House of Games
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Movie Reviews of House of Games
Movie Review: 5 Stars for the FILM, 1 Star for the DVD
Summary: 5 Stars
Of course the movie deserves 4 stars, however I wish I could say the same for the DVD. What does it take for DVD company to release each DVD enhanced for 16x9 TVs? Nothing!
Recently I bought a SONY BRAVIA 32 INCH display and I have a collection of over 600 Dvds. I learned now about "Enhanced for 16x9 TVs" and how important it is, I did not care about it or even know about it since I own a standard TV, however all my Dvds are Region 1 and in widescreen, I never buy fullscreen Dvds. So I did an inventory on my collection and realized the following:
Out of 600+ Dvds, 42 are NOT enhanced for 16x9 TVs and they really look horrible when I played them on my PC. Anyway, according to my inventory.
THE FOLLOWING MOVIES / COMPANY HAVE FAILED TO PRODUCE ANAMORPHIC OR 16X9 WIDESCREEN and I hope that these company will release them in the near future so that we can enjoy them on our TVs.
MGM:
Runaway Train
Graduate
No Way Out
Prizzi's Honor
FX
Shallow Grave
Thief
House Of Games
Dead Man Walking
Misery
The Eye Of The Needle
Overboard
PARAMOUNT:
Private Parts
48 Hrs
Coming To America
Primal Fear
The Ghost And The Darkness
Breakdown
UNIVERSAL:
Day Of The Jackal
Psycho (AVAILABLE IN THE RECENT HITCHCOCK'S BOXSET AS ANAMORPHIC)
Vertigo (AVAILABLE IN THE RECENT HITCHCOCK'S BOXSET AS ANAMORPHIC)
The Game
FOX:
Abyss (I WAS SHOCKED TO LEARN THAT MY 2-DISC IS NOT ANAMORPHIC, NOR IS THE LATEST DIGIPACK EDITION)
Raising Arizona
The Edge
Great Expectations
Rising Sun
The Ref
Romancing The Stone
The Jewel Of The Nile
ARTISAN:
House Of The Spirits
The Last Seduction
The Last Emperor
The Eagle Has Landed
Bound
PS: PLEASE ARTISAN, INSTEAD OF RELEASING 'BASIC INSTINCT' FOR THE 4TH TIME, WHICH MOST HAVE ALMOST THE SAME SPECIFICATIONS, CONSIDER RELEASING SOME MORE INTERESTING MOVIES WITH PROPER ATTENTION SUCH AS THOSE MENTIONED ABOVE.
TOUCHSTONE / WALT DISNEY:
Ransom
What About Bob?
PS: IT IS A GREAT NEWS THAT TOUCHSTONE ARE RELEASING 'ENEMY OF THE STATE', CRIMSON TIDE' AND 'CON AIR' IN EXTENDED UNRATED EDITIONS ON MAY 16. I WISH THOUGH THEY DID THE SAME WITH 'RANSOM'
WARNER:
91/2 Weeks
Presumed Innocent
NOTE THAT WARNER STUDIO IS RELEASING ONE OF THE BEST 2-DISC SPECIAL EDITION SUCH AS 'SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION', 'HEAT', 'MALCOLM X', 'DOG DAY AFTERNOON', 'ALL THE PRESIDENT'S MEN' AND MANY MANY MORE.
The reason why they don't release every DVD in widescreen enhanced for 16x9 is beyond me since soon Widescreen Tvs will replace standard ones.
IT IS A RELIEF THAT AMAZON IS NOW STATING WHETHER THE DVD IS ANAMORPHIC OR LETTERBOXED.
Movie Review: "Trust no one"
Summary: 5 Stars
David Mamet's "House of Games," is another of that director's giant flip jobs. I've been working my way through the Mamet catalogue, and one can't help but feel the director sees the world itself as a giant con. Well, that's perhaps a bit simplistic, but Mamet does cling, in movie after movie, to some core principles. One of these is that you must trust no one. In "Spartan," "The Spanish Prisoner," and "House of Games," this very line is uttered, usually by a villain to an innocent. This sounds like a negative credo, but it really isn't. First, consider who's issuing the warning: the villain. Will the innocent learn from experience? And will the learning result in corruption? (Important questions for Mamet.) Second, trusting yourself and knowing yourself (weaknesses included) in a dangerous world is advisable, necessary, in order to survive . I have to believe Mamet is a big reader of Joseph Conrad.The story behind "House of Games," involves Lindsay Crouse as Margaret Ford, a doctor and popular author. Her "big book" is titled "Driven," about compulsive and addictive personalities. It doesn't take long to figure out the book is about herself. So driven is Margaret that she is beginning to make Freudian slips in her conversations, slips that reveal dark corners of her own personality. She may be heading for a breakdown - and a teaching colleague warns her, tells her she must slow down. But "slowing down" comes as another writing project presents itself, seemingly accidently due to the dilemma of a patient , when Margaret is introduced to the world of the Con at a local bar and pool hall called "House of Games." This introduction comes at the hands of Mike (Joe Mantegna), a handsome and slick con man who is willing to provide a tour - though he does warn her: "Trust no one."
To reveal any more would be telling. Like all Mamet films, the dialogue is essential. I don't think I've ever seen a director make such interesting use of dialogue. On one level the dialogue in all of Mamet's films (that I've seen so far) is seemingly stilted. But it works! Why? I can only attribute this to Mamet's precision as a director. What seems stilted, comes across instead as elevated speech - as in Shakespeare. Mamet is a dramatic poet who no doubt has Shakespeare's great maxim engraved upon his mind, and present in the framing of each scene: "Suit the action to the word, and the word to the action." (Good actors must love working with this guy.) So pay attention, there's no fat in a Mamet film, and always plenty to ponder. "House of Games" is no different. See it.
Movie Review: Character driven con movie
Summary: 5 Stars
Too often con movies fall flat because they are too easy: they assume an ignorance of the viewer, and build up to a gimmicky twist upon which the entire film depends. If you manage to figure it out in advance, the film collapses. In "House of Games," writer/director David Mamet tackles the idea of con men in a new and different way: this film is not about cons themselves, but the characters who are drawn to that lifestyle. The more interesting twists here are not the plot ones, but the character ones, as they get sucked deeper and deeper into this dark yet alluring way of life.
The film centers around Margaret Ford, a therapist whose patient owes a large debt to a man named Mike at the titular "House of Games." Ford goes to speak with Mike, and gets lured into his seedy world of greed and confidence games. At first Ford is hesitant, but she is drawn more and more into Mike's world.
The film itself is a "House of Games," and there are a number of well-placed plot twists that keep the film engaging and surprising. As I mentioned, however, the twists are not the point of the film, and what is most fascinating here are the characters. The film functions primarily as a character study of Margaret, a woman who is seduced into this world and finds herself unable to leave or escape it.
Mamet's writing is as strong and engaging as ever, with characters constantly talking over one another and interrupting themselves and each other in a desperate search for clarity and understanding. His direction is careful and slow, but never boring: his camera is a very objective one, following the characters as they go further down the rabbit hole and deeper into his house of games.
"House of Games" is a taut, neonoir thriller that is well-crafted and intelligent. It isn't your average con man movie, but it tackles much larger themes of human nature and addiction and seduction and greed. You won't be disappointed.
Movie Review: You Cannot Cheat An Honest Man or Woman
Summary: 5 Stars
In his 1987 directorial debut, HOUSE OF GAMES, master writer David Mamet delivers a chilling account of the relationship between Dr. Margaret Ford and a low rent gangster named Mike who tries to seduce her.
A psychological thriller that features the acting chops of Mamet's then wife, Lindsay Crouse and character actor Joe Montegna, HOUSE OF GAMES really stars Mamet's brilliant dialouge that captivates the audience with its hypnotic rhythms and captivating sentence structures.
In a nutshell the plot is simple. In this dark drama, Dr. Ford is an emotionally conservative psychologist and best selling author of a self help book. Through one of her patients she meets Mike, an underworld gangster type who charms her with his tales of the cons he and his cohorts use to swindle seemingly innocent people.
Believing she is becoming privvy to the secret world of gamblers and con artists, Dr. Ford drops her guard and follows Mike through a series of cons that seem to work flawlessly.
At times a suspicious person who trusts no one, Dr. Ford at other times appears to be pliable stooge, easily manipulated by a seasoned con man. But is she really as innocent and as naive as she appears? Or is Mike the real stool pigeon? It is never easy to say for sure, even when the film ends.
But one thing is definitely clear half way through the film: Dr. Margaret Ford is not as honest nor as much in control as her patients believe. But who will pay the price for a con gone awry? No one knows until the final scene closes and you are left to wonder what secrets lie behind the faces of the innocent and the guilty alike.
- Regina McMenamin
Movie Review: "Look Out for The Tell...."
Summary: 5 Stars
....or, "The Large Con consists of a series of Small Cons put in an 'attractive' order".....or, "Everybody's got a little bit of small con in them. Well, some folks have larger cons..."
I saw this movie again and, despite my distaste for certain aspects of the Mamet approach (He wishes actors to read the dialog as written, without emoting too much. The emoting is somehow brought across in the words. In my opinion sometimes the dialog comes off as more staccato than true life, but who am I? Mamet is the world renown author/director, here. I am simply a hack reviewer--but I digress)...this, I think, is a very cool movie with a lot going for it. The chemistry with Crouse and Mantegna is subtly packaged...the cool psychologist becomes child like to the swaggering, but one step from being oily, con-man. She wanted so much to believe that she was being allowed in a world of secrets, privy to only a few, so she trusted this guy to Father her thru this mesh of crosses and double-crossings.
Those moments with the con-artist to her were romantic, exciting, hell, downright sexy and she was feeling more alive than the sterile clinical environment offered to her as a psychologist. Until, that is, The Big Tell gave her a kick in her nether regions.
What makes the movie a surreal experience is that on one level anyone who is in movie making and story telling (or sometimes health services like psychiatry/psychology) is some what of a con artist that we all surrender to one way or another. And we in the audience usually have to remind ourselves to Look Out for The Tell...do you see where I'm going with this? Good. Remember then. And see this movie. It's a good one.