly appears to have a gift for art, is he able to achieve anything even remotely approaching competence in his job. The anti-capitalist themes are so blatant in the film (indeed, in the first frames, which show first a herd of sheep and then a group of workers entering a factory) that the film indirectly led to Chaplin's exile from the United States in 1952, when he left the country partly because of accusations of tax evasion and partly because of accusations of having been a Communist. He was not the latter, but he was unquestionably something of a naive politics (by that I mean that Chaplin's political ideas were not deeply articulated, though their tendency was unmistakable).
I can't emphasize enough how superbly the picture looks in this film. The picture is sharp and crisp, with absolutely no hint of a worn print. The way we see it here is as good as it has ever looked. The musical score, which was composed by Chaplin, is marvelous, culminating in his most famous composition the exquisite "Smile."
Although Chaplin contemplated a different ending, the one we have is as perfect as can be imagined. Chaplin and Goddard, escaped from the officers who want to return her to a juvenile home, prepare to go down the road together. She looks downcast, but he cheers her and looking at her very clearly says to her, "Smile." The camera cuts to behind them, and we see them together walking down the road. It is an absolutely perfect image for the last seconds the Little Tramp will ever appear onscreen.
Rating:
Summary: A downright great movie!
Review: The genius of Charlie is very evident in this wonderful movie. Charlie's Little Tramp is one of the most well drawn characters to ever come out of Hollywood. Charlie communicates well, how life really is, by pulling laughter out of bad luck and tragedy. The sadness of the Great Depression, bread lines, lost jobs, shootings, and starving children is fodder for the Great One here as he first shows the sadness and then in the next scene makes one laugh out loud.This is however far from a drama. It is first and foremost a comedy of amazing proportions. Charlie stretches his ability to the limit here. His jerky walk (the result of too many hours on the job), the scene in jail with the small dog, and the preacher's wife (hope I whetted your curiosity with that scene description) and Charlie "leading the parade" (honestly, that looks like something that would happen to me) are all hysterical. The funniest scene in the whole movie is the scene with the automatic lunch feeder. I was rolling on my back, laughing during this routine. Highly recommended. You haven't watched it yet? What are you waiting for? Watch it today.
Rating: 
Summary: THIS IS VERY SPECIAL
Review: This brand new Classic Collector's DVD Box Set contains Disc 1; Fully restored film on DVD; Disc 2: containing special features including behind-the-scene footage and "making of" documentary. A brand new and exclusive soundtrack was created specifically for this collector series containing original music selections from the motion picture. This Classic Collection also contains a commemorative booklet written by an acclaimed Chaplin biographer and a collectible Senitype; A limited edition numbered image from the film and its corresponding 35mm film frame. A must for any collector or Chaplin fan.
Rating:
Summary: a great movie for all 77 years and counting its been out!
Review: This Feature is Chaplins last silent movie. Even though the title is Modern Times chaplin wasn't so easy on letting silent movies go.
This is a movie thats great for all ages and should not be resented at any cost.
This is a movie about a factory worker being fired and gone to jail. A lady that lives with her Dad starts to live with the factory worker after her dad has been shot. The two fall in love. Through the movie the two find themselves looking for work,food,and shelter. They also get in trouble with the law. I have one real big piece of advice abut this movie watch it.
Rating:
Summary: Chaplin's Finest Work!
Review: This is Charlie's best film! It is as true as ever and will leave your sides hurting for the whole day! A comedy about a factory worker who goes insane by the machines of the modern age!
Rating:
Summary: Another Chaplin success.
Review: This time, the city is all riled up about work in the factories. Chaplin again meets up with a girl that he likes and tries to deperately find work for money. Other than the factories with many funny parts like the food machine and feeding his boss, he tries to work as a night watchman at a department store, a waiter and singer at a restaurant, and a quick construction worker for a ship. With the funny singing at the end, this movie is another Chaplin film that you are sure to enjoy.
Rating:
Summary: Getting Chaplin
Review: Until I saw "Modern Times" I only knew Chaplin from clips and impressions rather than from his films. I didn't see the talent. I understood that he parlayed his popularity into power and control over his work and that he made a huge contribution to American cinema. But I found Chaplin the performer, cloying and sentimental. After watching "Modern Times" however, I understand why he is one of the great performing talents of the 20th century. The film is nearly silent and mostly a series of comedic set-pieces, each one a virtuoso display of Chaplin's boundless talent. What struck me most in watching Chaplin was both his ability to come up with a routine; strapped to an eating machine, skating blindfolded in a department store and amusing hardened diners as a dancing waiter and executing the concept with grace, humanity and humor. It is also a great testament to his acting that we never question Chaplin's "little tramp" an average, slightly ludicrous character who has amazing talent that deeply undercuts his character's supposed mediocrity. My other surprise was how effective and nuanced the satire is in "Modern Times." Chaplin's little tramp is the perfect protagonist in a story about the perils of automation and technology. The little tramp is never defeated and always optimistic. He is like a cartoon character in that each travail is new and he doesn't carry with him the baggage from the previous experience. But he is also terribly human; frail, self absorbed, eccentric and resilient so that we the audience don't feel the oppressive weight that automation and technology has upon the working person. Without a strong, human protagonist, the attack against modern society could seem more global and distancing. Instead we witness the pain from an individual perspective that connects to our own lives.
Rating:
Summary: Getting Chaplin
Review: Until I saw "Modern Times" I only knew Chaplin from clips and impressions rather than from his films. I didn't see the talent. I understood that he parlayed his popularity into power and control over his work and that he made a huge contribution to American cinema. But I found Chaplin the performer, cloying and sentimental. After watching "Modern Times" however, I understand why he is one of the great performing talents of the 20th century. The film is nearly silent and mostly a series of comedic set-pieces, each one a virtuoso display of Chaplin's boundless talent. What struck me most in watching Chaplin was both his ability to come up with a routine; strapped to an eating machine, skating blindfolded in a department store and amusing hardened diners as a dancing waiter and executing the concept with grace, humanity and humor. It is also a great testament to his acting that we never question Chaplin's "little tramp" an average, slightly ludicrous character who has amazing talent that deeply undercuts his character's supposed mediocrity. My other surprise was how effective and nuanced the satire is in "Modern Times." Chaplin's little tramp is the perfect protagonist in a story about the perils of automation and technology. The little tramp is never defeated and always optimistic. He is like a cartoon character in that each travail is new and he doesn't carry with him the baggage from the previous experience. But he is also terribly human; frail, self absorbed, eccentric and resilient so that we the audience don't feel the oppressive weight that automation and technology has upon the working person. Without a strong, human protagonist, the attack against modern society could seem more global and distancing. Instead we witness the pain from an individual perspective that connects to our own lives.
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