Ophelia Learns To Swim

Hilarious film by the author of "The Woman Director"
Cult film writer/director/producer Jurgen Vsych, after 28 short films, makes her feature debut with "Ophelia Learns to Swim." You can read about the making of this film in Vsych's recently published memoir, "The Woman Director," the first autobiography ever written by an American female filmmaker.

"Ophelia" takes the "Hamlet" story and turns it on its head. Julia Lee plays Ophelia, a young woman who was a brilliant student but has let her I.Q. plummet 60 points so her boyfriend won't be intimidated. Her existance seems to be on course to mimic her namesake in HAMLET, but her life takes a strange twist when a witch shows up on her doorstep and whisks her away.

Ophelia is introduced to the witch's friends: Superheroines Mother Nature, The Chocolatier, and The Librarian, who are battling their villanous counterparts Virginia Svelte (the hysterical Hilary Shepard-Turner), Cosmetic Chick, and The Doucher. Ophelia must decide which side to join - the underpaid,...

Ophelia Learns to be Human
I really enjoyed the film. I hope they will be playing it on the Independent Movie Channel more often.

I think with the right marketing, it would be really big with women's rights groups and with people who enjoy good wacky comedy.

Particularly clever was the subtle way in which the author/director/writer raised issues of equality and the human rights, often sticky subjects people don't like to be preached to about during their entertainments. Also, the overtly symbolic use of names and characters added to the zany, surreal under-girth of the narrative. The acting was authentic and honest, if a bit over the top in some moments (to be expected in this kind of fantasy/comedy of the absurd).

Ophelia herself combines the charm of an innocent with the sex appeal of a female at the dawn of womanhood. It is easy to empathize with her plight: a dotting but vacant and eventually spineless boyfriend, a pushy, mean-spirited, selfish, alcoholic father, a brother...

Cute idea, nice sense of humor, but falls flat
Ophelia learns to swim is many things, it's a feminist comedy (not necessary a contradiction in terms), a superhero parody and a coming of age story. It's also an ultra low budget film with some talented performers.

Ophelia is an ordinary girl taken for granted by her family and her boyfriend. Then she's kidnapped by the Broom Witch and the Council of Superheroines. She takes on their antifeminist foes including the smoking villainess Virginia Svelte.

There's a lot of sincerity in the film, the Superheroines are always making speeches about women's oppression and social issues. There's also a bit of parody, the film is not afraid to make fun of its issues but the jokes fall flat, the low budget is apparent and really it's not very entertaining.

There's potential. Julia Lee and Lauren Birkell in particular put in good performances, but in the end there's really no reason to seek this movie out.

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Thor

Epic, heroic fantasy.
Thor is Marvel's best superhero movie yet. It is even better than the first Iron Man and The Incredible Hulk films. It is also the most visually stunning of any Marvel film, with gorgeous fantasy settings, great costumes, and spectacular special effects.

In the same way as Christopher Nolan's The Dark Knight worked just as well as a crime drama as a superhero movie, Thor works just as well as a standalone fantasy film. Even if I had not known that I was watching a comic book movie, I would have been just as happy with the story. In fact, I would say that you don't actually need to be familiar with the characters or the comic mythology to enjoy the film.

The story is set half in Asgard, the realm of the gods, and half in our world, Earth. Thor, the son of the king of Asgard, the wise Odin, is a proud and arrogant king-in-waiting. He makes a foolish mistake that brings his world to the brink of war and his father exiles him to our world as punishment, and...

MUCH more than I expected
I went to see this with our 9 year old son, honestly not expecting very much. While I have enjoyed Portman and Hopkins in a number of roles, I felt this would be just another comic book hero movie with a bad script, extremely predictable character development, and unoriginal attempts at humor.
I was wrong...
Not only did I AND our 9 year old boy enjoy THOR, our 13 year old daughter, 15 year old goddaughter, and two more of our daughter's friends enjoyed it...ALL 3 TIMES WE SAW IT!!!
That's right...I saw THOR with our kids 3 times. Granted, this is a bit over-killed, but we thoroughly enjoyed the movie every time and plan to purchase it on opening DVD release day. Here's why:
1. I felt it was age appropriate.
2. Was it violent, sure...was it gory, no.
3. It had clear lines of good and bad, treated well with a myriad of complexities that led people to their struggles...so it felt honest.
4. I thought it was a GREAT play into the Avengers movie that...

Thor
Comic book fans get a lot of flak for being nerds, dweebs and geeks; or at least they used to. Now comics are en vogue as millions of people attend geekfests like Comic Con; although whether that's to see the movie and television stars in attendance remains to be seen. Comic book characters are our mythology, they rival the super powered beings and gods of ancient Greek, Mesopotamian, and Viking mythology. We as humans have always felt this need to look up to higher powers to sort out our lives, believing that the fate of our race is better left in the hands of someone capable of bending the rules of physics. It's only natural then that eventually the worlds of comics and ancient mythology would collide as it does in the new Marvel movie Thor.

Thor (Chris Hemsworth) is the arrogant first born son of King Odin (Anthony Hopkins) of Asgard, and the rightful heir to the throne. When Thor commits an act that could lead to war between Asgard and the Frostgiants, with whom they...

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Lucky Miles

Nice work
A funny comedy of "board people", their dreams of Australia and reality surrounding as three of a group walk through a desert towards unknown.

liked it
interesting characters, great story.hard to understand the accents at times, sad but, very funny also,nice scenery eventhough desolate another world

A Nice Surprise
Decided to take a risk on this one and found ourselves a decent flick. It's funny, a good story, and has some adventure.

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Femmes Fatales

Interesting
I consider this to be an Asian version of a Lifetime movie. The central characters are all female. It is an interesting view of a different culture. So often we are given one dimensional views of Japanese culture. This film offers a different perspective and shows that despite the cultural differences we face the same issues and problems. The film shows the consequences that infidelity, abortion, jealousy, and child abuse can have on an unbalanced mind.

Dont ake them mad
Very interesting look at Japanese culture. You think mild and submissive but this movies showed people of any culture have their bad thoughts and actions.

Femmes Fatales
Pointless documentary type film attempting to be memorable stories about women committing murder. Little character development and no identification with characters for viewer

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The Phantom Lady

Ella Raines Shines In Phantom Lady
Phantom Lady may have been overshadowed in 1944 by the release of the two classic noir films; Double Indemnity and Laura, yet Robert Siodmak's psychological thriller still maintains an acknowledged position among the genre. Siodmak lures viewers through rain slicked streets, back alley jazz clubs, and post midnight rendezvous. Adapted from a Cornell Woolrich novel, Phantom Lady is similar to Wollrich's later work Black Angel, in that a man (Alan Curtis) is wrongfully accused of murder, sentenced to death and can only depend on his secretary ( Ella Raines) who desperately searches for the only alibi (the phantom lady) that can exonerate him. Franchot Tone recieves top billing as a psychopathic socialite with twitching hands, but it is twenty-three year old Ella Raines who deservedly steals the spotlight . As Carol "Kansas" Richman, she seduces simple minded Elisha Cook Jr., an orchestra drummer, during one of his performances. In a classic cat & mouse...

Worth seeing several times.
A good hardbitten yarn, with effective use of shadows and night time backdrops. The scenes in which the female protagonist tails the bar-keeper through the subways and streets of New York are impressively eerie. The same peaches and cream protagonist then dresses up as an uncanny floozie---you can almost smell her cheap perfume through the VCR. The jazz drum scene involving peaches and cream/floozie and Elisha Cook Jr is high charged sex in a thinly veiled, naughty noir way. (It is far more erotic than the more explicit sex one sees in contemporary films.) The psychopath behind the intrigue is frightening and believeable. This is a great flick.

Another great adaption from Woolrich
Cornell Woolrich is the unsung hero of this and many other films. His little stories bashed out at a tremendous speed simply make great films. Hitchcock used Rear Window to create one of his best films. Other directors have used his stories to great effect. The recent Original Sin is the latest in a very long and distinguished list.

With a great story line of a man sitting on death row while his friends race to find evidence of his innocence, Siodmak really produces the goods in this film. One sequence, in particular, the jazz jam session, is as close to a sex scene as film makers could go in those days. The scene alone puts this film in the master class. Great cinematography, some good acting and briliant direction add up to one of the best film noirs in circulation.

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Episode 3 [HD]

The Zombie Next Door: BBC's Original And Emotional Take On The Zombie Craze
While I have an undeniable soft spot in my heart for the flesh eating undead, the zombie genre has been a bit overworked lately with projects (whether in film, TV, or books) of varying degrees of quality. Let's face it, the walking dead are everywhere! I'm certainly not complaining, but it's becoming increasingly difficult to find entertainment that still feels fresh and vital. So if you're looking for something a little different, look no further than "In The Flesh." This three part miniseries for the BBC takes a familiar concept and completely reworks the genre. Less a horror thriller than a social commentary, this domestic drama examines a world in which zombies return to a cognitive state and attempt to return to society. But is the world ready to cohabitate with this perceived threat?

The premise behind "In The Flesh" is pretty dazzling in its audacity. Forgiveness, retribution, prejudice, and loyalty are all concepts that face a small Lancashire village still haunted...

Flippin the script
Always been a huge fan of Zombie/Apocalyptic movies, so when I found out this series had come out and was available on Amazon instant video I was extremely excited, especially since The Walking Dead wont come back till this fall. I wasnt sure how this show would turn out, seeing as its a different aspect of how a Zombie apocalypse could turn out. After seeing Warm Bodies,(which was a great Zombie film btw) and the way they flipped the script on Zombie movies, I was hoping In The Flesh would turn out the same way in a sense; but for Zombie TV shows. I can say I am extremely satisfied. After watching just the first episode, I couldnt help but thinking how good the show really is, especially the way they they portray this Partially Deceased Syndrome. I feel its more realistic to the way the government, and society, would go about controlling and trying to medicate the Partially Deceased, because of the way the government presently plays a huge role in the Pharmaceutical market. I am...

Sci-fi with brilliant filmaking!!!
If you didn't catch this 3 part mini series, now's the time. Get your popcorn ready for a creative, thoughtful and masterful ride!!!

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Love is the Drug

Makes You Thankful its Not You
These are well done crime mystery shows. The premise of the show is that "normal," "happy" relationships can go really really bad when you introduce a third or fourth person into the mix and this usually end up with someone in the morgue.

If you like the documentary crime show genre I would definitely recommend this series.

Story not complete
The story wasn't complete. It would be nice if someone took the time to get the complete story and tell the complete story for once.

On par with ID's other programing
I like this show well enough with two exceptions.
#1.The opening song. Can the ID network please spend a few more dollars and get something better? The only upside is It's very short.
#2. Several of the shows are about crimes that have appeared in other ID shows. Is it that hard to find cases that don't over lap?

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