The Four Seasons
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Movie Reviews of The Four Seasons
Movie Review: Four Seasons Review
Summary: 5 Stars
Excellent product. Arrived in a timely manner, it was what I expected.Movie Review: Ingratiating Comedy Focuses on a Circle of Vacationing Married Friends
Summary: 4 Stars
Twenty-five years since its initial release, this 1981 comedy from Alan Alda, its director, writer and nominal star, still holds up pretty well. In fact, I just saw Norman Jewison's 2001 film, "Dinner with Friends", which feels like a partial remake in following the friendships that evolve among married couples hovering around middle age. Using Vivaldi's familiar string concertos as a transitional device, Alda's film concerns itself with three upscale couples who take vacations together every season, consequently we get four vignettes over the course of a year. It's a contrived plot machination with no sense of climax, but it all seems to fit the contours of the story.
Jack is a lawyer who would like nothing more than have group therapy sessions with his friends, while his wife Kate, a magazine editor, is a no-nonsense woman who sometimes gets frustrated with Jack's constant emotional insulation. Danny is a neurotic, penny-pinching dentist married to Claudia, an artist with the hot temper of her Italian roots. Nick is a philandering insurance agent who wants to divorce his wife Anne, a housewife frozen by her self-doubts. It is the dissolution of this last marriage that provides the impetus for the group to examine the state of their relationships with their spouses and friends. The group starts out with a spring fishing trip when Nick confides to Jack about his need for a divorce, followed by a Caribbean summer boat trip when Nick brings his new nubile girlfriend Ginny, a wide-eyed stewardess. The fall has them visiting their kids in college, and a soccer match proves to be a test of wills among the men to prove their virility to Ginny much to the chagrin of the wives. The last piece takes them to a wintry cabin where true feelings are divulged, especially as Ginny exposes the women for their vindictive exclusionary tactics.
The acting is solid. Alda seems to be doing a send-up of his own sensitive male persona as Jack, and a wisely cast Carol Burnett is actually pretty subtle as Kate. These two were such huge TV icons in the 1970's that the impact of their goodwill is almost instant. As the most comic pair, Rita Moreno and Jack Weston provide most of the laughs as they banter and bicker like Fred and Ethel Mertz redux. Broadway actor Len Cariou manages the insolence and liberation of a husband set free, while Sandy Dennis brings a palpable dimension of sadness to the socially ejected Anne. Bess Armstrong plays Ginny with an apt sunniness masking a burning need for acceptance. The story leads to little beyond a funny sight gag and an implication that Ginny will become more integral to the group, but the dialogue is often shrewdly observant and sometimes cannily witty. Alda doesn't quite have Woody Allen's sharp acumen in producing genuine laughs out of the human condition, but the film generates a good time while it lasts. The 2005 DVD has no extras.
Movie Review: Great Movie - Fake widescreen DVD
Summary: 4 Stars
The aspect ratio is fake.
The top and bottom of the regular full screen version has been cropped out of the picture to give the illusion your getting a widescreen - what your getting is less picture!
The studios should label the DVD's as they did when they cropped VHS video picture " this film has been modified to fit you tv screen" as in modified to fit a 16x9 tv in this case.
You have already lost one third of the picture when it was modified to full screen, now you loose an additional one third to one fourth of the movies image!
The reason leterbox and widescreen has a demand, is that the audience or consumer wants to view the Movie as it was filmed and framed by the filmaker, and not loose out on portions of the movie that the director intended.
In other words the idea to release in widescreen was for the intention of showing MORE not LESS of the movies image.
The studios believe they can get away with this, since the average buyer does not have a full screen video version to compare with, or the consumer is just unaware.
I compared this DVD to a full screen VHS version, and in many cases where some DVD's come with both Full & Wide Screen on a flip disc, compare them before watching, many of the widesreen sides are just chopped versions of the full screen.
The picture quality is great on this and most DVD's, it is unfortunate though that it has to be a conciliation for cropped picture.
Movie Review: Alan Alda's Best !!
Summary: 4 Stars
Surprise ! This is a good movie ! This Early 1980's Comedy - Drama follows three middle aged couples who take vacations in the Spring , Summer , Autumn and Winter. Along the way the couples meet up with Middle age , Marital and Parental struggles. This is by far the best film Alan Alda ever directed as he also writes the moderately funny and (occasionally hilarious) script. The paired couple of (Jack Weston) and (Rita Moreno) provide the best laughs through the picture. (Carol Burnett) is Alda's wife and is no more than just fair in her performance. (Bess Armstrong) is very good as the younger woman for whom (Len Cariou) leaves his wife (Sandy Dennis) of 21 years for. Also watch for Alan Alda's two real life daughters (Beatrice Alda , Elizabeth Alda) who actually appear in the film when the two girls are visited at college by the three couples during their Autumn vacation.Movie Review: This Is For All Seasons
Summary: 4 Stars
As Vivaldi's masterpiece accompanies four couples through four seasons of their lives, the film chronicles a year in which theirs change and they address their own foibles and issues. The cast is top notch, as is the script. One couple is on the verge of falling apart and will crumble before the season ends, which follows the group as they continue their habt of vacationing together as a group, albeit with great change - and the emotionsl upheaval that always brings. At times, you wonder - why are these people friends ? But, under it all, you can see love for one another...love and exasperation, almost any emotion close bonds will cause to erupt or simmer. Because this could be any couple, within any group of friends, the story is not dated. By the time the film has ended, you know why they are friends...because friendship is never easy, but it is sometimes worth the effort.