"Here's looking at you, kid."

Ah... that immortal line lingers on and on right after watching the film. This is my third serving of the film, and gets better every time. Viewing it in high def though is how we want these timeless classics to be shown in home video. No speck of dirt or grain whatsoever.

Humphrey Bogart is immortalized here. Playing a tough guy persona in Rick Blaine who blurts "I stick my neck out for nobody!" And then drowns in alcohol reminiscing a love lost long ago, leading him to say "Of all the gin joints in all the towns in all the world, she walks into mine." If Godfather pumped out the testosterone levels in me, this one right here got the "sentimentalist" part of me.

What makes it so good is the right mix of film genre it expresses. Was it a romantic film? Sure it is, how can you not remember the line "We'll always have Paris,"? Was there intrigue and action? Yes there is, its also a propaganda movie against the Nazi movement at that time. Does it have comedy? Oh yes, the witty humor has its moments too.

With the recent "sequelitis" that has swarmed theaters the recent weeks, from Spiderman 3, Shrek 3, Pirates of the Caribbean 3, Die Hard 4 and just recently Harry Potter 5 (the hype got me so full that I got to watch only one of those), its still great to see that Casablanca never gets old. Casablanca captured the iconic moments of human vulnerability, love lost and longing, and sacrifice for the higher good. It mesmerized viewers sixty odd years ago. It does until now.