Rating: Summary: When "widescreen" isn't really... Review: "Eyes of Laura Mars" may be a flawed picture to some degree, but it's a great semi-kinky period piece [only "semi" by today's standards], the actors are good and paranoid and appropriately overwrought, and there is an atmosphere that holds this well-directed/well-edited film together.
The only faults are a couple minor quirks in the script-- like you can tell whodunit almost right away.
Irvin Kirschner, the very intelligent director who guided this (as well as "Empire Strikes Back", etc..), provides a non-stop commentary track which is interesting.
My main complaint with the DVD: as a double-sided disc, you have the option of watching it on the square "full screen" shaped for TV, or the ALLEGED widescreen--- but the widescreen here is actually the square TV-version only with the 'heads and feet' cut-off in letterbox style... In other words, you're not only missing the SIDES of the picture [as you do in a standard square TV print, of course] but they've lopped off the top and bottom to create a pseudo-widescreen version, which means you're missing a major part of the picture from ALL FOUR SIDES! (As a result, the standard, square TV version has more visual data.... but neither side of the disc gives you the actual original widescreen theatre version.)
Rating: Summary: DONALD!!!! Review: Dunaway gives one of her best performances here! Laura Mars is a fashion photog who is the toast of town with her 70's kitsch style glam shots. She also has the extraordinary ability to see through a serial killer's eyes! Tommy Lee Jones appears as a detective who falls for her. The film is pure camp and Dunaway chews the scenery as only she can. When her pal Donald bites it you can just feel the hilarity as she shreiks "Donnnnnaaaaallllldddd!" Do not pass this up!
Rating: Summary: Stunning performance Review: Faye dunaway is the only one who could play the lead in this unforgettable classic.Her scary and sexy performance dominates the whole film.This is one of those movies wich keeps me focused,there is no time to take a breather.
Rating: Summary: Eyes of Laura Mars with All Those Great Stars!!! Review: I can remember when "Eyes of Laura Mars" came out back in 1978. The movie trailer shows that fantastic scene when Tommy Lee Jones comes right through that huge glass window. They would show this over and over on TV back then, when advertising this movie. For some reason, I knew who Tommy Lee Jones was back then. And I didn't watch the soap opera he was on either. Goes to show you what STAR POWER he had then. So cute with that great bowlish haircut!!! Twenty Five years later, this movie still holds up!! I hadn't seen it in so long, we used to have a black & white television, this is how long i have seen it. But i purchased the DVD last night, and watched it about 3 times. Seeing it in color is a real treat, and there are actors that i now recognize that i didn't back then. Raul Julia as the Ex husband Michael Reisler has the line of the decade when he says to Faye Dunaway "I was your husband, I was never your friend!"...... Brad Dourif as Tommy Ludlow is wonderful as the loyal but suspicious looking chauffeuer/go-for. As Irvin Kershner states in his commentary "look at this guy, he's in the inner circle, and he's sloppily dressed, and his hair's a mess..." I love Rene Auberjonois in this film. At this time, during the mid-late 1970's you could find Rene in just about every TV show, made for TV movie and film. This guy must never have been home!!! Lisa Taylor at the time was about one of the most beautiful models in the early to later 1970's. I remember Darlanne Fleugel well (she was also in Crime Story in the late 1980s)but had never really connected her face with her name until now. Also you will see a young John Sahag, he plays a hairdresser in the movie. In real life he is one of the top hair stylists today, and is still cute with that shaggy hair and tight shirts!! He really hasn't changed!!!! It's these types of things that i like about the movie. The fashion, the music, the accessories, and even the wonderful STEIFF bear that is in the police precinct. He is sitting on the large table where Tommy Lee Jones conducts his investigations. You can see Lisa Taylor hugging the bear in another scene, and she doesn't want to let go. Neither would I, for that matter!!! But the film is great, and is a must see for those who enjoyed the films of the 1970's. Also invaluable is a nice "Eyes on Laura" photo gallery, where a person by the name of Laurent, gives us an inside to the script's changes while they show some great photos. Then the Director's Commentary is wonderful~~~Irvin Kershner talks to you, not AT YOU, just as if you were sitting with him in a living room, relaxing, and he gives you a play by play on the whole movie!!! He seems to be a person you can relate to, and his generous information will really brighten your day!
Rating: Summary: Eyes of Laura Mars with All Those Great Stars!!! Review: I can remember when "Eyes of Laura Mars" came out back in 1978. The movie trailer shows that fantastic scene when Tommy Lee Jones comes right through that huge glass window. They would show this over and over on TV back then, when advertising this movie. For some reason, I knew who Tommy Lee Jones was back then. And I didn't watch the soap opera he was on either. Goes to show you what STAR POWER he had then. So cute with that great bowlish haircut!!! Twenty Five years later, this movie still holds up!! I hadn't seen it in so long, we used to have a black & white television, this is how long i have seen it. But i purchased the DVD last night, and watched it about 3 times. Seeing it in color is a real treat, and there are actors that i now recognize that i didn't back then. Raul Julia as the Ex husband Michael Reisler has the line of the decade when he says to Faye Dunaway "I was your husband, I was never your friend!"...... Brad Dourif as Tommy Ludlow is wonderful as the loyal but suspicious looking chauffeuer/go-for. As Irvin Kershner states in his commentary "look at this guy, he's in the inner circle, and he's sloppily dressed, and his hair's a mess..." I love Rene Auberjonois in this film. At this time, during the mid-late 1970's you could find Rene in just about every TV show, made for TV movie and film. This guy must never have been home!!! Lisa Taylor at the time was about one of the most beautiful models in the early to later 1970's. I remember Darlanne Fleugel well (she was also in Crime Story in the late 1980s)but had never really connected her face with her name until now. Also you will see a young John Sahag, he plays a hairdresser in the movie. In real life he is one of the top hair stylists today, and is still cute with that shaggy hair and tight shirts!! He really hasn't changed!!!! It's these types of things that i like about the movie. The fashion, the music, the accessories, and even the wonderful STEIFF bear that is in the police precinct. He is sitting on the large table where Tommy Lee Jones conducts his investigations. You can see Lisa Taylor hugging the bear in another scene, and she doesn't want to let go. Neither would I, for that matter!!! But the film is great, and is a must see for those who enjoyed the films of the 1970's. Also invaluable is a nice "Eyes on Laura" photo gallery, where a person by the name of Laurent, gives us an inside to the script's changes while they show some great photos. Then the Director's Commentary is wonderful~~~Irvin Kershner talks to you, not AT YOU, just as if you were sitting with him in a living room, relaxing, and he gives you a play by play on the whole movie!!! He seems to be a person you can relate to, and his generous information will really brighten your day!
Rating: Summary: A guilty pleasure Review: I confess this movie has always been one of my big guilty pleasures. It masquerades as a slasher film (John Carpenter has a writing credit), but it's really a very sharp parable about the Artist in Society. Everything around her gets sacrificed as art-photographer Laura Mars (played by Faye Dunaway) pursues her inexorable visions; she's embattled against a hostile, uncomprehending public and her own self-doubts. The fact that she's a strong, independent woman is significant too, because she ends up realizing that she is still just a victim-tool of the patriarchy whose sign-system she has tried to hijack for her violent images. The twist ending redefines "tough love" at its toughest, as Laura finally realizes that she can't hope to transcend the world but must sink down to its lowest level in order to survive. And if all this sounds too highfalutin, well, this is also delicious camp, a delirious 70's time capsule, from the Streisand rock song to the coolly robotic disco strains, to the hugely mascara'ed, shag-cut models, to the outre photographs courtesy of Helmut Newton. This would make an excellent 70's-nostalgia double bill with "Can't Stop the Music," the Village People's immortal epic. And I should add that Faye Dunaway is at her most mesmerizing in this role, conveying with her intense eyes alone all the terror and sorrow and frustration of Laura Mars. With censorship once again on the rise in America, and subversive art still the perennial target of "moralistic" backlash, don't say that the premise of this film couldn't really happen!
Rating: Summary: Great Review: I loved it! It was very suspenseful and kept me on the edge of my seat. I was anticipating the end and it shocked me when I got there. The lead character, Laura, was magnificent. Very well done!
Rating: Summary: Cheesy yes - but nonsensical? Not really Review: I remember seeing "The Eyes of Laura Mars" in the theater lo' these many years ago and while not a life-changing motion picture it has remained, since then, utterly watcheable. I confess I have sat through at least twice since it has been on TV - a sign I need to either get out or that on some cheesy level of my onw, I enjoy it. I must agree with much Bragan Thomas' articulate review but beg to differ on his claims that the movie makes no sense - and the specific examples he uses to support this claim. True, the plot is thin and the resolution thinner still...but the movie does have a story to tell and tries to do so. To answer Mr. Thomas' question "Why does the killer enter Mars' mind (presumably in the first place)? It's simple really - her photos. Early on we see examples of Mars' trendy, society-is-sick and dangerous fashion photographs. The killer's childhood mirrors the crime scene photos (and Mars') that he has access to. Connection made. Why doesn't Laura warn her soon to be killed friends? It's always too late. She see what the killer sees as the killer is about to strike. So - while cheesy yes - "Laura Mars" does, for the most part, make sense.
Rating: Summary: GREAT MOVIE Review: I saw it on TV the other evening and decided I must get the tape.It's Filled with 70;s Era fashion photographers cliches such as putting beautiful models in sexy poses, some of the S&M variety. Faye Dunaway is georgeous and mysterious looking as always. Even though for some reason it has not been reviewed by major critics, I recommend it highly.
Rating: Summary: A Scary Look into the World of fashion model Review: I truly believe throughout the entire film that Laura Mars was innocent. I couldn't wait to find out who the ture killer was. Great Supporting cast of Tommy Lee Jones and Raul Julia.
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