The films that Ed Wood is best known for are undoubtedly those on which he collaborated with his freind Bela Lugosi: Glen or Glenda, Bride of the Monster and, most famously, Plan 9 from Outer Space. In 1994, director Tim Burton filmed a fictionalized version of the making of these films in Ed Wood.
Glen […]
UHF marked “Weird Al” Yankovic’s one and only true foray into the world of feature film making. Poised as a breakthrough film, with preview audiences rating it highly, the film instead performed very poorly at the box office, buried under the avalanche of Batman, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, Lethal Weapon 2, Back […]
What made the classic Muppet films stand out is that, like the Muppet Show before them, they didn’t treat them as a puppet show. These were regular, normal comedies that just happened to have puppets in many of the major roles. This is never better represented than in the best of all Muppet […]
Despite the love I felt at the time for Toy Story 2 and Monsters, Inc., I was not at all enthused by the early previews that I saw for The Incredibles. Much of that early ad campaign (including the first teaser trailer) did not look promising, focusing on the comedy of a fat super-hero. […]
The 1943 movie serial Batman not only marked the first appearance of the iconic comic book character, it marks the first appearance of any DC character. (Superman would not appear for another five years.) As such, it had more of an influence on its subject matter than most adaptations.
One big influence it had […]
When I saw Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery in the theaters, I was extremely impressed. As I have mentioned before, I’m a big fan of 1960s sci-fi and adventure movies like Barbarella and Casino Royale with their big sets and peculiar point of view. It was clear to me that writer/star Mike […]
Daleks’ Invasion Earth: 2150 A.D. is the followup to the successful Dr. Who and the Daleks. Like its predecessor, Invasion is based on an original serial from the BBC TV series Doctor Who, in this case, “The Dalek Invasion of Earth”. Also like the first film, this one is a condensation of a […]
The 1964 film Hamlet is a filmed staging of the play straight from its contemporary Broadway production. Directed by John Gielgud and starring Richard Burton in the title role, the play was a sensation in its day, not for a little because of Burton’s affair with Elizabeth Taylor that was heating up at the […]
Hercules is an interesting entry in the Walt Disney Feature Animation canon. Directed by Ron Clements and John Musker (previously of The Great Mouse Detective, The Little Mermaid and Aladdin) and with music by Alan Menken, it reunited much of the creative team behind two of the greatest films in Disney’s “Renaissance”. After […]
I’m not going to say much about Bewitched, as most of my thoughts are covered in my original review.
Basically, re-watching it now has strengthened the negatives in my mind, while the positives come off a bit weaker. I still like the premise a lot. In fact, much of what sells me on Bewitched […]
How the mighty can fall in the eyes of the public. It is a well known axiom that sequels are generally inferior to the original. Especially when the original is something of a genre-defining project. Such is the case with Ghostbusters and its put-upon sequel Ghostbusters II.
Ghostbusters was, of course, a groundbreaking […]
Man on the Moon tells the story of Andy Kaufman (played by Jim Carrey), from his early years (though there isn’t much of that) to his premature death at the age of 35. As with most biopics, it is a highly stylized re-telling, but it’s embracing of Kaufman’s disruptive form of comedy makes it […]
Joe Versus the Volcano is a massively underappreciated film. I know, I know, When Harry Met Sally, Sleepless in Seattle and You’ve Got Mail are supposedly the Nora Ephron/Meg Ryan trilogy. But I’d rather focus on the Tom Hanks/Meg Ryan trilogy and I’ll take Joe over any of them, anyway.
The big difference between […]
Flushed Away shows that just because it says Dreamworks, that doesn’t mean it’s crap. Of course, Dreamworks and producer Aardman Studios (also of Chicken Run and Wallace and Grommit) parted ways with Dreamworks shortly after this film was released, so maybe Aardman realized that Dreamworks was not the place for them. I, myself, […]
Okay, so Kung Pow! is not for everyone. It is, in the final analysis, an extremely silly movie. Writer/director/star Steve Oedekerk (of Ace Ventura, Jimmy Neutron and “Thumb” movie fame) bought the rights to Hong Kong action film Hu hao shuang xing (aka Tiger and Crane Fist or Savage Killers) and reworked the […]
In 1996, wroter/director/actor Christopher Guest revisited a film form that he had last visited in This is Spinal Tap as a writer/performer: the mockumentary. In Waiting for Guffman, he presents a very similarly styled tale, one of relative incompetance and failure to live up to even meager expectations.
Guffman, is much more of an […]
Finding Nemo is the high water mark for Pixar as far as box office is concerned. Among recent animated films (post-The Lion King), only Shrek 2 has sold more tickets. And it certainly deserved all the acclaim it received, it’s an almost perfect film.
Really, a film about fish starring Albert Brooks. Just […]
Really, I don’t know what I was thinking. I had been seeing Andy Kaufman on SNL and had watched Man on the Moon, so I guess I wanted to see a bit more of him. Or maybe I was curious as to whether it was really as bad a film as I remembered. […]
Fantasia and Fantasia 2000 are two of Disney’s more interesting releases. Originally envisioned by Walt Disney as an “event” (one that you would dress up for, as if going to a real concert), Fantasia was a financial disaster for the company, almost bringing them to ruin.
And it wasn’t all that warmly received critically, either. […]