Cinema Cycle - Bed of Roses

CINEMA CYCLE

(Cardio Workout And Reviewing Movies At The Same Time)

DATE REVIEWED: 08/25/2017

TITLE:. Bed of Roses

FORMAT: Laserdisc

TIME RIDDEN / FILM LENGTH: 1 hour 30 minutes

DISTANCE RIDDEN WHILE VIEWING: 20.5 miles

TOTAL CINEMA MILES LOGGED: 7348.7 miles

SYNOPSIS: A successful career girl with family issues meets Mr. Perfect.

CONCEPT IN RELATION TO THE VIEWER: Trying to address some of the psychological issues that afflict modern single women.

PROS AND CONS:  I was expecting a romantic comedy based on the cover and liner notes.  What I got was a romantic drama with very implausible situations and motivations.

Mind you, this is a well made film.  Production value, acting, soundtrack are all very good.  The plot however seems simplistic and a bit to fairy-tale like.  

It may be because of my gender, but I never felt any sympathy for the female lead in the film.  She came across as whiny and insecure.  Guys hate that in women.

To read an overview of this project, check out this status posting.  

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.

Cinema Cycle - Deceived

CINEMA CYCLE

(Cardio Workout And Reviewing Movies At The Same Time)

DATE REVIEWED: 08/23/2017

TITLE:. Deceived

FORMAT: Laserdisc

TIME RIDDEN / FILM LENGTH: 1 hour 50 minutes

DISTANCE RIDDEN WHILE VIEWING: 26.4 miles

TOTAL CINEMA MILES LOGGED: 7328.2 miles

SYNOPSIS: A woman discovers that the man she married five years prior is not the husband she thought he was.

CONCEPT IN RELATION TO THE VIEWER: The ultimate fear of women, finding out your husband is someone you do not know.  

PROS AND CONS:  A much better film than I thought it would be.  Goldie Hawn does a very good dramatic turn as a woman whose life is turned upside down.

This is a suspense film that is very well done, almost in the style of Hitchcock.  Camera work, direction and soundtrack all add to the exceptional performances to make a very engrossing film.  

Had I not seen his name in the credits, I would have recognized the soundtrack by Thomas Newman.  His music adds an extreme amount of suspense to what otherwise would have been mediocre scenes.  

To read an overview of this project, check out this status posting.  

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.

Cinema Cycle - The Glenn Gould Collection - III & IV

CINEMA CYCLE

(Cardio Workout And Reviewing Movies At The Same Time)

DATE REVIEWED: 08/21/2017

TITLE:. The Glenn Gould Collection (III & IV)

FORMAT: Laserdisc

TIME RIDDEN / FILM LENGTH: 1 hour 50 minutes

DISTANCE RIDDEN WHILE VIEWING: 24.9 miles

TOTAL CINEMA MILES LOGGED: 7301.8 miles

SYNOPSIS: Two hour long programs focusing on specific musical styles and themes.

CONCEPT IN RELATION TO THE VIEWER: Canadian Public Broadcasting in the 1980s.  Very upper crust.

PROS AND CONS:  This is the second time around for Mr. Gould, having reviewed him previously about a month ago. He sort of grows on you, in an academic way.  As in, he would be a wonderful college professor, but not someone I would want to have a cup of coffee with.  

This series of discs are excerpts from a Canadian Broadcasting series that Gould did and they do tend to show a bit of variety and interesting performances along the way.  

The most bizarre portion of the performance is the “So You Want To Write A Fugue” segment on side two.  A fugue for four voices and chamber orchestra.  Not something you see every day.

To read an overview of this project, check out this status posting.  

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.

Cinema Cycle - True Romance

CINEMA CYCLE

(Cardio Workout And Reviewing Movies At The Same Time)

DATE REVIEWED: 08/17/2017

TITLE:. True Romance

FORMAT: Laserdisc

TIME RIDDEN / FILM LENGTH: 2 hours 1 minute

DISTANCE RIDDEN WHILE VIEWING: 26.9 miles

TOTAL CINEMA MILES LOGGED: 7276.9 miles

SYNOPSIS: Two hapless slackers steal cocaine and are pursued by the mob as they try and sell it.

CONCEPT IN RELATION TO THE VIEWER: Early Quentin Tarantino.  Basically, a precursor to “Pulp Fiction”.

PROS AND CONS:  Not the film that I expected to see.  Even if I had not seen his name in the opening credits I would have realized that this was a Quentin Tarantino film with in the first 15 minutes.  His signature is all over the film.

The film is well done, but not my cup of tea.  There are those long tense monologues that always end up in violence.  Lets not forget the blood-fest at the end of the film.  The nar-do-well slackers who stumble from one violent encounter to the next.  

It holds your interest, but it also requires a total suspension of belief, in that you can have an extended gunfight and violence and the police never show up.  Violence is omnipresent in this society.

To read an overview of this project, check out this status posting.  

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.

Cinema Cycle - Misery

CINEMA CYCLE

(Cardio Workout And Reviewing Movies At The Same Time)

DATE REVIEWED: 08/14/2017

TITLE:. Misery

FORMAT: Laserdisc

TIME RIDDEN / FILM LENGTH: 1 hour 55 minutes

DISTANCE RIDDEN WHILE VIEWING: 23 miles

TOTAL CINEMA MILES LOGGED: 7250 miles

SYNOPSIS: A novelist is held captive and tortured by a deranged fan.  

CONCEPT IN RELATION TO THE VIEWER: Celebrity and the price you pay for it.  We have all known a psychopath at least once in our lives.  This reminds us of that.

PROS AND CONS:  I originally thought this was going to be a boring Cinema Cycle since the horror genre is not really my thing.  I was surprised how entertaining it was once it got going.  

I doubt there is much argument that Kathy Bates deserved her Oscar for her performance here.  She has the deranged / crazy ex-spouse down perfectly.  She is actually creepy to watch on screen, similar to Nurse Rachet in “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest”.  

Although I had seen it before, I didn’t recall just how riveting the last 20 minutes of the film were.  The final scene of the film adds an eerie twist the tale of the author and his concept of stardom and fame.

To read an overview of this project, check out this status posting.  

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.

Cinema Cycle - Winterreise

CINEMA CYCLE

(Cardio Workout And Reviewing Movies At The Same Time)

DATE REVIEWED: 08/10/2017

TITLE:. Franz Schubert - Winterreise

FORMAT: LaserDisc

TIME RIDDEN / FILM LENGTH: 1 hour 16 minutes

DISTANCE RIDDEN WHILE VIEWING: 16.3 miles

TOTAL CINEMA MILES LOGGED: 7227 miles

SYNOPSIS: Popular (?) Germanic Songs from the turn of the last century.

CONCEPT IN RELATION TO THE VIEWER: A time capsule of media from a time before mass media.

PROS AND CONS:  If you like this sort of thing, this is a gold mine.  Most folks won’t like this.  Speaking German and a good understanding of German culture would be helpful.

This is a simplistic concert film.  It is well done but there isn’t a lot to look at.  Excluding the young woman that turns the pages for the pianist, there are only two performers.

The libretto is included with this laserdisc and the translation of almost all the songs was, to say the least, rather depressing.  It appears that Germans prior to the first world war were a very depressed lot.  

To read an overview of this project, check out this status posting.  

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.

Cinema Cycle - Father

CINEMA CYCLE

(Cardio Workout And Reviewing Movies At The Same Time)

DATE REVIEWED: 08/08/2017

TITLE:. Father (Apa)

FORMAT: Laserdisc

TIME RIDDEN / FILM LENGTH: 1 hour 25 minutes

DISTANCE RIDDEN WHILE VIEWING: 19.4 miles

TOTAL CINEMA MILES LOGGED: 7210.7 miles

SYNOPSIS: A young boy / man deals with the loss of his father in post WWII Hungary.

CONCEPT IN RELATION TO THE VIEWER: Our identity in turbulent times and how we deal and cope with doubt and the unknown.

PROS AND CONS:  Not what I expected.  A Hungarian film made in 1966.  It is in the neo-realist genre of de Sica, Fellini, and Truffaut.  The film is funny and entertaining throughout, lacking much of the depression and somber tone of other films of this genre.

Much of the film is given over to surreal fantasy scenes that are very much like Fellini’s work of the early 1960s.  You have to watch carefully to determine what is fantasy and what is reality.

This is good filmmaking, using unique and interesting imagery and camera angles along with whimsical location and staging.  

To read an overview of this project, check out this status posting.  

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.