Atom Man vs. Superman is the second Superman movie serial, the last appearance of Kirk Alyn in the role and a vast improvement over the original Superman.
The main reason this one is an improvement is the appearance of a much better villain (and Superman’s main nemesis at that): Lex Luthor. Played here by the […]
The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh is the last of Disney’s “package” films (if you don’t count Fantasia 2000, which I don’t). But, unlike the package films of the 1940s, which consisted of individual stories that were often later split up as shorts, the segments in Winnie the Pooh were pre-existing shorts, created […]
Ghidrah, the Three-Headed Monster us best known for serving as the turning point of the original series as far as Godzilla is concerned. He makes the turn from villain to hero in this film, teaming up with established characters Mothra (already a hero) and Rodan (villain of his own film) to defeat a new […]
Slap Shot is part of the great 1970s sports film tradition of showing the seedy underbelly of the sports world, this time through small-town hockey.
It stars Paul Newman as Reggie Dunlop, player/coach for the Charleston Chiefs, a minor league team that is down on its luck, as factory closings have diminished attendance. When he […]
Dick Tracy is Warren Beatty’s big-screen adaptation of Chester Gould’s famous comic strip character. Coming only a year after Batman, it is easy to see why it was kind of overshadowed by that much higher profile film. But despite some similarities (composer Danny Elfman, for instance), they are very different projects with very […]
Mmmmmmmm. Orgy of the Dead. The slightly pungent smell of soft-core pornography is all over this one. This is Ed Wood’s first real foray into porn (though he dabbled a bit with The Sinister Urge). It also marks the beginning of his long collaboration with director Stephen Apostolof, a man who had […]
No film has ever f-ed with my head the way Time Bandits did. Now, if you haven’t seen this film, I won’t go into exactly what about it f’ed with my head, but suffice it to say that I think the marketing guys who sold this as a children’s film shouldbe in line for […]
The suits over at Disney must have been feeling pretty good about themselves when they released Aladdin. They had just come off the enormously successful Beauty and the Beast (the only animated film ever nominated for an Academy Award for Best Picture) and seemed to be on a roll. With much of the […]
Am I catching up? Am I? It’s so hard to tell. So many movies… So many reviews…
ZZZ….ZZZ….ZZZ….ZZZ
*snort*
“huh?”
Oh, yes. The wrap-up for March. Well, I continued to watch movies at far too quick a pace in March, finding myself a full 30 films ahead of the pace at that point (and […]
Meet the Robinsons is the second film in what was meant to be Walt Disney Feature Animation’s new direction: CGI. After the monumental failure of Treasure Planet and the less than thrilling performance of Home on the Range, Disney was no longer going to produce traditionally animated films, instead they would produce “CGI” films, […]
Okay, I’ve tried writing seriously, I’ve tried being clever, I even tried being ultra-cute. But no matter what I do I can’t seem to wrap my head around writing a review of Manos: The Hands of Fate.
It’s just so painful to sit through. Honestly, I couldn’t remember any of the major points I wanted […]
The Lion King is the perfect culmination of all that had been ocurring at Disney Animation since the renaissance begun with The Little Mermaid. With each project, the visuals had become more lush and the stories had become more universal and more widely appealing. But it took the masterstroke (conceived by lyricist Tim […]
Alright, I know ther are some people who hate Ishtar with a burning passion. I am convinced, however, that these are people who’ve never actually seen the movie. Sure, it is an aggressively silly movie. Sure, it cost wa-a-a-a-ay too much money to make. But if taken as it is (a […]
The Little Mermaid is another film that I could go on about for days if given the opportunity. The main thing that sets it apart from the Disney animated films that preceded it was the focus on music. This is not surprising, as lyricist Howard Ashman also served as a producer on the […]
Spaceballs is considered by many to be Mel Brooks’ last great film (or next-to-last, depending). Sure, there’s solid material in Robin Hood: Men in Tights and I personally think that Dracula: Dead and Loving It is underrated, but you find someone who will defend Life Stinks. Go on. I’ll wait…
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Nothing, huh? The […]
Carry on Doctor finds the “Carry On” series in full swing. All of the major performers were in place and practically all of them are in this film. The only major omission is Kenneth Connor. In his place is a star turn by Frankie Howerd.
The plot revolves around a hospital (not suprisingly) […]
Mystery Men is one of the most underappreciated comic book movies of all time. Really, I don’t understand why people don’t like this film more.
First, it has a brilliant, sublime performance by William H. Macy as The Shoveller. He brings such pathos and resonance to what could have been an extremely silly role. […]
If Snow White is the film that made Disney studios, Dumbo is the one that saved them. You see, after the success of Snow White, Walt Disney set his sights a bit higher than just making entertainment. He made Fantasia. It was an enormously expensive undertaking that proved financially disastrous. Now, […]
Ah, The Sinister Urge. The last of the “classic” Ed Wood movies. While Ed would do another movie with Criswell (Orgy of the Dead) and one more with stalwart Duke Moore (Take it Out in Trade), this is the last time he would assemble a large group of his “stock company” and is […]
“The one that started it all and still the fairest of them all!” read the ad copy for the DVD release of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. And, frankly, it’s hard to argue with that statement. Sure, there have been a lot of technical and artistic advances since 1937, but Walt Disney […]
Tenacious D in The Pick of Destiny is a perfect example of how a very funny premise from very funny people can utterly fail to expand to meet the demands of a feature film. While Tenacious D worked very well as a TV series or as an album, the film version is simply […]
I know I’ve mentioned Valiant a few times since my original review. It’s the perfect example of a film that doesn’t impress too much on first viewing , but slowly, inexorably creeps into one’s consciousness.
At this point, I really like Valiant. Sure, it’s formulaic and lacks the polish and storytelling skill of a […]
It’a hard to properly cover the influence of a film like Tron. While it was not a huge box office success, it provided inspiration for a generation of filmmakers who were taken by its innovative use of computer genertaed graphics.
But let’s ignore the film’s legacy for a moment and look at it as a […]
They really don’t come worse than The Beast of Yucca Flats. You know all those things people always cite when they talk about how bad Ed Wood was as a filmmakers? The cheap sets? The bad acting? The nonsensical dialogue? Night/Day transitions? Well The Beast of Yucca Flats has […]
“If you go to only one concert this year… the Prince movie is the one!” said the posters for Sign “O” the Times. And it certainly does give the viewer a sense of what it was like to attend a Prince concert in those days, when he was, perhaps, at the height of his […]
King Kong vs. Godzilla is my favorite Godzilla film. Yes, I know that other films have more depth to the storyline, or better effects or a higher monster count. But this one has Kong and that’s all that really matters. *
Not that I’m completely smitten by this film just because of the big […]
In the history of Walt Disney Feature Animation, there has only ever been one film to get a true sequel (that is, a narrative film followed by another narrative film). The Rescuers was a surprisingly successful, quirky, little adventure film. Years later, straight-to-video sequels would be the order of the day, but the […]
Willow was George Lucas’ first “epic” creation since the Star Wars saga and, I feel, suffered undeserved negativity because of the comparison. That, and th accusation that it is just warmed-over Tolkien meant that it was not highly thought of for many years after its creation (a situation that has somewhat reversed itself in […]