Saturday, June 20, 2015

Cinema Cycle - Hollywood Revue of 1929



CINEMA CYCLE
(Cardio Workout And Reviewing Movies At The Same Time)




DATE VIEWED: 05/19/2015




FORMAT: Laserdisc


TIME RIDDEN / FILM LENGTH: 1 hour 58 minutes


DISTANCE RIDDEN WHILE VIEWING: 28.5 miles


TOTAL CINEMA MILES LOGGED: 2017.9 miles


SYNOPSIS: A collection of vignettes from MGM highlighting their talent and theatrical abilities, including the use of sound and the dawn of technicolor.


CONCEPT IN RELATION TO THE VIEWER: Entertainment is evolutionary.  From Greek tragedy, to Ben Hur, to Hot Tub Time Machine, every work builds on what came previously.  That is the case here.  While the entertainment value of this collection is questionable, the historical value is priceless.  


PROS AND CONS: As in other films I have reviewed in this genre, this first of three films in a box set is more fascinating for it’s historical value than its entertainment value.  


Presented here are forms of entertainment not much removed from Vaudeville.  Some of the acts and stars evolved and are still with us today, while others died long ago.  Here we get to see a 20 year old Joan Crawford sharing the stage with Ukulele Ike.


I found two things annoying while watching this film.  The video transfer was not good.  The image on the screen had a portion of the left side of the screen cropped off so I wasn’t getting the proper framing or aspect ratio.  


The second annoyance was the editing between acts.  When an MC ended his introduction and walked off stage, the viewer stares at the curtain for 20 seconds.  Awkward….



To read an overview of this project, check out the initial post for this series.


This film is a part of my LaserDisc Collection.

Clicking on the title will take you to the Internet Movie Database (IMDB) entry for this film. 

This film was viewed while exercising on my recumbent cycle.  A summary of my time spent working out on my journey through movie-land can be found on Strava.com.

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