Viewed May 23, 2006
I certainly had high hopes for Road to Perdition. It’s based upon a hraphic novel written by Max Allan Collins, a writer I’ve admired for some time. I first became aware of him around the release of Dick Tracy (1990). Collins was writing the strip (he took over from […]
Viewed May 22, 2006
Not Another Teen Movie is one of the increasingly numerous films that are parodies of comedies. This one, obviously, tackles the “teen comedy” genre made famous by the “American Pie” series and its ilk.
The problem is, the genre is so outrageous and over-the-top to begin with, there is little room for […]
Viewed May 21, 2006
How To Dial A Murder is a 1978 entry in the ‘Columbo’ series of made-for-TV movies. The story this time revolves around a self-help guru, Dr. Eric Mason (Nicol Williamson), who murders his best friend by using his abilities with mental training to cause the doctor’s dogs to attack him. […]
Viewed May 20, 2006
A couple of years into Buster Keaton’s series of shorts, The Electric House finds Buster in strong form visually and athletically. Something does suffer, though, as the story is particularly weak.
The plot of this one has Buster accidentally given an electrical engineer’s diploma instead of the one he was supposed to […]
Viewed May 19, 2006
The Ghost Breakers is a fun outing starring Bob Hope. It doesn’t exactly break any new ground, but it catches Hope in his full stride, with an excellent supporting cast.
The story revolves around a typical Hope device: the somewhat cowardly dupe caught in the tide of bigger events. In this […]
Viewed May 18, 2006
I came across The Wesley’s Mysterious File at a local record store and it looked interesting enough that I picked it up. It led me to buy a bunch of Asian films, several of which I have already covered. But I never actually watched the film. Sadly, although it […]
Viewed May 17, 2006
Word of the passing of Paul Marco, noted member of Ed Wood’s stock company, came through on the 17th, so I felt I shoudl watch something Ed-related. The only thing I had that I hadn’t actually watched yet was Night of the Fools, a fan-made film that portrays Ed putting together […]
Viewed May 16, 2006
Wolf is a nice throwback to old school horror films, with just enough modern updates to keep things fresh. Some dodgy effects are more than compensated for by excellent performances by a top notch cast.
This film is, essentially, an update to the classic werewolf story made famous by Lon Chaney, Jr. […]
Viewed May 15, 2006
3 Dev Adam is an earlier Turkish film from some of the people responsible for the “Turkish Star Wars”. It’s title’s literal translation is “3 Mighty Men”, but it’s alternate English title is more descriptive because it accurately describes the film: “Captain America and Santo vs. Spider-Man”.
These Turkish films are […]
Viewed May 14, 2006
I only decided to watch Timeline because I had recently finished listening to the book on tape and was interested in how they would adapt it. Unfortunately, they did everything one expects from Hollywood, and that’s not a good thing.
The story revolves around a group of archaeologists who get sucked into […]
Viewed May 13, 2006
Convict 13 is one of Buster Keaton’s earliest solo shorts and it’s a fine one. Knocked unconcious during a golf game, Buster has his clothes taken by an escaped convict and finds himself in jail in the convict’s place. He spends the rest of the film trying to get out again, […]
Viewed May 12, 2006
Un Chien Andalou (The Andalusian Dog) is a surrealistic short film from Luis Bunuel and Salvador Dali.
The imagry is often disturbing and, honestly, seldom makes any sense at all. Of course, that’s kind of what one expects from a film by Dali. Sliced eyeballs, ants crawling out of a man’s […]
Viewed May 11, 2006
Combat Academy, also known (or more likely, unknown) as Combat High, is a monumental waste of many talented actors. Perhaps if any of the truly talented ones were in the lead roles, things would be different, but this made-for-TV movie just can’t be supported by the lightweights who get the screentime.
The […]
Viewed May 10, 2006
Tarzan’s career in film actually stretches back to 1911, when the first silent film, Tarzan the Ape Man, was made. In 1932, the most famous series of films began, again with Tarzan the Ape Man, starring Johnny Weismuller in the role for which he is still the most strongly identified. […]
Viewed May 9, 2006
A Few Moments with Eddie Cantor is an early talkie short that basically features Cantor doing his act for the camera.
The real problem is, he obviously is used to interacting with the audience and this is totally lost when recorded in this way. After most of the jokes, he paused for […]
Viewed May 8, 2006
Lara Croft: Tomb Raider is one of the better videogame-to-film adaptations, but given the genre’s history, that’s not that great an accomplishment.
The story is typical of the loopy ones seen in the ‘Tomb Raider’ games, revolving around ancient magics with just a hint of archaeology. (Tomb Raider’s obvious aping of […]
Viewed May 7, 2006
It’s Everybody’s Business is a nice little short from the Department of Commerce that tries to use cartoons and humor to get across fundamental ideas of the free market.
Everything is represented in cartoon terms. The fundamentals of American society are represented as large rocks: the foundation on which the country is […]
Viewed May 6, 2006
Dogs of War is a wonderful entry in the ‘Our Gang’ series of films, this time from the silent era. The ‘Our Gang’ series existed long before Spanky, Alfalfa and the rest who would become more famous as ‘The Little Rascals’ and this one is from their early peak in the […]
Viewed May 5, 2006
Overs and Outs is basically a sketch film, with mostly scripted comedy and the occasional actual blooper or found footage. I’m guessing that this was intended as a purely internal production for the Calvin Company. Calvin specialized in educational and corporate films and most of these sketches seem to have […]
Viewed May 4, 2006
Remarkably Bold Venture of the Rabbit is a strange, psychadelic, stream-of-consciousness animated short by then film student Tim Drage. The visuals are striking and the film pulls you in, but (as Drage admits) there’s no real story here, unless you graft one onto it from your own imagination.
Drage’s style is a […]
Viewed May 3, 2006
In 1927, Charles Lindbergh made his historic solo flight across the Atlantic. It touched off an aviation frnzy, as the public became insatiable for the latest and greatest flyers. Naturally, this infatuation spilled over into the popular culture, with movies, books and comics devoted to the activity. One of […]
Viewed May 2, 2006
Fresh off the experience of watching Assignment: Venezuela, I thought it would be fun to spend a week watching movies available for free download from the Internet Archive. So I began looking through the archives to find something to watch. When I do this, I usually browse by subject and […]
Viewed May 1, 2006
Okay, I only know about Assignment: Venezuela because it was the subject of a never-aired riffing for Mystery Science Theater 3000. But, since I still haven’t seen that segment (created for a never produced CD-ROM and only available on VHS from Best Brains), I decided to watch it when I spotted […]
Best Supporting Actor
Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. as Rupert in The Prisoner of Zenda (1937)
Fairbanks is a lot of fun in the dastardly role of Rupert. He chews scenery (in the most charming way) and uses all of his considerable charisma to make Rupert a classicly appealing villain.
Best Supporting Actress
Maggie Cheung as Flying Snow in Hero […]
Viewed April 30, 2006
Okay, so this is the first time we kind of bend the rules a little bit. I’d been wanting to watch a fanfilm or two as part of this project, but I found them all to be so trite as to not be worth the time. There certainly didn’t seem […]
Viewed April 29, 2006
The Hayseed has the strongest plot of any of the Roscoe Arbuckle / Buster Keaton films I’ve seen so far. The relatively complex tale involves one of Arbuckles traditional love triangles, and much of the same formula he had used in the past, but this time with more of a spine […]
Viewed April 28, 2006
This Side of Heaven is a strange film that is hard to define or categorize. There is a lot of comedy, but it ultimately has a strong focus on drama.
The comedy is clear in the earlygoing, with the dialogue coming fast and furious. Lots of joking and comedic barbs between […]
Viewed April 27, 2006
When discussing Celebrity, I described it as a “tone poem”. It certainly doesn’t stack up as a comedy or as a drama or even as a fully realized film. But as a tone poem it is remarkable. It is Woody Allen’s rambling, sometimes incoherent musings on the nature of […]
Viewed April 26, 2006
You know, I thought it would be fun to watch some Bollywood movies for this project. But even after buying a bunch of them at a very nice sale at Eros Enterainment, I had only watched Bollywood Calling, which happened to star a guy with whom I (briefly) went to high […]
Viewed April 25, 2006
I don’t know. Maybe I really am just a sucker for Will Ferrell these days, but I enjoyed the heck out of Bewitched. I’m not sure what anyone else was expecting from this film, but I tried to go in with no preconceived notions about it and I just thought […]
Viewed April 24, 2006
I am a big fan of Rowan Atkinson and the promise of a film with him in a kind of “Maxwell Smart” role seemed like a great idea. Unfortunately, Johnny English just doesn’t come up to the standard set by Get Smart! or Atkinson’s best work, like the Blackadder series.
The premise […]