Reviews (17)

No 80s flashback is complete without the Breakin' movies!
Breakin' 2 (and the eagerly anticipated, soon-to-be-released original "Breakin'") have been added to a short list of 80s flix that I just have to have in my collection. Let's be real, if you were an urban teen/pre-teen in the early 80s, you will probably remember seeing this film at "the show" and you will love this DVD. Not because the acting is great ... it isn't. Not because the storyline is amazing ... it isn't. However, you will get a warm feeling inside remembering all of the cheesy things we did then. You will undoubtedly spend most of the time watching the movie thinking, "did I really think that was cool/hip/exciting/real back then?". And then, you will have to laugh to yourself!

For me, these were the days that I wanted to see a movie more than once ... not because I needed to catch the hidden meanings or because I thought the action scenes were amazing (i.e. the Matrix), but because I thought the main character(s) were CUTE and I LOVED the music! Priorities, right?!?

You can read the film description and other reviews to find out the plot. What I can tell you is that this movie, despite being corny at times (I can admit that now), is a wonderful walk down memory lane. In addition to the breaking, popping and locking around which the stories revolved, the Breakin' films introduced us to some up-and-coming celebrities (e.g. rapper/actor Ice-T) and some of the best music still being played in dance clubs everywhere. House music/techno fan alert -- the song "Din Dah Dah" is prominently played in Breakin' 2. (Any club DJs out there ... where can I get that song???)

I was, and continue to be, a die hard Breakin' fan ... proud to put my full name on this review! I highly recommend this DVD to anyone who just wants to relax and have a good time (whether you want to reminisce about the 80s or not)! If you are looking for serious cinema, this DVD is probably not for you.

The defining story of our generation
I'll be forthcoming and say that I've never actually seen Breakin 2: Electric Boogaloo, nor do I have the slightest knowledge of break dancing. I can, however, say this about Electric Boogaloo; it is, without a doubt, the finest feature film ever produced. It is a movie of great élan and sophistication. Not only was Electric Boogaloo the only movie in history to win the Academy Award for Best Picture twice (in 1987 and 1988), it was also the highest box office grossing movie of all time, taking in 3.46 billion dollars in the United States alone. This movie was also the debut of actress Kate Winslet, who plays Alyona Ivanovna, as well as the career making performance of Alan Arkin, who beautifully portrays the seemingly autistic Milo Minderbender.

Boogaloo takes off right where the original Breakin left off, with Turbo, a.k.a. "Boogaloo Shrimp" searching the mean streets of Washington, D.C. for his long lost dance partner Ozone, a.k.a. "'Shabba-Doo." One nuance between the original and Electric Boogaloo is that Danny DeVito was cast over Adolfo Quinones for the part of Ozone. I think the plot has something to do with a kangaroo stealing Boogaloo Shrimp's stolen casino money in the Australian Bush and his personal search for redemption, which he eventually finds-along with his money-in Jesus Christ.

I'll finish by saying this; if you have not yet had the pleasure of viewing Breakin 2: Electric Boogaloo, you should consider moving to Canada because I'm sure that at least one moose in Northern Quebec also missed this fine feature. Breakin 2: Electric Boogaloo is the sine qua non of any video library and a credit to our great nation itself. This is not a movie to miss regardless of your understanding of breakdancing culture.

Who would have thought.....
Who would have thought that this movie would be worth a dang...turns out this is an EXTREMELY dated film which I love. Breakin' 1 was so awesome I had to get Breakin' 2. Michael "Boogaloo Shrimp" Chambers is the best freakin' dancer I've ever seen. This movie is worth it just to see this man dance, and I'm not even in to dancing!!! Adolpho just kinda gets in the way. My only regret is that Chambers isn't more recognized.

Don't even bother!
It was a total let down. I had heard the hype, and it was boring beyond boring! The 1st was bad but alright. It was watchable but to make a sequel boy they must be despreate for money. If your into your old time hip hop stick to BEAT STREET. if your into ur fresh hip/ hop watch You got served or honey!

"Breakin' 2" - an entertaining sequel or pure evil?
I have never seen a film that so eloquently personified evil. This movie, the sequel to the most exquisite, laudable and praiseworthy film "Breakin'", is among the worst I have ever witnessed. On the back of the "Breakin'" DVD it says that "Breakin' inspired a sequel." Whoever was responsible for molding the pure and uncontaminated brilliance that is "Breakin'" into this horrendous excuse for a film needs to be punished. After seeing the movie, I was enraged. My anger was at first directed to the easiest targets, namely Lucinda Dickey, Adolfo "Shabba-Doo" Quinones and Michael "Boogaloo Shrimp" Chambers, who make up the insurmountable dance troupe "TKO" in the Breakin' movies. However, after exploring the nature of my indignation and after trying to rationalize the feelings of anger and betrayal that raced through my body, I realized that it is not the actors fault, but my own. This epiphany made me recognize that I expected too much from this movie. How could I have expected that the absolute genius of Breakin' the first could be repeated and duplicated in a sequel? I set the bar to high, and I got hurt. So, you may ask why this youngster who uses a thesaurus a little too much for his own good would rate this movie so high after writing such a deplorable (and, might I add, superb) review? Well my friends, there is an answer to this seemingly unsolvable conundrum. The answer is that by watching this film, one attains a greater appreciation for the awesomeness that is "Breakin'." The inferior nature of "Breakin' 2: Electric Boogaloo" amplifies the greatness of the first "Breakin'" film. I sincerely hope that this review will shed some light on the true nature of the Breakin' films, in all their glory. Thank you. ... Read more

Amazon.com

At once sprawling and intimate, Otto Preminger's coolly observed story of the education of a Catholic cardinal (Tom Tryon) spans 25 years of 20th-century social history, hops from Rome to Boston to Vienna, and confronts abortion, celibacy, and racism along the way. If those issues seem tame today, Preminger turns them into vivid drama in his hero's crisis and triumph of faith. Tryon is rather stolid and stiff, but the supporting cast helps liven scenes: Romy Schneider as a tempting Fräulein, Ossie Davis as an American priest who requests the Vatican take a stand against racism, John Huston's Oscar®-nominated performance as an irascible archbishop. It's a religious epic unlike any other of its time: thoughtful and serious, with a magnificent yet austere sense of composition and a graceful elegance. --Sean Axmaker ... Read more

Reviews (20)

A complex, entertaining film that leaves you thinking
To be sure, Otto Preminger was inconsistent (compare this with "EXODUS") but he was always interesting. THE CARDINAL is no exception. Covering 20 or so years in the life of Father Stephen Fermoyle (Tom Tryon), the film deals with issues like abortion, racism, religious conversion, degradation, and more. Fermoyle makes some wrong choices(allowing his sister to die; abruptly quitting his leave of absence), and yet you can't hate the guy; he did what he thought was right at the time, though he may regret it. The acting is excellent through and through, and the lack of really big names removes the possible artifice of a star performance. Tryon, Carol Lynley (Fermoyle's doomed sister), John Huston (the intimidating Cardinal Glennon), and Raf Vallone (Fermoyle's friend Bishop Alfeo Quarenghi) stand out, but there are no weak links. Preminger directs with a sure hand, aided by the striking visuals and Jerome Moross's beautiful music. The DVD is the roadshow 70mm 179 minute version with intermission. The bonus DVD contains an interesting documentary, a nondescript 1963 featurette, and a trailer.

Jamie Teller

PRAISE WARNER FOR ANOTHER GORGEOUS TRANSFER!
An intercontinental journey spanning nearly 25 years, "The Cardinal" is a masterfully told saga. Otto Preminger directs with his usual adroit perception of the human condition as he tempts the faith of a Catholic cardinal (Tom Tryon) from Rome to Boston and Vienna. Along the way the film tackles such grandiose social issues as abortion, racism, celibacy and Fascism. Co-star John Huston was Oscar-nominated for his role as the fiery archbishop. Catholic priest, Steven Fermoyle (Tryon) returns to his home from taking his vows to discover that his sister, Mona (Carol Lynley) is in love with a Jewish man who is unwilling to give up his faith and that his brother, Frank (Bill Hayes) has abandoned the priesthood. Mona's obsession to marry leads her to a life of wanton debauchery that results in her death. In the meantime, Cardinal Glennon (John Huston) is determined to drive all of Steven's false pride from his soul. To this end he sends the young novice to work in a forgotten, frozen parish presided over by the Rev. Ned Halley (Burgess Meredith). When Halley dies, Steven is recalled to Rome where he meets a black southern priest, Father Gillis (Ossie Davis) who has come to ask for aid in fighting racism in his parish. The Vatican denies Gillis' request but Steven does indeed quietly take a leave to administer aid to Gillis' parish. He is attacked and brutally beaten by a sect of good ol' boys and nearly dies. The plot, from this point forward is rather rushed, unworthy of Preminger's usually sterling attention to pace. One gets the sense that Preminger would have liked another two or three hours to unfold the remainder of his tale which includes having Stephen return to Rome, then travel to Austria to regain is moral center. There he falls in love with Anna Marie VonHartmann (Romy Schneider) who does not know he is a priest. But Steven returns to his love of God, leaving Anna to marry a resistance operator during WWII in Nazi Germany who, unfortunately is discovered and jumps out a third story window to his death. From there Steven barely escapes Nazi persecution to once again return home to his family. Warner delivers another wonderful transfer. Though the colors have dated somewhat, this 1963 classic sparkles in a nicely balanced transfer. Over all, colors are vibrant. Blacks are deep. Contrast and shadow levels are fully realized. There appears to be little in the way of age related artifacts. Digital anomalies are equally absent. The audio is 5.1 and captures the essence of early stereo recording.
Extras include the masterful feature length documentary on Otto Preminger, a featurette of the same vintage as the film and a theatrical trailer. "The Cardinal" is an unusual religious epic; legitimate and introspective, bold and magnificent. It is a film of great emotional power and quiet, graceful elegance.

If Forrest Gump had been a priest, he would be Fr. Fermoyle
Otto Preminger's The Cardinal was a movie that I hadn't seen in 23 years, since April 12, 1981 to be precise. It was a Palm Sunday, the Space Shuttle Columbia had just gone up on her maiden voyage and another good thing happened that day that made it special, but I'll keep that one to myself. Oh, and I watched it in Spanish translation, but still, The Cardinal left a vivid impression on my mind and I never forgot several of the key scenes: Stephen Fermoyle's (Tom Tryon), handling (mishandling?) of her younger sister's out of wedlock pregnancy, his encounter with good ol'e Irish church politics in Boston, his facing-down racism and KKK terrorism in Georgia, his inner vocational struggle, his experience with Nazi Germany and Austrian ecclesiastical stupor in the eve of the unification with the Third Reich.

Heck, if Forrest Gump had been a priest, he would've been Stephen Fermoyle.

The movie is a collection of vignettes in which Father (then Monsignor, then Bishop, then Cardinal) Fermoyle tests his moral certainties against a cast of characters of ambiguous morality. You may even say that everyone else was human but Fermoyle, who always came out as superhuman yet, paradoxically, frail. Each encounter with evil or moral ambiguity taxed Fermoyle's conscience, and yet he manages to come out of all them triumphant, yet wounded. Each encounter leads him inexorably to a promotion.

The picture is beatifully filmed on location, with great attention to meaningful detail. Note who, for example, when Monsignor Fermoy arrives in Georgia to investigate a church burning, as he exits the bus that brought him to town, is debarking through the back door. If you're not really watching, you'll agree that African-Americans in the segregated South were meant to be invisible but if you notice them, then this detail speaks volumes. More significantly, this scene was made wholecloth for the movie by Director Preminger; it wasn't in the original novel written by Henry Morton Robinson. You learn of this on the second DVD of this 2-disk set, which is all dedicated to the Director Preminger's cinematic trajectory.

This is a delightful movie. It brought back to me lots of good memories. And if there's such thing as "holy pride," through its characters and plot, I can say The Cardinal made me feel proud of being a Catholic even though "pride" in other contexts may be a sin.

Anti Italian
This movie makes the Irish look like saints and the Italians look like pathetic idiots! The characters say "pastra" for pasta and have make the Italians out to be superstitious occult wary fools when a statue of the virgin Mary bleeds, and the blood turns out to be rust water! Whatever the merits of this film may be, I lost interest when I saw Italians so badly degraded!

Sweeping, Big Budget, Soap Saga!
This long, lavish epic may seem dated by today's standards, but it's a great one to watch on a rainy day. Great story, good actors....Tom Tryon and Carol Lynley are as compelling as they are gorgeous. Take a look at this one! Read the novel, too--a real education! ... Read more

Reviews (35)

Pretty good
The acting is poorly chosen, but the movie has good potential -- if only other acting people would've done it! The leaders, especially the man woman (I forgot her name) do especially bad work. Possibly the best actor was the man who becomes a "worm-face". Roger I think his name was, but not sure.
In general, the worm scenes are a bit corny. In one, we see thousands of VERY obvious rubber worms falling. Honestly, it looked so fake I laughed! Some of them are more real but most really look rubbery and fake.
I particularly disliked the mother. She was increasingly naive and almost deserved her fate. Really, she did not seem to be very observant.
Overall, sadly, the movie was a victim of poor effects, probably bad editing, and poor actors. If it had just had a few different actors and actresses, it would be way better. The movie is also very SLOW paced. Normally, as I've rented it many times, nowadays I just speed to the good parts.
Worth a rental and I think it's good, just has its bad problems.

SQUIRM
VERY CREEPY AND SCARY AT TIMES. ALTHOUGH THIS MOVIE IS A LITTLE SLOW ITS WORTH IT. JUST THE IDEA ALONE AND A LITTLE IMAGINATION, MAKES SQUIRM A DEFINITE CLASSIC. AN ENTERTAINING FILM IF YOU LIKE FILMS WHERE NATURE STRIKES BACK. B+++

Very slow-moving
I am a very patient movie watcher. I let the credits linger and I panic if some body trys to talk to me right after a really great movie has ended, because how am I supposed to know what I think of it if I'm still soaking it in? Squirm has pretty much nothing to soak in. It's a talkie. It's all talk, really, and it is so slow-moving. It's just a terrible waste of time, and I waited for it to get better and it never did. By the end I couldn't get my self to watch the extra features on this disc, because I just really wasn't interested.

Cheesy fun
I remember seeing this on tv and it scared me a bit back in the day for a few reasons. However presented here its a gem, the quality of the picture and widescreen are great but the movie isn't scary but at times laughable, it does maintain a certain atmosphere and that is why I love it. The acting isn't bad and you have to take it with a grain of salt....killer worms? ....could happen, never know? Heh

A DVD zone IT'S SMALL BUT IT BITES
I've always liked this movie. Not because I'm particularly interested in the fascinating life of our little friends -the insects- or because I'm a curious fisherman; no, simply because SQUIRM is an above average B movie with great horror scenes and well written characters.

A scene will, if it's necessary, show you a bit of director Jeff Lieberman's know-how. Near the beginning of the movie, the main character being quietly speaking to his girl-friend, a terribly long worm (yeech !) quickly crawls down the wall behind him. Without his noticing. You spend the rest of the scene wondering whether the worm will attack the hero. Stressing.

The copy presented in this MGM DVD is perfect and deserves to stay in your library if you're interested in cult movies. ... Read more