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7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Definitely Underrated. 4.5 stars., October 24, 2004
Despite being a big fan or Romero's zombie films and of Argento's more famous mid 70's to late 80's work it took me a while to get up too much enthusiasm for getting this movie, largely because of the primarily negative response to this film. And, though I generally like what Poe I've read, adapting him for film doesn't seem like such a hot idea, and not particularly wise use of these director's varied talents. (though I understand that these adaptations are, shall we say, very liberal with the source material) A couple days ago, however, frustrated with the late or non-arrival of some things I'd ordered I decided I needed to buy something, and this came to mind. Needless to say, it surpassed my expectations and was definitely worth the cash.
Romero's segment, 'The Facts in the Case of Mr. Valdemar', is much maligned, virtually always sighted as being the weaker of the 2, and generally being accused of being 'boring'. While it is the weaker of the 2, I still find it highly entertaining and genuinely creepy. It involves a trophy wife and her ex-lovers scheme to steal money from her terminally ill, elderly husband's estate by forcing him to change his will through hypnosis. Unfortunately for them, he dies before the change can go through, and they have to stuff him in the freezer in order to buy time, at which point the story takes a supernatural turn. It is frequently described as being like an extra-long episode of 'Tales from the Crypt', with the conniving, utterly selfish characters and the poetic and/or ironic fate of the villains. This is a pretty apt description, though it is certainly far better than what you'll see on that show, and more straight-forward and serious as well. And as for the accusations that it is boring, well, I think it's atmospheric. Sure, not much happens, but it's got a real air of menace in my mind, although it is extremely low-key. Rather than creating atmosphere from an excess of style, Romero creates it with a lack of it, making the camera movements slow and deliberate, the sets relatively low-key, and keeping it largely free of any out and out shock attempts until we're already most of the way through the segment. I can see why people would find this boring, but I just don't. Many people have complained about the acting in this segment, particularly by Barbeau and Zada, but I think they're fine. They aren't fantastic either, but they don't really ham it up the way so many have claimed.
As you'd imagine, Argento's segment, 'The Black Cat', is quite a bit more lively from a stylistic standpoint, though it is still fairly slow moving. Harvey Keitel is Usher, a crime-scene photographer who is clearly at least a bit deranged, who has run-in's with his girlfriends hated black cat, leading to his murdering it. Naturally, the cat mysteriously returns repeatedly, and he is driven mad and to murder and so on. As you'd presume, style is the real point of this segment, and it is impressive, as always. Stylistically, it's reminiscents of Argento's previous film, 'Opera' in that it has a particular wealth of unconventional camerwork, and uses upper-class, modern day architecture rather than obviously artificial architecture of no particular era. There are some particularly flashy camera movements, as they display every nook and cranny of Usher's cavernous, ominous house, and there are some expertly executed, if rather senseless cat pov shots. There is also a very odd and hallucinatory dream sequence, apparently in the middle ages, and an even more trippy and unusual encounter between Usher and a barkeep who has a black cat similar to his girlfriend's. The film is even more self conciously stylish and flashy than his previous six films, almost as if he felt the need to get everything he'd have in a feature length film into the 60 minute time frame. This is perhaps slightly distracting at a few points, but not too often, and it's always cool. The segment also has a surprising amount of grue from Tom Savini and his crew. We've got a corpse bisected by a pendulum, a corpse with it's teeth ripped out, a really brutal murder with clever, a very odd and disturbing impalation, a partially eaten corpse and more. The execution is generally excellent. Not as good as what you'll probably see today, but still quite nice, and definitely impressive for 1989. They also have some fairly convincing and nicely done animatronic cats. And what's this, we have a great actor in an Argento film? Keitel is generally very good, as you'd expect, although he over does it slightly in a few of his 'angry' scenes. The supporting cast is generally strong as well, better than in the first segment.(It's largely a one man show, however)
Yeah, these movies are good. Come in with an open mind, discard the negative predisposition you might have and and be patient. I'll bet you'll like it.
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6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Animal-Handling AND Masonry: Components for Perfection, December 16, 2003
When directors get together, they have the potential to make interesting things happen. When great directors join forces and decide to take on a project, even better results areexpected. It honestly doesn't matter what type of material they're doing or if the viewing population has tasted it time and time again. They, the silver screen's version of power coupling, know their art, understand the little versions - or perhaps perversions - of atmosphere that balance the viewing scales, and have the most cards to play when it comes to forging complete pictures. Unfortunately, both don't always deliver a knockout punch like you'd like. In this initial piece, it's a story you've heard before. An older fellow with dollarsign-laced pockets decides to marry a younger woman. People jeer it in the community and friends seem appalled by it, but attraction is attraction and a little IWantATrophyWife-itus is sometimes what wealth is all about. In our tale, we join an ex "airline hostess" and her much older husband as he's teetering on that painful plateau just outside of dying. Plans are in the works on how to acquire some of his fortune before his estate and the long years of "settling" are addressed, with hypnosis and the application of falsified doctor reports working fairly well. It all seems to be going splendidly, too, and three million dollars is all set to arrive in two weeks - providing the wife, Jessica, can keep her husband around that long. As movies would have it, however, he dies and the planning gets worse and worse and worse until.... This Romero addition to the power duo has some serious flaws in it. The plot is thin, the effects are a little drowsy, and what seems to start off well dances down the corridors of lackluster architecture. Honestly, it's a good thing that things happen the way they do in these tales, because the atypical plan thrown into this type of movie would normally end up with someone going to jail for a very long time. Money or not, you wouldn't want to bury someone in your own backyard with a couple of bullet holes in them and you wouldn't want them kicking it with you ice-cream and getting freezer burn. This is worse than that in some ways, however, because it seems to say that a master in his field and Savini can't get together and make something that hasn't been seen a hundred times over. Instead of illustrating a story the way an audience knows they can, they take a Poe idea, splash a little effect work on it, and somewhat go through the motions. In Argento's version of The Black Cat, things play out a lot better. Our focal point, a man with a gruesome day job, brings home a little hatred and finds himself in a not-so-happy position of trying to conceal what he's done. When things get a little stressed and push come to shove (and hack and slice), it seems that things can get a little ugly at home. This seems especially when you're the owner of a cat you hate and don't want to keep up with, and moreso when you're half of a marriage that will ultimately self-destruct. Without giving all the gray matter away, this ultimately becomes a testament to revenge going awry, why you should treat animals a little bit better, and why post-it notes are a good thing if you don't want to leave out any small details to a crime. In my personal opinion, the Argento piece is a short film made in gore heaven. Not only does it make a show of force with all its little pieces coming together and working out all-too-well, but it also gives little shout-outs to other Poe stories as well.
And then the eye candy begins to make its rounds.
The first effects, mutilated bodies, birth even better effects. The deaths seem to get worse and worse until, in one place, I saw something that I could almost feel because of the way the image evoked words like "pain." Still, it didn't stop there. With little kitties doing things little kitties shouldn't do; hairless, nasty, and bathed in the debris brought to you by a mind that has imported images of this variety time and again, it gets even more graphic. And that's all I really ever wanted. Combine that with build, a good plan that twists until it morphs into something horrific that the main character couldn't foresee, and nice acting and you can even overlook Romero's shoddy addition to this collection. Simply be warned that it does have a little kick in the "gruesome" department.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Two part horror film based on Edgar Allan Poe stories., April 29, 2008
This horror anthology film basically consists of two horror tales which are based on short stories by Edgar Allan Poe and was directed by two famous horror directors George Romero and Dario Argento, the film also stars Adrienne Barbeau, Tom Atkins and Harvey Keitel who were all great in this film. Two Evil Eyes was first initiated by Argento who came up with the idea to direct his favorite short stories from Poe so you have two classic tales brought to life, while I did like Romero's contribution The Facts In The Case Of Mr. Valdemar and thought it was fun my favorite had to be the one done by Argento, this was definitely a great horror film.
The Facts In The Case Of Mr. Valdemar, Jessica (Adrienne Barbeau) a former flight attendant who is married to a very rich and very old man named Ernest Valdemar is anxiously waiting for his death so she can collect her money and inheritance and live the high life with her lover Dr. Hoffman. To ensure things go as planned Hoffman hypnotizes Ernest to give all the money to Jessica. The plan works well until Ernest who is still hypnotized is dead but trapped in a limbo so hes like a zombie, he later terrorizes Jessica who cannot escape this nightmare. The film had some awesome makeup fx done by Tom Savini and George Romero's directing was very good and suspenseful and it also has a creepy ending thats quite effective.
Argento's version of The Black Cat concludes the film, Harvey Keitel stars as Roderick Usher a crime shot photographer who is driven into utter madness by his girlfriend Annabel's new pet. The cat is in need of a new home so Rod decides that its O.k. despite hesitating at first he also notices that the cat has been staring at him the whole time which makes him feel abit uneasy and agitated and soon the situation becomes worse as the cat is not friendly towards Rod, he starts strangling it to death while keeping this a secret from Jessica. He also has violent outbursts and becomes more aggressive towards people while having strange visions (I really liked the strange medieval dream sequence) and a detective who works with Rod becomes more suspicious. Argento's Black Cat definitely had its shinning moments and was the better half in my opinion. The dialogue is more superior in this segment of the film and the acting was brilliant especially from Kietel and the gore was amazing so if your a Dario Argento fan then you must see this.
Overall I would have to say that both stories were interesting and well paced so if you like Edgar Allan Poe and these two directors then you should definitely check this out. Make sure that you get the two disc edition since it has some awesome special features in it like the personal tour of Tom Savini's house.
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