GamerTab
That was an excellent one.
Beanbioca
As Good As It Gets
Ella-May O'Brien
Each character in this movie — down to the smallest one — is an individual rather than a type, prone to spontaneous changes of mood and sometimes amusing outbursts of pettiness or ill humor.
Scarlet
The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.
boblipton
I don't remember seeing anything directed by Lesley Selander that wasn't a B western, a genre at which he excelled; his stint at LASSIE ended before I think I was aware of such things. This movie is a typical Allied Artist programmer, set during the opening of the Korean War, as Major John Hodiak struggles to train Koreans to be fighter pilots in just weeks, while fighting against his image as a coward who abandoned his co-pilot and his forbidden love for Barbara Britton, who is now married to Doctor Bruce Bennett. A very young Chuck Conners shows up as an infantry captain.It's decent fare with good actors, but Mr. Selander doesn't seem to be able to raise much of a performance in this unpracticed genre. While the visual elements are fine for the situation, it doesn't seem that the 3-D technology adds much to the proceedings. I suspect it is my old-fashioned aesthetics at work, but I believe it would have impressed me about the same in a flat presentation.
telegrafic
Although it is always good news the edition of classic 3D movies this one happens to be so bore that not even the 3D raises it up. All roles are quite flat and unidimensional. The love story is uninteresting and unnecessary. The film plot should be about new pilots' training and frankly this is hardly seen, although may have been the main focus of interest. Fess Parker and Chuck Connors (among the best of the film) do appear in small roles. So in the end the best thing about this movie is 3D: although there are not special effects -not even great aircraft fights- the restoration makes it bright and gives us an ultimate approximation to those years' stereoscopic experience.
silentfilm-2
It's 1950, and the U.S. Air Force is worried about the North Koreans overrunning Seoul and parts of South Korea. John Hodiak is an Air Force Major who has to train the local South Korean pilots ASAP before the war might break out. The U.S is not yet in the war, as they are waiting for United Nations approval of military action. To complicate matters for Hodiak, his ex-flame Barbara Britton is on base. Things are a bit awkward as when she and Hodiak were together she thought that her husband, doctor Bruce Bennett, was dead in Vietnam, but he turned up alive a few months later.This is a low budget film by Allied Artists. The first half is mostly talk and most of the action doesn't happen until the last half. There are a few flaws in the screenplay, for example main character Hodiak doesn't have much to do in the climax. Also, the Korean pilots are barely shown, although the main story is about training them. It would have been much more interesting if we had gotten to know them. Most of the supporting characters don't have much to do, but it is nice to see actors like Chuck Connors and Fess Parker in small roles.The film has been lovingly restored by the 3D Archive and looks great even in 2D. It is an interesting look at the Korean War that was released a few months after the war ended. If you like war films or 3D films, don't miss it, but don't expect a classic.
drharper
Clichéd, trite, stereotyped. Also, in the copy I saw, almost unwatchably fuzzy- the 3D showing through, perhaps? But the worst bit is the splicing in of stock footage of vaguely relevant bits of hardware. One expects all tanks in movies of this era to be American, but seeing good 'ol all American boys being shelled by a Sherman still jars. But the funniest errors are in the aircraft. Four US jet fighters (P-80's) twice become piston engined P-51's in close up, for example. But best of all a strafing enemy "Yak/Russian" fighter with a piston engine (and a devilish oriental pilot in close up) becomes a jet-powered P-80 (which only the US used) dropping napalm before reverting to a piston engine for the rest of the attack. Masters of disguise, evidently. On the interpersonal front watch for almost every 50's cliché, including "but I had to go back to him, he's wonderful", "I'm a hard-bitten infantryman", "you ran away, you coward", and probably if you look hard enough someone in a flying saucer. Not watchable. Can I have that bit of my life back, please?
