The Notorious Bettie Page tells the story of the rise to fame of the well-loved pinup girl. It follows her as she leaves her home and hooks up with a successful publisher of “educational” and “specialty” photographs, eventually becoming one of the most famous “non-famous” people in the country. (Bettie may not have […]
Hollywoodland takes a fictionalized look at the events surrounding the death of George Reeves, best known for his iconic portrayal of the Man of Steel on The Adventures of Superman.
It accomplishes this by introducing a fictional detective, Louis Simo (Adrien Brody), hired by Reeves’ mother to look into the actor’s death. As he investigates, […]
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 […]
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 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 […]
When the musical A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum crossed the Atlantic, the lead role of Pseudolus (originated by Zero Mostel) went to British comedian Frankie Howerd. After re-fashioning the role to fit his cheeky sense of humor, it was a huge success for him. In 1969, in an […]
There are three main events that launched the Beatles into the world-wide sensations that they were in the 1960s. First, was their arrival in America. The shock of their unparalleled reception made all of America aware of them. Next, their appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show let the country (and eventually the […]
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 […]
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 […]
I found Troy to be a great movie from a lot of different angles. It is beautifully shot. The performances were much better than I expected, and I was particularly impressed with how the filmmakers had a healthy disrespect for the story as it previously existed, and instead told the story they wanted […]
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. […]
Viewed December 12, 2006
The Road to El Dorado is another one of those films I have no excuse for not having seen. After all, I’ve owned the soundtrack since it came out, since the songs are performed by Elton John with lyrics by Tim Rice (of whom I’m a big fan). In fact, […]
Viewed December 7, 2006
King Arthur ’s subtitle is “The Untold True Story That Inspired The Legend”. By taking that stand, the film claims to portray the truth. And yet it gets an awful lot wrong. You can divide the wrongness into three distinct areas: failure against the Arthurian Myth (the least important), […]
Viewed November 29, 2006
It’s All True began as a project by Orson Welles back in 1942. He was sent to Brazil as part of the US’s “good neighbor” policy (which also resulted in films like Disney’s The Three Caballeros) to make what was thought to essentially be a high-end travelouge. But they sent […]
Viewed October 20, 2006
In 1872, a ship called the Mary Celeste was found adrift off the coast of Portugal. The ship was completely abandoned and no trace of the crew was ever found. It was one of the great mysteries of the day and continues to spark the imagination and interest of authors […]
Viewed August 9, 2006
Shattered Glass tells the true story of Stephen Glass, an up-and-coming young journalist at The New Republic who was found in 1998 to have fabricated facts, quotes and even people in many (if not most) of his articles.
Glass is played by Hayden Christensen (best known as Anakin Skywalker in Episodes II & […]
Viewed July 29, 2006
Pony Express Days tells the tale of the brief lifespan of the Pony Express. George Reeves plays Bill Cody and much of the focus of the short is on his desire to ride for the Express. Things come to a head when secession talk in California leads to a desperate […]
Viewed June 19, 2006
Okay, I pretty much watched Blackball (or “National Lampoon’s Blackball”, as the DVD states) because Vince Vaughn was in it. While I wasn’t that impressed with the last vaughn film that I saw, Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story (2004), he’s usually rock solid. I fully expected this to be little […]
Viewed June 15, 2006
It’s hard to say what I made of The Sports Pages. Ostensibly, it is an anthology of sports-related stories. (If the intro by James Brown is any indication, they meant to make more.) The two stories presented here couldn’t be more different in their content and their attitude.
The first […]
Viewed April 17, 2006
The Ripper is an interesting take on the Jack the Ripper story that follows on Inspector Jim Hansen (played by Patrick Bergin) as he tries to track down the killer, while being drawn to one of his potential victims, Florry (played by Gabrielle Anwar).
The focus is not on discovering who the killer […]
Viewed March 29, 2006
F’n genius.
I can’t think of a better way to describe Adaptation, undoubtedly the best film I’ve seen this year.
It begins with the premise. Adaptation ostensibly tells the story of screenwriter Charlie Kaufman’s attempt to write a screenplay adapting Susan Orlean’s book The Orchid Thief. As the film unfolds, we see […]
Viewed January 31, 2006
Now Withnail & I is a film that I have been aware of for quite some time. Both my sister and her husband (hi guys!) have been trying to get me to watch it for years. But my interest was not really piqued until I found out that it starred […]
Viewed January 18, 2006
The tale of Sweeney Todd, the barber who killed his customers and baked them into pies, dates back to the 1800s, when stories began to appear in various publications. He caught the attention of the public and would have still been a popular figure at the time it was first […]