I put Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull at the same disadvantage I give most sequels; I watched its illustrious (and not so illustrious) predecessors. I always watch the Indy films now in chronological order starting with Temple of Doom. (This has the advantage of getting the bad one out […]
So I got a free pass to see a preview of the new film Forgetting Sarah Marshall and I went mostly because of my long-standing policy never to refuse a free movie, but partly because of my fandom of co-star Mila Kunis, the only reason I ever tuned in to That 70’s Show. What […]
Carry on Nurse is the first entry in the “Carry On” series that really establishes what the future installment would be like. Although Carry On Sergeant laid done several of the ground rules (group of disparate characters thrown together, etc.), the cheekiness and generally bawdy air that permeates the series begins here.
The story is […]
Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home was, box-office-wise, the apex of the Star Trek film franchise (although The Motion Picture sold more tickets). It’s amazing to think that this is the only Trek film to have grossed more than $100M at the box office. This is particularly notable today, when just having […]
The Sword in the Stone is the last Disney Animated Feature to be released during Walt’s lifetime. Although The Jungle Book would still have a strong influence from Disney, he did not see it to completion (no doubt adding to the causes of the four year interim between the films, the longest since […]
Hold that Co-ed must have seemed at the time to be an innocuous little comedy about a Governor, Gabby Harrigan (John Barrymore), and his attempts to win a seat in the U.S. Senate. He does this, in typical 1930’s style, by buying the electorate. In this case, he uses the power of his […]
It’s always a crap shoot when you go to see a free preview, so I had no expectations when I went to see Hot Rod. I suppose that was to it’s benefit. Expecting nothing, I was pleasantly surprised to find a pretty well crafted film that provided a higher than expected level of […]
Jabberwocky was Terry Gilliams’s first solo outing as a director, following his collaboration with Terry Jones on Monty Python and the Holy Grail. Filming from a script he co-wrote with Charles Alverson, Gilliam spins a rather personal tale around the “nonsense poem” by Lewis Carroll.
The story revolves around Dennis Cooper (Michael Palin), and apprentice…cooper […]
Having watched the previous Superman cinematic outings one at a time, I decided to watch the entirety of Christopher Reeve’s output in the character in one go. Including both versions of the second film, this runs to five: Superman, Superman II, Superman II: The Richard Donner Cut, Superman III and Superman IV: The Quest […]
For Ratatouille, I present my first (and possibly last) one of those “podcasts” the kids are always talking about these days. Apologies for the sometime wonky audio and the fact that I had a sore throat the day we recorded.
Sometimes I want to curse the Wayans Brothers. Not that I have anything against their two “Scary Movie” films. The first is really good and the second is at least decent. Even the subsequent installments by Airplane! veteran David Zucker have their charm. But with their scattershot style of comedy, they […]
Night at the Museum was a surprise hit late in 2006. Many had marked the box office race as completely settled, when out of the blue, Museum had not only a strong opening, but incredible legs. It’s always a question whether phenomenon like this deserve such success, but in this case, it certainly […]
I get a lot of flack from certain quarters for my fandom of the Fantastic Four film series (on display in my review of the first film). Perhaps I’m more forgiving because I love the original comics so much. But whatever the reason, I also really enjoyed the sequel, Fantastic Four: Rise of […]
Idiocracy is Mike Judge’s long-awaited followup to his cult hit film Office Space. And while, expectedly, it does not live up to the level of quality of that earlier film and there are many problems with the film as found, there are still some nice touches that make it worth watching at least once. […]
The Aristocrats is a documentary by director Paul Provenza and executive producer Penn Jillette that tells the history of one of the dirtiest jokes ever told. It does this by having well-known (and sometimes not so well known) comedians tell the joke. Again and again and again and again.
To those with a low […]
Chicken Run marked the feature film debut for Aardman Studios, the animation house best known for the Wallace and Gromit shorts. It tells of a group of chickens desperate to escape the farm on which they live. Their attempts always fail, but the erstwhile leader, Ginger (Julie Sawalha) perseveres. When a hotshot […]
Run Ronnie Run is a film spun-off from the HBO comedy series Mr. Showstarring David Cross and Bob Odenkirk. On that show, there was a sketch about one Ronnie Dobbs, a redneck loser who became famous for being captured on COPS-like television shows. Run Ronnie Run is essentially an expanded version of that […]
Casino Royale is the bastard step-child of the James Bond franchise. When Ian Fleming sold the rights to the first Bond novel, leading to its use on the TV show Climax! (where Barry Nelson was the first actor to portray the famous spy), he couldn’t have guessed that this would be one of the […]
As I stated in my original review, Mulan is a strong entry from Disney animation at a time when they were really blowing hot and cold. The story still has a lot of the formulaic problems that marked Disney films of the day, but it is at least executed very well, with good songs, […]
Brenda Starr carries a 1989 release date, but it was really produced a couple of years earlier. Legal troubles kept it from release, otherwise it might have been seen as a precursor to the “comic book” revival begun in ‘89 by Batman, instead of as just another attempt to cash in on a fad. […]
National Lampoon’s Van Wilder attempts to recapture some of National Lampoon’s past glory by returning to college and trying to define an era in much the same way Animal House did. While it never reaches the inspired levels of that earlier film (and all to often goes into that unfortunate land we call “gross-out […]
The original, 1968 version of Mel Brook’s The Producers and its 2005 remake naturally have a lot in common. But there are almost as many differences. As I mentioned in my original review, the biggest change is the expansion of the storyline to include a love story for Leo.
These changes alter the dynamic […]
Robin Hood is considered by many to be a weak point in the Disney Animated Feature canon, but I’ve always had a bit of a soft spot for it. Watching it again after all these years I can agree that it doesn’t measure up, but not, perhaps, for the same reasons others feel that […]
Spite Marriage is Buster Keaton’s second film for MGM and his final silent feature. He had, in fact, wanted to make this film as a talkie (he was very enthusiastic about sound), but was overridden by studio honchos. This film marks the true transition for Keaton, as the studio began taking full control […]
Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius is the theatrical debut of the popular character better known for his Nickelodeon television series. It established the basic premise and characters, essentially making it like a longer episode of the show. (It was, in fact, produced as a way of forming a fanbase for the later show.)
We meet […]
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 […]
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, […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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, […]
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, […]
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 […]
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 […]
Quoting my over five-year-old review from amazon.com:
The thing about this adaptation of Li’l Abner is that it manages to capture the light-hearted feel of the strip at the time. Unencumbered by any political or social leanings (in either direction) it gives a sense of Al Capp at his finest. When Li’l Abner and the citizens […]
What can I say about Monty Python and the Holy Grail that hasn’t already been said? Having exhausted the possibilities of television, the Mony Python troupe made the move to the big screen with this 1975 retelling of the story of King Arthur and his knights.
Now, as some of you may recall, I […]
Showing how important he had already become, Jiminy Cricket returns to act as presenter (and sings a great new song, “I’m a Happy-Go-Lucky Fellow”) for the two stories in Disney’s 1947 “package” release Fun and Fancy Free. Jiminy is wandering about again (as he was at the beginning of Pinocchio) and comes upon a […]
Andrew “Dice” Clay doesn’t get the respect he desrves. He gets the scorn he deserves, but not the respect. Sure, he chose to play to the cruder aspects of comedy, but you can’t do that as successfully as he did without some ability. Before hitting it big as the “Diceman”, he had […]
Modesty Blaise as high-camp musical comedy? If you’ve ever read a Modety Blaise novel*, you’ll understand why fans of the comic and novel series thoroughly dislike this film. It flies in the face of the generally serious tone of Peter O’Donnell’s creation. And, yes, I usually back the side of purity when […]
Just Friends, like Waiting, is a film I bought primarily on the strength of its star, Ryan Reynolds. Thankfully, this one turned out a lot better.
It’s a romantic comedy with a twist, as they say. Reynolds plays Chris Brander, who as a young man was overweight and carried a torch for his best […]
The Great Lover is a pretty good outing for Bob Hope. It never really rises to the level of what I’d call a classic, but its a good time, with plenty to offer.
The first thing that struck me when I watched this film was the opening scene: a quiet, little parlor-room scene of two […]
I really like Dirty Work. Your ability to enjoy the film is directly linked to your tolerance level and enjoyment of Norm MacDonald’s comedy, as he pretty much shoehorns in every running gag he’s ever done (except, for some reason, the Germans). Just about everything else is here in abundance: “note to self”, […]
When I previously reviewed Chicken Little last year, I covered many of the shortcomings in this 2005 Disney CGI animated film. It lacks cohesion, gets way too caught up in pop culture jokes and has far too much music for its own good.
But, as often happens, it has grown on me since then and […]
Don’t Drink the Water is a film based on Woody Allen’s Bro