Bambi is considered one of the greatest of all the Disney Animated Features and it does much to deserve that reputation.
First, is the film’s willingness to embrace the realities of nature. It doesn’t force too much humanity onto the characters, instead allowing their natural characteristics to emerge. While there are certainly anthropomorphic aspects […]
Okay, we’re getting there. As of today, I’m exactly forty films behind. Slowly but surely, I’m cathcing up.
Wow, that was a strong month, wasn’t it? Lots of good stuff. The awards are going to be rough this time around.
BACK TO ADVENTURE!
Best Supporting Actor
David Warner as Evil in Time Bandits (1981)
Lots of […]
Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events, while not a faithful adaptation of the books on which it is based, captures the essence of those books and translates it to the big screen with flair.
It’s impossible to discuss Unfortunate Events without pointing out that, as mentioned, it doesn’t really follow the books. It takes […]
Batman (1966) is my favorite Batman movie. There, I’ve said it and I’m not ashamed to admit it. I know a lot of Batman fans hate the 1960s Adam West TV show and (by extension) this movie, but I simply cannot agree with them.
“But it debases all that defines the character” the […]
A lot of people would cry “foul” at my including a film like Shenmue: The Movie on this blog. For one thing, it was not released to theaters in the United States. For another, it is made up almost entirely of in-game footage from the Sega Dreamcast title Shenmue, rather than being a […]
As I think I’ve mentioned before, there are several different ways to bring a television series to the big screen. The two most common ones are to extend the original series (Star Trek, The Munsters) and to “re-imagine” the series (Mission: Impossible, Lost in Space). Other types include the recreation (The Beverly Hillbillies, […]
Ah, The Killer Shrews. One of my favorite episodes of Mystery Science Theater 3000 used this film and it stands up pretty well on its own.
The films tells of a young shipping boat captain, Thorne Sherman (James Best) who lands on an island with his mate, “Rook” Griswold (Judge Henry Dupree) to make a […]
Cool World is a crazy quilt of animation and sex jokes, put together by the bad-boy of feature animation, Ralph Bakshi. It stars Kim Basinger as Holli Would, a “doodle” (as cartoon characters are known) who wants to make it with a human in order to become real. Her human of choice is […]
Chariots of Fire is a somewhat fictionalized account of the 1924 British Olympic track & field team, their struggles (both personal and professional) and how they navigated these difficulties to bring home glory.
The focus is on two members of the eventual team, Irish missionary Eric Liddell (Ian Charleson) and the Jewish Cambridge man Harold Abrahams […]
Over twelve years ago, I visited my brother who was then living in Pennsylvania. He was going to school, so, naturally, he had a computer. After spending several days getting to know the machine, I came away with two bits of knowledge. First, I didn’t think I’d ever wrap my head around […]
Superman and the Mole Men is the first Superman feature film (though it runs under an hour). It features the debut of George Reeves as the Man of Steel and Phyllis Coates as Lois Lane, both of whom would reprise their roles in the Adventures of Superman TV series. In fact, Mole Men […]
Fugitive Girls a.k.a. Five Loose Women a.k.a. Hot on the Trail a.k.a. Women’s Penitentiary VIII* is almost certainly the best of the Ed Wood / Steven Apostolof collaborations. Filled with everything you’d expect from the two, with a “women in prison” theme on top, it’s actually a satisfying film on many levels, although still […]
It’s hard to really get across how disappointed I was with Disney’s Alice in Wonderland. Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass and What Alice Found There are among my favorite books of all time. (No, really.) Any production has a high bar to clear as far as I’m […]
A Fish Called Wanda is very much a 1980s film. The plot, characters and tone all speak to that very specific time. Luckily, it holds up pretty well, if not shining as brightly as it did years ago.
The film is, at its heart, a caper story. It follows a diamond theft that […]
Dr. No initiated the James Bond film series and, while not the first appearance of the character*, it established many of the standard features that would carry the series for over four decades. That being said, there is much about this production that makes it more in line with the most recent film, Casino […]
The Raven was one of producer/director Roger Corman’s highest budget films and is certainly among his most star-studded. After years of making cheap, but highly profitable, films, Corman was beginning to feel that he could step things up and get some real stars. One of the best fruits of his labors is this […]
Carry on Sergeant is the first in the series of “Carry On” films, but has very little in common with the series as it would come to be known.
Much has been made of the fact that one of the bawdiest series in film history began with this very straight army comedy. Starring William […]
Melody Time is the next-to-the-last of Disney’s “package” films (The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad would end the era). It has a larger number of individual stories than most and, being music-based, it has more in common with Fantasia than the other package films.
First up is “Once Upon a Wintertime”, a short, unmemorable […]
Okay, so I watched The Wild again, hoping that I could find more to enjoy in the film than I did when I first saw it last year. Unfortunately, time and a different envirnment (my living room) have not changed my opinion much. If anything, I liked it even less the second time […]
Well, we hit one of my favorites again. This time, it’s my favorite Woody Allen film: Broadway Danny Rose. As far as I’m concerned it’s the perfect balance between the two sides of Allen’s filmmaking. It is a film steeped in show business, has lots of humor, solid and believable drama, and […]
Incubus is, in many ways, a typical 1960s era pseudo-Bermanesque horror film. It deals with the story of a beautiful succubus* named Kia who tires of gathering souls of the already damned. She longs to capture the soul of a truly good man. Ignoring the warnings of her fellow demons, she pursues […]
The serial Batman and Robin is a mixed bag as far as improvements over its predecessor are concerned. While it sticks closer to the source material (no need for war propoganda in 1949), its plot and characterizations aren’t nearly as strong.
First of all, Batman and Robin shows the dynamic duo (Robert Lowery and Johnny […]
Not long ago, in a review of National Lampoon’s Loaded Weapon 1, I made reference to the fact that the National Lampoon name has lost a lot of the lustre that it had in its glory days. And at no time was that glory more evident and that name more respected than with it’s […]
The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad is the last of Disney’s classic “package” films. It, obviously, features two stories: Ichabod Crane’s from Washington Irving’s The Legend of Sleepy Hollow and Mr. Toad’s from Kenneth Grahame’s The Wind in the Willows. The connection between the two is the stated desire to show one […]
I’ve previously covered 2005’s King Kong and wrote a full review here, but I thought this time around I’d do a kind of contrast and compare, tale of the tape kind of thing alongside the 1998 version of Godzilla. So let’s see how they stand up to each other.
Approach
Godzilla took the more common road […]
S.O.S. Coast Guard is a fairly standard action serial that is saved from total obscurity by a few high profile cast members. But it’s never able to really rise above its basic nature and become something truly memorable.
It tells of Lt. Terry Kent (Ralph Byrd - the same year he would debut as Dick […]
High Anxiety is probably Mel Brooks’ most underrated film. While his true classics (Blazing Saddles, Young Frankenstein) are justly lauded and his missteps (Life Stinks) properly ignored. But I have always felt that High Anxiety is this little gem of a film that doesn’t get a fair shake.
It is a parody of Alfred […]
The Violent Years was the most successful film in Ed Wood’s filmography. It played for years on the exploitation circuit, reaping hundreds of thousands (if not millions) of dollars. Of course, Ed saw none of it because it wasn’t his production. No, The Violent Years was one of dozens of films on […]
Robots, like many other borderline films, does improve with multiple viewings. The problems with the film that I previously mentioned are still in full effect, but a lack of anticipation means that there is no chance of being let down like the first time.
I still can’t help but think that there was more potential […]
Okay, I’ll get this out of the way right now. Cabin Boy is one of the worst “comedies” I have ever endured.
You know, I am terribly forgiving when it comes to material from people I like. And I like Chris Elliot. In the glory days of the old Late Night with David […]
I’m Gonna Git You Sucka is writer/director Keenan Ivory Wayans’ Airplane!-type parody of 1970s “blaxploitation” films.
It tells of soldier Jack Spade (Wayans) who comes home following the death of his brother Junebug. He learns from his mother (Ja’net DuBois) that he died from an “OG” (Over-Gold - basically too many gold chains), leaving behind […]
Flash Gordon adapts the classic Alex Raymond character with a style that is taken right out of the original comic strip. It was started as an answer to the successful Buck Rogers strip that had jump-started the sci-fi comic scene and their fates had always been entwined. Their respective movie serials had even […]
The Great Mouse Detective is a highlight of the “dark days” of Disney Animation - those years between the death of Walt Disney and the renaissance brought about by the production of The Little Mermaid.
It is an adaptation of the Paul Galdone novel Basil of Baker Street and tells the story of Basil, a mouse […]
Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan is the single greatest piece of Star Trek material ever created. I say that without fear of serious contradiction. It does everything that made the original Star Trek television series work and engages in none of the excesses and fanwank that marked later films and series.
And […]
National Lampoon’s Loaded Weapon 1* was released at a time when these kinds of Airplane-inspired comedies were a dime a dozen. The difference here is that, unlike the contemporary Hot Shots! series, Loaded Weapon doesn’t have any of the Airplane crew on board. It tries to mimic that style, but ultimately comes up […]
After a long, strange journey from stage to screen, Evita finally reached theaters in 1996, twenty years after the original concept album was released.
I think things really started going with the selection of director Alan Parker. With a strong background in musical films that are not really musicals (Pink Floyd: The Wall, Birdy, The […]
I have mentioned The Cameraman many times in the past, usually referring to it as the “last great Buster Keaton film”. I have since come to feel that his next film, Spite Marriage is a classic in its own right, but The Cameraman, the first film Keaton made for MGM, remains the last feature […]
Night of the Ghouls is classic Ed Wood. In fact, it suffers from more classic Ed problems than just about any other film. It’s got the usual wacky dialogue, questionable acting by Ed’s usual bunch and Ed’s poor camera skills. It even has that old Ed standby; recycled footage. (In this […]
After the end of the Monty Python TV show, the various members of the troupe went their separate ways, each pursuing different projects (although often with one or more fellow members involved). Graham Chapman was no different, but (perhaps due to his well documented drinking problems) he only ever got one film project to […]
Even before Woody Allen made What’s Up, Tiger Lily? people had been putting new dialogue to old movie footage. (Fractured Flickers, for instance.) The difference here was that Allen re-dubbed and re-edited the entire movie (in this case, the Japanese spy film Kokusai himitsu keisatsu: Kagi no kagi aka Key of Keys) to give […]
Blazing Saddles is Mel Brooks’ boldest film. Not by today’s standards, of course. In an age more defined by American Pie, it’s rather tame. Only it’s liberal use of the “N” word qualifies as being in any way shocking in this day and age.
But back when it was first released, it was […]