Reviews (6)

The Christmas Wife
The Christmas Wife has been one of my all time favorite movies for over 10 years now and I never get tired of watching it.
As a matter of fact I watch it at least 3 times every Christmas season and I highly recommend it to anyone who likes good sentimental movies.

Understanding loss
This short drama was satisfying to watch even though there wasn't much action. It was almost like a two-person play. It tells how an apparently strong person copes with the dramatic change in his life caused by the death of his dear spouse. Christmas traditions are not the same, so the widower adapts by renting a companion. Jason Robards and Julie Harris are delightful to watch, so professional.

sweet
The acting is good, however it does leave one guessing.

The actors are a delight and they do maintain the viewers interest. HOWEVER; The ending of this picture leaves one suspended above the play.
To me, this film is a fill in the blanks movie that leaves the viewer wondering if this is all there is. Still I found it a delight to watch and a very wholesome picture.

Fix some hot chocolate and start a fire in the fireplace...
This is a surprisingly good drama for a lazy, frosty, Christmas-season evening. It's well-acted, well-written, and well-crafted -- definitely sentimental, but without being fluffy or soppy. The cast is led by veteran acting greats Jason Robards and Julie Harris, which in itself should make the movie worth a consideration.

Robards portrays John Tanner, a recent widower who doesn't quite know what to do with the changes imposed upon his life. When the annual family trip to the cabin for Christmas is jeopardized, he attempts to rescue his traditions in a radical way: he finds a dating service and "hires" a woman to be his family and spend the Christmas weekend with him. Julie Harris is the sad, perceptive, and mysterious woman, Iris, who agrees to be his "Christmas wife" - but only if he will ask her no questions about herself.

This is a quality "G" movie (at least, the version shown on television). At the risk of sounding sexist, I would say this is a woman's movie, but some men may find it not objectionable. Children may not be interested in a character (as opposed to action) movie about middle-aged people, but if they are, their parents won't have to worry about what they're watching. Adults who have some experience with age or loneliness may discover a tale striking quite a responsive chord.

"Over 50", Life 101
If you're over 50 this movie will be a great rainy afternoon delight. It is NOT a comedy! It is a hard look at life and what it brings. Jason Robards and Julie Harris are two of the classic actors of the last century. Just to see them act together is enough, but the sweet story of how life throws rocks in our path and the way we remove them is great! Treat yourself to perfection! ... Read more

Amazon.com

Time-hoppers from the future, led by Cheryl Ladd, are abducting airline passengers about to crash, and transporting them a millennium hence in order to reseed a future blighted by environmental disaster. This is a dangerous business, plagued by the specter of accidentally creating time paradoxes, which could throw the future out of whack. Unfortunately, they've lost a couple of the stunners they use to subdue troublesome passengers, and these fall into the hands of a curious physicist (Daniel J. Travanti) and an investigator for the National Transportation Safety Board (Kris Kristofferson). Cheryl Ladd must retrieve these devices before a time paradox wipes out her world, but manages to complicate things by developing a romance withKristofferson. All of which is very intriguing, having come from the short story, "Air Raid," by science fiction luminary John Varley, who also is credited with the screenplay. The part about airline abductions to save the disastrous future is straight from the original story, and the rest is expanded (you wouldn't say extrapolated) from it. The results are not very happy. About a third of the film is maddeningly wasted by repeating action from a different point of view. Seems natural when there are disparate timelines to deal with, but here nothing is added by the conceit. Only Travanti turns in a creditable performance as the physicist, bent on proving his theories about the future. He seems hungry for discovery, which is one of the things you want from a science fiction story, that sense of awe. But here it's just, "Aw, shucks!" --Jim Gay ... Read more

Reviews (18)

an overlooked movie for sci-fi buffs
Millennium is one of those movies that has a great story line and even follows through with budget and special effects (for it's time not bad) yet fails to draw the crowd because it's an intricate story of time travel that can be at times hard to follow and even slow. But if you still dig movies like Logan's Run or Communion, you'll probably enjoy Millennium.

It's a unique story of people far in the future who kidnap the bodies of people that are about to die. Their favorite source is planes that are about to crash. An official investigating discovers wrist-watches running backwards in the wreckage, and works with a physicist attempting to discover the truth about these visitors.

Millennium is a thinking man's scifi flick
This movie is actually better than what others might think. But it requires your complete attention, and for a generation of people who are used to in-your-face MTV type short-attention span stuff, then skip this flick. However, I have shown this DVD on several occasions to groups of friends, and everyone enjoyed trying to figure out what was going on, and were surprised as I was, when time - travel was implicated. Cheryl Ladd was quite good as a cynical flight attendant, and Kris Kristofferson was believable as a man burned out on his job. I only with Travanti had more to do. Still, I highly recommend this flick to people who like to think when they watch a scifi flick.

Interesting to a Point -- a Twilight Zone story w/o the feel
You've read the "official" review and to be honest, I don't wholly agree or disagree. First, I like both Kristopherson's and Ladd's performances. They fit the characters nicely. The replay of the same sequence from another angle answers all of the questions about what is going on, and is the only thing that turns a rather short, straightforward featurette into a full-length feature.

Conceivably, more time could have been spent investigating the wreckage (and similar wreckages) before revealing the time travelers from the future. Also, why don't they fix these ripples, instead of trying to escape them?

So there are some questions. If I could, I'd give this one 2-1/2 stars, not three, but I won't drop it all the way to two, mostly because no one else has done this exact story, unless it was Rod Serling in the original Twilight Zone series, but I don't think so... there are similar stories, to be sure, and time travel stories, but not in this combination.

Which puts this film into the "Twilight Zone" category for me. There are so many places where they could have made this one better, I have to wonder why no one has done a remake...

Still, it is part of my collection and if you are SF buff, then don't leave this off your list of films to consider without at least watching it.

MST3K would have had a field day with this!
This movie is *bad*. The "plot" makes no sense, and the ending even less. It is stupid, slow, insipid, and utterny nonsensical. I wish that MST3K had gotten ahold of this film; only they could have mocked it the way it so desperately deserves to be mocked. This movie is *that bad*.

And it's *boring*, too. Kristoferson and Ladd have absolutely ZERO chemistry. No, in fact, they have NEGATIVE chemistry. Kristoferson couldn't act is way out of this script, and Ladd ... well, jeez, what could one expect from an ex-Charlie's Angel?

It's also *ugly*. The costumes, set designs, and special effects would have been bad in 1989, and haven't aged well. Post-apocolyptic futures can look cool (ROAD WARRIOR) or even funky (12 MONKEYS), but here, it's just lame. And the first "effect" in the film--where two planes collide--is a sad effort of blue-screening that my high-school film club could have outdone.

Avoid at all costs. Waste no money. If your boyfriend or girlfriend owns it, break up with them; it will be less painful.

I have to go sanitize my home theatre now.

Not a famous film for good reason
How many movies do you know that replay the same scenes and can still hold the interest of the viewer? Not many, if any. However, the creators of Millennium decided that about one third of the movie should be the same scenes. Total failure. This is a case where the makers of the film underestimated the intelligence of the viewers, thinking that going through the movie twice was the only way viewers could keep track of the incredibly difficult concept of time travel.

Then again, if this was truly a good movie than we shouldn't be disappointed in seeing the scenes twice, since we could then enjoy good acting etc. Not so in Millennium. Kris Kristofferson looks grizzly with a heavy beard and has the skin tone of beef jerky. Cheryl Ladd plays opposite of Kristofferson as the time traveling tough women from the future who happens to know nothing about time traveling, she needs a personal robot to explain "the obvious" to her on many occasions. Maybe she forgot to read the script.

In this movie, the future is a place of rust, the present is a place of ignorance, and the viewer is left insulted. ... Read more

Description

Big problems happen for a basketball coach (Terry Ferrell, "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine," "Becker") and her high school team when a parent violently erupts at a game. The event stirs community outrage and creates significant changes in the way future sporting events are conducted in the town. "Crossing the Line," tackles the timely and horrendous issue of parents losing control at their kids’ athletic events. Inspired by true events. ... Read more

Reviews (6)

The Christmas Wife
The Christmas Wife has been one of my all time favorite movies for over 10 years now and I never get tired of watching it.
As a matter of fact I watch it at least 3 times every Christmas season and I highly recommend it to anyone who likes good sentimental movies.

Understanding loss
This short drama was satisfying to watch even though there wasn't much action. It was almost like a two-person play. It tells how an apparently strong person copes with the dramatic change in his life caused by the death of his dear spouse. Christmas traditions are not the same, so the widower adapts by renting a companion. Jason Robards and Julie Harris are delightful to watch, so professional.

sweet
The acting is good, however it does leave one guessing.

The actors are a delight and they do maintain the viewers interest. HOWEVER; The ending of this picture leaves one suspended above the play.
To me, this film is a fill in the blanks movie that leaves the viewer wondering if this is all there is. Still I found it a delight to watch and a very wholesome picture.

Fix some hot chocolate and start a fire in the fireplace...
This is a surprisingly good drama for a lazy, frosty, Christmas-season evening. It's well-acted, well-written, and well-crafted -- definitely sentimental, but without being fluffy or soppy. The cast is led by veteran acting greats Jason Robards and Julie Harris, which in itself should make the movie worth a consideration.

Robards portrays John Tanner, a recent widower who doesn't quite know what to do with the changes imposed upon his life. When the annual family trip to the cabin for Christmas is jeopardized, he attempts to rescue his traditions in a radical way: he finds a dating service and "hires" a woman to be his family and spend the Christmas weekend with him. Julie Harris is the sad, perceptive, and mysterious woman, Iris, who agrees to be his "Christmas wife" - but only if he will ask her no questions about herself.

This is a quality "G" movie (at least, the version shown on television). At the risk of sounding sexist, I would say this is a woman's movie, but some men may find it not objectionable. Children may not be interested in a character (as opposed to action) movie about middle-aged people, but if they are, their parents won't have to worry about what they're watching. Adults who have some experience with age or loneliness may discover a tale striking quite a responsive chord.

"Over 50", Life 101
If you're over 50 this movie will be a great rainy afternoon delight. It is NOT a comedy! It is a hard look at life and what it brings. Jason Robards and Julie Harris are two of the classic actors of the last century. Just to see them act together is enough, but the sweet story of how life throws rocks in our path and the way we remove them is great! Treat yourself to perfection! ... Read more

Amazon.com

Though it opens with the type of "we're not saying all Arabs are bad" disclaimer (not to mention the dreaded "based on a true story" logo) that leads you to fear the worst, Human Cargo actually portrays its cultural conflicts with refreshing fairness. In 1979, John McDonald (nicelyplayed by Treat Williams as less a blissful optimist than a desperate manconcealing his indignation with a mask of willed hopefulness) goes to Saudi Arabia expecting to construct prefab homes in collaboration with a wealthy sheik. His supposed partners, however, are tight-fisted con men, who foist allexpenses on McDonald's shoulders and are perfectly willing to throw him in jail and confiscate his passport when he balks at paying. The film is horrified at the plutocratic iniquities of the Saudi legal system, but itdoesn't hesitate to place equal responsibility for the grotesque mess on itshero, who stubbornly expects everyone to play by the same rules that work inTexas. Ironically, the film's only disappointing stretch is the failed suspense of its final act, which details McDonald's method of escape.By then, we've been put through the wringers of business negotiations and contract wagering so successfully it feels like an anticlimactic Hardy Boysriff. --Bruce Reid ... Read more

Reviews (8)

True to Life
This movie (a true story) shows how an American tried to stand up for his rights, taking what we would consider a civil matter to court. HE ends up in jail.

A good friend, who was retired AF, worked in Saudi Arabia for five years with their AF. He said this movie is one of the best depictions of life in a Middle East country and of the single-minded, anal retentive nature of the inhabitants, that he has seen. The only book allowed, is the Koran. Alcohol is, of course forbidden. And the locals can denegrate and abuse westerners at will, with no interference from the "law". Should westerners try to defend themselves, THEY are at fault.

This movie is an excellent introduction to the limited mindset of the Middle East and the terrorist with which we are currently at war. It should be seen by all Americans. Know your enemy.

This Should be Played More Often
This is an outstanding movie. In these days and in an industry that is so afraid to offend the Muslim world, movies like this have been buried.

I have had personal experience of such acts that have played out in this film. This culture is flawed just as our own.

A definate must see.

Treat Williams is the man
It's a shame this movie has been so overlooked because it was a small project but had some real talent behind it. The people detracting from it on this site didn't care to back up their reviews, but I assume they thought they were getting an action film.

Truth be told, that was what I was expecting years ago when I first saw the movie. I was only 13, and thinking I was about to see an action film when I really wasn't could have eaily bored me silly. But I was pleasantly surprised.

Human Cargo is a thriller about a naive but likeable businessman in a world of corruption where he has no power, and is quickly overwhelmed.

The cultural representation of the Arabs is fair I guess, I did some research and any extreme culture clash moments were a result of the particular men the hero was dealing with. As an american film, it certainly has an American bias, and we feel as lost as McDonald in this strange land. The suspense of the culture bearing down on him is palaptle, the american "haven" that he retreats to it like base in a game of tag. Even if you aren't much for legality, this film will have you with McDonald every step of the way as he gets more and more over his head.

Treat Williams is the man. He's a truly underrated actor and has real screen presence. He has a mature charisma and a great yelling voice.

My only complaint is the gratuitous nudity in the beginning. If it had some reason for being there, or if the rest of the film had some, it might be acceptable, but it is just there, (and not erotic, by the way)

Totally original, filled with suspense, great acting, and a paranoid atmosphere, HUMAN CARGO is a great film

Hideous
maybe the story was true, but the movie doesn't have any reality element in it.

Excellent
I thought this was an excellent movie. Treat's portrayal of John McDonald was fascinating. I remember seeing the news coverage of John's homecoming in '79. He is a truly blessed man. ... Read more

Reviews (6)

The Christmas Wife
The Christmas Wife has been one of my all time favorite movies for over 10 years now and I never get tired of watching it.
As a matter of fact I watch it at least 3 times every Christmas season and I highly recommend it to anyone who likes good sentimental movies.

Understanding loss
This short drama was satisfying to watch even though there wasn't much action. It was almost like a two-person play. It tells how an apparently strong person copes with the dramatic change in his life caused by the death of his dear spouse. Christmas traditions are not the same, so the widower adapts by renting a companion. Jason Robards and Julie Harris are delightful to watch, so professional.

sweet
The acting is good, however it does leave one guessing.

The actors are a delight and they do maintain the viewers interest. HOWEVER; The ending of this picture leaves one suspended above the play.
To me, this film is a fill in the blanks movie that leaves the viewer wondering if this is all there is. Still I found it a delight to watch and a very wholesome picture.

Fix some hot chocolate and start a fire in the fireplace...
This is a surprisingly good drama for a lazy, frosty, Christmas-season evening. It's well-acted, well-written, and well-crafted -- definitely sentimental, but without being fluffy or soppy. The cast is led by veteran acting greats Jason Robards and Julie Harris, which in itself should make the movie worth a consideration.

Robards portrays John Tanner, a recent widower who doesn't quite know what to do with the changes imposed upon his life. When the annual family trip to the cabin for Christmas is jeopardized, he attempts to rescue his traditions in a radical way: he finds a dating service and "hires" a woman to be his family and spend the Christmas weekend with him. Julie Harris is the sad, perceptive, and mysterious woman, Iris, who agrees to be his "Christmas wife" - but only if he will ask her no questions about herself.

This is a quality "G" movie (at least, the version shown on television). At the risk of sounding sexist, I would say this is a woman's movie, but some men may find it not objectionable. Children may not be interested in a character (as opposed to action) movie about middle-aged people, but if they are, their parents won't have to worry about what they're watching. Adults who have some experience with age or loneliness may discover a tale striking quite a responsive chord.

"Over 50", Life 101
If you're over 50 this movie will be a great rainy afternoon delight. It is NOT a comedy! It is a hard look at life and what it brings. Jason Robards and Julie Harris are two of the classic actors of the last century. Just to see them act together is enough, but the sweet story of how life throws rocks in our path and the way we remove them is great! Treat yourself to perfection! ... Read more

Reviews (4)

Huh?
Buy the Childs play pack that includes part 3 rather then this. I dont know why part 3 isnt included here, or why they would group 2 and 4 together?

Instead of this, buy Childs play 1. and "The Chucky Collection"(bride of chucky/childs play2/childs play 3)

The two best Childs Play movies in one cool collection
Who could forget precious memories from CP2- the teacher ruler bashing scene, or the painful 'dad on the stairs scene' I was totally blown away by these movies when i was a kid and still love them today.

Bride of chucky is the best, being the most dark, gothic and edgy out of all the CP movies.

If you like good horror movie classics, or just want to see a doll trying to kill a little kid (or two dolls having sex, as in the cas of BOC) you have to get this collection. Commentaries on the BOC disk are fascinating.

I only have to grumble about the lack of features on the CP2 disk, thats why im giving it 4/5

~~~*BRIDE OF CHUCKY*~~~
For ten years the tortured soul of serial killer Charles Lee Ray has been imprisoned inside a child's doll. Chucky is reborn when his old girlfriend, Tiffany (Jennifer Tilly) rescues his battered doll parts from a police impound. But Chucky wants his new playmate cut down to size, so he transforms his blushing bride into a stunning little terror. Who knows what will happen next when this dinamic dual hits the streets!

WHERE IS CHILD'S PLAY 3 ??????????
I absolutley adore the child's play movies. Both of these movies are great. In Child's Play 2 Andy Barclay is now living with foster parents and you guessed it Chucky has found him, what follows is murder, chucky funny one liners and good entertainment. In Bride of Chucky, his girlfriend (when he was a man) ressurects chucky and they end up going on a wild, gory road trip with two teenagers, Who are heading where chucky needs to go to get the amlet of his dead corpse of charles lee ray. Both movies are great and already in my collection, but My Question to UNIVERSAL IS WHERE IS THE GREAT CHILDS PLAY 3 ON DVD ??? PLEASE , PLEASE RELEASE CHILD'S PLAY 3 ON DVD UNIVERSAL. ... Read more