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Blue Velvet (Special Edition)

Blue Velvet (Special Edition)

List Price: $14.95
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Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Lynch's Best, Maybe the Best
Review: Blue Velvet is easily David Lynch's finest creation, but it may also be the best movie I have ever seen.

Lynch has always had a impressive ability to create beautiful and haunting scenes in film. His major fault is that he often has trouble inserting these scenes into a coherent, meaningful film. However, this is not the case with Blue Velvet, which is tightly put together. Indeed, his technical mastery and focus on his story rivals Hitchcock's best in my opinion (and the influence of Hitchcock subtly permeates the film).

It seems that many critics have missed the mark in Lynch's almost unbearably sacharine presentation of small town America. They interpret this as a tongue in cheek attack, and claim that the following deviance we see in the film is an indictment of the sordid underbelly that lies beneath all such communities. In my opinion this could not be further from the case. Lynch beleives in pure goodness as an idea, and in many of his projects he creates a small town that is literally dripping with basic, simple human kindness (the kind of way we saw life when we were young, playing at our grandmothers before we knew about sex, murder, death, drugs and such 'adult' things).

Lynch likes to insert beside such idyllic settings their opposite: forces of darkness (which for Lynch are forces of corruption and perversion). In this film we find it in Frank (paralleled by BOB in Twin Peaks and the Man in Black in Lost Highways), a sadistic drug addicted thug and his demonic consorts.

Another common theme of Lynch's occurs: a basically good, naive hero is placed between these worlds and pulled by both. The hero of the movie vacillitates between the visceral attractions of drugs, violence and sex and the more traditional world of pure love, family, and community. He is all of us: unlike some of the uncorruptable characters in the film that help him he can fall and become like Frank (which is why Frank says to him "In dreams I walk with you"). We face this pull more than we know, and we also must know that others around us may not only be facing it, but losing to the dark side. Do we dare help them, as Blue Velvet's hero does, knowing that we too may be tempted?

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: A neat reworking of a subgenre
Review: I'm surprised that for all that's been said about this film that nobody's realized that it's essentially a 50s gang flick with the point of view shifted and with a strong dose of honesty.

Surreal is an unfair description of this film; there are certainly some bizarre moments, but it's not as if this is a sequel to "Un Chien Andalou." What it is is a very odd little crime thriller.

It's well-acted and excellently written and directed. Not for those who think good movies are all problem plays, but otherwise excellent.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Don't look at me
Review: David Lynch is not weird. This is what we like to call "an everyday story" with "everyday people". I guess it seems weird since the quality level is where it should be. Boobytrap.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Good Movie -- Bad DVD Transfer
Review: The Movie is as good as ever. The video quality of this DVD edition, however, is horrible. Pasty resolution and washed-out colors make it look as though it was transferred directly from VHS. Serious DVD collectors will want to pass on this one until a better print becomes available.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Behind the Blue
Review: When David Lynch's masterpiece "Blue Velvet" first came out, many recognized the powerful vision of the avant garde director, yet dismissed the film as an attack on the notion of a "nuclear family." However, nothing could be further from the truth. Unlike the more recent "American Beauty," "Blue Velvet" does not cloak the depravity of its characters in the context of the average suburbian experience: Instead it localizes it and embodies it in sado-masochistic Frank (played by the manic Dennis Hopper). Here, Lynch gives us one of the most complex Oedipal fantasies to be captured on film, but in the end the family unit is restored and its sanctity saved...or is it? Still, the film is about mood and texture, and Lynch's vivid surrealist imagery lends itself well to the mystery genre. Not for the squeemish, this film depicts violent sexuality which remains as controversial today as it did back then--so buyer beware. I gave 4 stars instead of 5, because the DVD doesn't have very many special features--no behind the scenes, no script, no documentary etc.--Just a poor quality theatrical trailer. Nevertheless, the film itself is timeless, and far better than "American Beauty."

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Interesting, but not a classic
Review: This movie was very interesting to watch and it had some really good scenes, but it did not flow the way I like a movie to flow. The movie just seemed to have a bunch of really different and unusual scenes put together and called a movie. The performances the actors did were wonderful and Dennis Hopper did a fantastic job in his role. David Lynch is a master when it comes to creating weid scenes and interesting charcters. But when he put everything together the movie did not flow the way a movie should from scene to scene. I would say you should see this movie just because of the acting. If you like it buy, most people would not think this is a buy.

B

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Warm and Fuzzy!!
Review: This one is for those Tom Hanks/Meg Ryan fans. Comparable to 'Shakespeare in Love.'

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: shaun316 is an idiot
Review: One of the greatest movies ever made. A must have for any film lover. Only the most cynical and moronic critics pan this masterpiece. Bad reviews from film school dropouts make me sick. Take your sour grapes and go lambaste Bresson or Godard. Lynch is the only true artist working in film today and BLUE VELVET marks the pinnacle of his career.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Overrated Drivel
Review: Someone needs to tell David Lynch that the way to get subtlety and metaphors across to your audience is not to hit them over the head with it. Blue Velvet is brilliantly acted by nearly all involved, with the exception of Laura Dern, who manages to deliver one of the worst performances I have seen in a long time. One of the chief ways of making Blue Velvet an effective movie was for the director, Lynch, to make a noticeable difference between scenes in light and scenes shrouded in darkness. This would convey the theme of what lies beneath suburban America. However, in the light scenes, the dialogue is so ridiculously contrived, that it is impossible to care at all about the characters involved. Here, Lynch has made a movie with something to say, unfortunately the way in which he says it is uninteresting and at times, pitiable. The actors in this film are excellent, and to me represent the only reason anyone should ever see this movie. The characters created by Rosselini, Hopper, and Mclachlan are played with genuine feeling and emotion, something rarely seen in modern cinema. These actors, however, are left with a script that is struggling to make sense of itself. Many have said that Blue Velvet is one of the most significant films ever made. If Lynch had managed to pull of a halfway interesting approach to a fascinating theme, I might be inclined to agree. However, the script is atrocious, the direction and technical aspects of the film poor, and the story, honestly, is not at all interesting. Some reading this review will charge that I simply "didn't get the film". The problem isn't that I didn't "get" it--I did--but that the film was so poorly made that by the end, I just didn't care.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Love it or Leave it - That's the beauty
Review: You could have so many arguments about Blue Velvet to the point of getting into a fist fight. Personally, I think it's the best movie ever made. It changed my whole perception of a film. The surreal opening sequence with the picket fence with Bobby Vinton's "Blue Velvet" (re-mixed by Lynch, sounding distant and bumped up from B-flat to B), may be the most beautiful few seconds of film one could see. Anyway, this film divided the critics, and that's why I love it. If you were to ask me what kind of movie Blue Velvet is, I'd say, beautiful, disturbing, uniquely funny, suspenseful. Lynch creates two worlds here, with two girls, and a young man who is the arbitrator of the two who loses his innocence. With Laura Dern, you could turn your TV set to Black and White and think the film was made in the 50s (aside from Jeffery's ear-ring and hip 80s haircut). When Dorothy and Frank enter the picture, it's just...unbelievable. This is ground breaking cinema. No picture has ever boasted so much of a contrast between day and night, good and evil. No film has been made like this, and ever will be. Much symbolism well classifies the film as an contemporary art. Love it or leave it. It will always be talked about. Bravo, Lynch. You've changed my whole perception of cinema and my outlook on small towns. See it. You won't forget it.


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