Search - Kim on DVD

Average Adventure Film.

peterfromkanata | Kanata, Ontario Canada | 09/08/2003

(3 out of 5 stars)

"This will be a "mixed" review. This is a gorgeous film to look at--on-location shooting in India greatly enhances the visual appeal, and the sets and colourful costumes are eye-catching to say the least. The plot, based on Kipling's classic book, concerns a young British, orphaned boy, who disguises himself as an Indian to avoid school and indulge in some espionage for the British, via a shady horse-trader. It takes place during the Victorian period.The boy--Kim--is played by a very young Dean Stockwell, and his performance is excellent. The horse trader is portrayed by Errol Flynn--older and heavier than during his peak, swashbuckling years at Warner Brothers. While Flynn is top-billed, do not be mislead--this film is about the boy--at the same time, Flynn has lost little of the charm and roguish twinkle that made him such a big star.What this film needed, however, was more action--beautiful scenery and costumes cannot disguise the fact that this film has too many dull patches.The DVD is decent--full-screen--nice colour--mono sound, of course."Kim" has its moments--but if you see the name of Errol Flynn on the cover, and expect plenty of exciting action, you may be disappointed."

KIM --for the whole Family

S. Mitchell | Tyler, TX United States | 03/07/2003

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I'm a pushover for Errol Flynn. However, I was surprised in this movie he has a semi-starring roll. The story is Kim, the boy.Flynn plays a part but not the bravado star swinging from limbs altho he is a ladies man. I also have KIM with Pete O'Toole. Frankly, I thought O'Toole overplayed his hand in that version. I much prefer Paul Lukas as the worn out priest. Great scenery. Great fun for the whole family. Stories like this never grow old and the India setting well...Let's hope they put this movie on DVD in the near future."

Revisiting Rudyard Kipling's Kim

Robert West | Scotland | 02/18/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Kim is a movie I remember so well as a kid infact probably my favourite chidhood movie. I found myself one evening searching Amazon's massive dvd vault and for some reason I typed in 'KIM' and I was delighted to see it had been released on dvd. Sometimes revisiting a childhood favourite can be dissapointing as an adult, but not Kim the story is so imaginitive it grips from start to finish. The acting of a young Dean Stockwell as a streetwise street urchin blagging his way through life and finding himself embroiled in espionage reminds me in character of Errol Flynn at his cheekiest. Ironically Flynn co stars as 'Kim's protector Red Beard. Both actors work together so well they draw you into the story set in India during the Raj. Kim was My favourite childhood movie and I'm glad I found it again. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did."

A necessary telescoping of the novel, but...

Dr. van der Linden | Williamstown, NJ | 10/23/2003

(4 out of 5 stars)

"...
...nevertheless as good on DVD as I remember it on the big screen when I was a youngster. During the '50s and '60s, when it played on commercial television, the idiot box artists chopped this film without mercy or sense, squeezing out of it almost all the flavor, and it's great to see *Kim* - admittedly a bit murky on the visual side, a bit twiddled and diddled in the sound department - back in its theatrical version, and in a form that allows for easy replay and scene selection. Despite the relatively minor role played by the "real" Mahbub Ali in Kipling's book, the script's structuring took advantage of Errol Flynn's mature screen presence (as an actor, he most certainly got better as he grew older) to good effect, and did the job without doing any real violence to Kipling's story. Dean Stockwell's work is only so-so compared with what he *could* produce under proper direction, and while Paul Lukas is as good in this role as you'd expect him to be, I still have more than a bit of trouble thinking of him as a Tibetan lama. By the bye, could someone please tell us the name of the tune being played as the Mavericks ("a red bull on a green field") come marching into frame about midway through the movie? It's the same tune playing at the close of film, and I'm driving myself *nuts* trying to remember what the damned thing is called. Thanks.
..."