The Prince film canon is an interesting one. Blazing onto the big screen in Purple Rain(1984), Prince immediately channeled the mojo he got from that film into a vanity piece, Under the Cherry Moon (1986), which bombed. Then he put together a concert film (with a bit of a narrative), Sign “O” The Times (1987) [...]
Always loved these movies. I’m aware that there’s some negativity towards II, but I find it to be pleasant, funny and it has less of the off-color material that keeps the original from being truly family friendly. (And with this franchise, I feel that’s the way to go.) There’s no denying, however, that it is [...]
So my nephew was staying with me and he wanted to see Temple of Doom, since it was the only one his father hadn’t bought for the family. Maybe it was watching it with an eleven-year-old or maybe just that it grew a bit on me, I was able to enjoy the bits I [...]
After watching the Mystery Science Theater 3000 episode featuring James Bond parody Operation Double 007, which starred Sean Connery’s brother Neil Connery, I learned of this *other* film that featured Neil in a Bond-like role. Since that time, I have tried to find this movie, finally getting it a few weeks ago. (The timing was [...]
I don’t have a whole lot to say about Star Trek III: The Search for Spock. It has always been my least favorite of the original crew “Star Trek” films. This is mainly because it feels to me like an obligatory film, not one that grew organically.
Wrath of Khan had proved that Star [...]
What’s to be said about Johnny Dangerously? Made in the wake of Michael Keaton’s success in Night Shift and Mr. Mom, it is a big, showy comedy about 1940s gangsters. It tries, soemwhat, to emulate the Airplane!-style of over-the-top comedy, but only partially succeeds. It is resuced by spirited performances from its [...]
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 [...]
The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension is quirky. The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension is odd. The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension is probably the strangest mainstream science fiction movie I’ve ever seen. I love it. But I can certainly understand why [...]
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 [...]
Purple Rain is the film and album that truly put Prince on the map. Oh, he had had success before, particularly with 1999 and the song “Little Red Corvette”. But it was nothing like the full assault that was Purple Rain in the summer of 1984. And it’s easy to see why. [...]
After delving deeply into the Superman mythos last year, I was in the mood to revisit one of the lesser known corners with 1984’s Supergirl. First of all, it has a lot of problems. The story is a bit nonsensical and the character of Lara/Linda/Supergirl isn’t properly fleshed out. (Is she an [...]
I was in the mood for something easy to watch, so I next chose This is Spinal Tap , since I’ve seen it so many times that I don’t need to focus in too hard on it anymore. Tap is an all-time classic, with phrases like “goes to eleven” becoming commonplace in popular culture. [...]
Viewed July 3, 2006
Kate Capshaw’s character, singer Willie Scott, is the perfect example of all that is wrong with Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom: beautiful on the outside, devoid of any value on the inside.
Now, I have read that George Lucas originally intended Indiana Jones to be more of a James Bond type [...]
Viewed June 5, 2006
As I continue my quest to watch all the Pixar work I had not yet seen, I finally watched the proto-Pixar film The Adventures of André and Wally B. It was made by the Lucasfilm Computer Graphics Project on a computer that Cray let them borrow in hopes that Lucasfilm would [...]