‘Legend’ Download and Reviews

September 4, 2009 by Paul Wall  
Filed under Adventure, Fantasy, Romance

“Legend” Movie Details

Legend tagline: This is such stuff as dreams are made of. This is Legend.
Legend - DVD Cover

Legend DVD Cover

Actors:
Tom Cruise Jack
Mia Sara Princess Lily
Tim Curry The Lord of Darkness
David Bennent Honeythorn Gump
Alice Playten Blix
Billy Barty Screwball
Cork Hubbert Brown Tom
Peter O’Farrell Pox
Kiran Shah Blunder
Annabelle Lanyon Oona
Robert Picardo Meg Mucklebones
Tina Martin Nell
Ian Longmur Demon Cook
Mike Crane Demon Cook
Liz Gilbert Dancing Black Dress
Directors: Ridley Scott
IMDB Rating: 6.1/10 out of 19,575 votes

“Legend” Movie Review

“Legend” Plot Summary

A young man must stop the Lord of Darkness from both destroying daylight and marrying the woman he loves.

Mediocre Film That Looks Great . . .

‘Legend’, The Director’s Cut (1985/2002), Unrated, One Hour & 54 Minutes –and– U.S. Theatrical Version (1986), Rated ‘PG’ by the MPAA, One Hour & 30 Minutes. Content includes: Mild Adult Language, Some Mild Sexual Innuendos, Violence and Some Disturbing Imagery

My Take ** (Out of ****) or 6/10 on the IMDb Scale.’Legend’ is triumph of art direction, make-up, costume and set design. It’s a great movie to look at, but not much else. That goes for both versions of the picture, The Director’s Cut or the U.S. Theatrical Version.’Legend’ wants to be a mythical fairy tale. It tells of Darkness (Tim Curry), a demonic overlord, who has been banished from the world to his dark kingdom to reign in exile. The world is a beautiful place of perpetual springtime, complete with sunshine, tweeting birds, pollen in the air and tree blossoms in abundance. The world is kept pure and protected by two unicorns who both harbor goodness, truth and light

However, Darkness is plotting his return to the world for a hostile takeover. If his lackeys can take out the two unicorns, then Darkness will once again rise to dominate the world. This is not very appealing to Jack (Tom Cruise), a young man who lives in a storybook forest. Jack shares a romance of innocence with the lovely maiden Lily (Mia Sara). When Darkness makes his move for world domination, the world is plunged into a chaotic dark winter. Darkness kidnaps Lily to corrupt her and make her his dark bride. It’s up to Jack and his motley crew of fairy friends to put the kabash on Darkness before all hope is lost . . .Sounds like the groundwork for a fun picture, doesn’t it? Unfortunately, that’s not the case. For as visually arousing as the film is, it’s highly underdeveloped. ‘Legend’ is all style, with no substance. That’s too bad. Everything looks great and the adventure could have been a really great one too

One problem with ‘Legend’ is you don’t care about anyone or anything in it. There’s nothing interesting, funny, witty or imaginative about any of the characters, except for maybe Darkness. We’ve all seen this kind of story before: Evil is out to vanquish good, the young lad becomes a hero to save the girl and set the wrong things right. It’s a timeless story. No doubt, we’ll keep seeing it time and time again. When it’s done right, we love it. A good example would be the original ‘Star Wars’ (1977). But ‘Legend’ doesn’t do it right. We’re not gripped in the slightest

Tom Cruise as Jack spends a great deal of the picture looking scared or bewildered. Sara Mia, better known as Matthew Broderick’s girlfriend in ‘Ferris Bueller’s Day Off’ (1986), is an adequate damsel in distress. Naive, but nice. The scene stealer is Tim Curry as Darkness. He looks great! He is layered in make-up and paint, but he truly looks like the devil, complete with gigantic horns, goat ears, red skin, yellow eyes, a Charles Atlas figure and goat legs. Oddly enough, Curry’s performance shines though the latex making Darkness convincing as a sinister presence

As indicated, the rest of the characters are fairly one dimensional cliches from other (& better) fantasy tales. They’re only here as plot devices, completely devoid of any other purpose, to get you through the movie from Point ‘A’ to Point ‘B’. You don’t care for them or empathize with them in any way or about their plight. To make a movie like this work, you should at least care about the outcome of it’s characters. If you don’t, then what’s the point of watching it in the first place? The Director’s Cut is more whimsical. It’s about 24 minutes longer and has extended dialog with longer scenes. Most notably, this version firmly establishes the lovely Lily as a princess, while the American version is decidedly ambiguous about her background. Also notable is Lily’s singing in the forest and to the unicorns. This is more storybook like and I suppose this behavior is to be expected of maidens

The Director’s Cut boasts a lyrical score by Jerry Goldsmith. It’s beautifully done and serves the storybook aspect of ‘Legend’ very well

The U.S. version is scored by the rock group Tangerine Dream. What I liked about this score is that it’s a departure from what is traditionally heard in this kind of picture. I thought this score was a fresh approach to the ‘fairy-tale’/’storybook’ genre

Director Ridley Scott has described his director’s version of ‘Legend’ as being the more sophisticated of the two versions. In some ways he’s right. Then again, both versions of the picture are rather muddled and lack coherence or any real direction. Both pictures feel choppy, unrealized and cobbled together from other fantasies minus the spark that makes the good ones work in the first place

Does ‘Legend’ have a saving grace? It’s a visual roller-coaster. It’s great to look at. It reminds me of fantasy paintings that have come to life. Too bad that the life we see in the movie is lifeless. If you can get around that fact, then either version of ‘Legend’ at it’s best will be excellent eye candy with terrific cinema-photography and great music, whether it’s Goldsmith or Tangerine Dream as the music provider. In my opinion, The Director’s Cut and the U.S. Theatrical Version are on they same par in terms of quality. One is not better then the other. ‘Legend’ isn’t that good to begin with. To be fair, it’s not bad either. If it wasn’t for the film’s visual style, there would really be no reason to even consider watching this picture. ‘Legend’ is a missed opportunity that left me wanting more from it then what I was given . . .

Legend - Movie Still 1 Legend Movie Still 2 Legend Movie Image 3 Legend Screen Image
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‘The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe’ Download and Reviews

August 25, 2009 by Paul Wall  
Filed under Adventure, Family, Fantasy

“The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe” Movie Details

The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe tagline: Some journeys take us far from home. Some adventures lead us to our destiny.
The Chronicles of Narnia 1 - DVD Cover

The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe DVD Cover

Actors:
  • Cassie Cook
  • Georgie Henley Lucy Pevensie
    Skandar Keynes Edmund Pevensie
    William Moseley Peter Pevensie
    Anna Popplewell Susan Pevensie
    Tilda Swinton White Witch
    James McAvoy Mr. Tumnus, the Faun
    Jim Broadbent Professor Kirke
    Kiran Shah Ginarrbrik
    James Cosmo Father Christmas
    Judy McIntosh Mrs. Pevensie
    Elizabeth Hawthorne Mrs. MacReady
    Patrick Kake Oreius
    Shane Rangi General Otmin
    Brandon Cook Boy on Train
    Girl on Train
    Directors: Andrew Adamson IMDB Rating: 7.0/10 out of 96,970 votes

    “The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe” Movie Review

    “The Chronicles of Narnia 1″ Plot Summary

    Four kids travel through a wardrobe to the land of Narnia and learn of their destiny to free it with the guidance of a mystical lion. add synopsis

    Can’t wait for the next movie in the series.

    I watched it one of its advanced screenings this afternoon and as expected it turned out to be quite a movie

    Based on the classic novel by CS Lewis. Four London children are sent to a professors country home in order for protection during World War II. There they find a magic wardrobe which leads to a mystical land called Narnia, which is being ruled by an evil witch. To defeat the Witch, they must join forces with Aslan, the lion God of Narnia, and the great battle between good and evil that’s pretty much the whole story

    The acting field was average (not surprising really), Swinton was okay but not top notch kind of stuff. All the kids did a wonderful job and if i can recollect correctly thats more than what i could have done at such a young age

    The special effects were above average to excellent and tell us just what you can do if you put enough effort into it. I guess you can call it LOTR for kids and i would absolutely agree with that

    Overall an excellent family film and if you are a fan of the Harry Potter franchise then you should be able to dig this quite easily

    P.S got my fingers crossed for the next film.9/10

    The Chronicles of Narnia 1 - Movie Still 1 The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe Movie Still 2 The Chronicles of Narnia 1 Movie Image 3 The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe Screen Image
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