Nonureva Really Surprised!

ReaderKenka Let's be realistic.

PlatinumRead Just so...so bad

Cissy Évelyne It really made me laugh, but for some moments I was tearing up because I could relate so much.

Thaneevuth Jankrajang Believe it or not... I have watched the documentary feature on life and works of this man with smiles and tears throughout. Smiles at my realization how crazily, madly, and fiercely independent Mr. Roger Corman has proudly been and how fascinating his ups and downs in his film life must have been. The man's integrity and strength deserve admiration at all levels. It can never be easy to go against an establishment for decades and to remain self-fulfilled, commercially successful, and happily married. Worse, the very establishment or Hollywood itself has to succumb when it unanimously gives him an Academy Award for Lifetime Achievement. Tears at a life of man denied his rightful place for a very, very long time. He gives birth to the likes of Martin Scorsese, Ron Howard, Jonathan Demme, Jack Nicholson, and the almost endless list of names in the 285 films he makes, and yet the father has been treated almost as an embarrassment by the children because most of his works are of exploiting nature. I find it greatly unfair and very sad. It is true that Mr. Corman himself may never have craved for meaningless glory and praises, but can't we be a little stronger and award courage and human free spirits as opposed to those bricks in the wall? I think it is appropriate for Jack Nicholson to cry during the interview because, I believe, of such hard truth. In fact, this film shows several people who look back and rediscover, after all, their deep love and gratitude to Roger Corman. It is amusing to see many of these film celebrities cracking, smilingly while doing it, at a mere mention of Mr. Corman's name, as if they feel slightly ashamed of failing early on to realize his genuine values, personal goodness and morality code, and the real contribution of him to their very lives. They almost think of him now as a father whom they disgust, ridicule, and make fun of in their previous lives. Now they know all too well from whom they obtain their secrets of success. Roger Corman is a wonderful subject matter of this wonderful, and unpretentious, film about a man who is strictly his own among the devious crowd.

Hollywoodshack Roger Corman often told a story about how he was robbed by a cabdriver after getting out of the Navy and lost all his clothes. Then he became a film maker after getting a degree in engineering at Stanford. The story wasn't in the film. Another major omission was the film remake, Not of This Earth, that was Traci Lords' first non-pornographic film. I liked many of Corman's films from the fifties that were skimmed over in ten or fifteen minutes. First, losing a contract for Easy Rider became the root of Corman's sixties failures, then the success of Jaws and Star Wars became the blame for Corman's seventies failures. It's always easy to blame a competitor for your own shortcomings. After 400 films, maybe he just ran out of new material. I just grow tired of the dumbing down of documentaries into after 5 minutes--bang--five minutes--fight--five minutes--explosion--five minutes--crash--five minutes--nude clip! I would like to learn something interesting beneath the shallowness of all that.

Sorpse definitely enjoyed the DVD however if you are looking at it to try and come up with some good ideas for which old school grindhouse movies to watch then it might not offer a whole lot of suggestions. What it does do however is offer a very informative view on how roger corman came to be. Its more of a biography concerning his film career opposed to concentrating on his filmography. I'd say i developed more of a respect for roger corman after seeing how he struggled and pulled all his resources together to slowly build up his huge body of work, especially after my respect for him seemed to be recently faltering do his garbage additions to the sci fi channel (im looking at you sharktopus). With that said i did come away with a few new movies to add to my watch list ie, wild angels, big bird cage(i know i know i should have seen this by now), bloody mama, and the trip. All in all it was very informative and entertaining and held my attention throughout. Nothing much in the way of special features though, i guess the whole movie is basically one big special feature.

kosmasp If anyone ever made a movie about you, you'd wish it was made like this. I'm pretty sure Roger Corman himself is happy about the end result. It's a mix, where you are treated to the past and the present (of course the present is the past, at the time you'll be able watch this, but you get what I mean) of Corman body of work. New and old collaborators are there to be interviewed.At the end there is a special treat, though I guess fans will know this (actually should know this), before watching the movie. But to newbies or people not as aware to Corman (like myself) this works wonders. You really start to respect the man. And while it is rose tinted most of the time, it also involves some controversial material in it too. Still this is here to celebrate a man and that is what it does