Close Encounters of the Third Kind film review
Around a quarter century ago, a nerdy little kid fresh off the success of some shark movie decided he wanted to turn his focus to little green men. And somehow he turned out one of those rare films that imprints itself into the cultural psyche so far as to be able to be referenced by ….
The Corpse Bride film review
Year: 2005 Directed by Tim Burton and Mike Johnson Musical Score by Danny Elfman Screenplay by John August and Pamela Johnson With his second attempt in the feature-length animation genre, “The Corpse Bride” is another visually stunning film from Tim Burton. The story revolves around Victor (voiced by Johnny Depp), a young man who is about to ….
Creature From the Black Lagoon film review
Affectionate amphibians, river cruises down the Amazon, femme fatales in one-piece bathing suits: it must be the 50s B-flick. The 50s B-flick in question is Creature from the Black Lagoon, a movie that you probably know better from the pinball machine inspired by it. Said pinball machine is very popular as a novelty item, and ….
Dawn of the Dead film review
When there’s no room in Hell, the dead walk to the mall. That was the message of horror master George Romero’s 1978 anti-consumerism flick Dawn of the Dead. This 2004 remake by first-time director Zack Snyder takes away a lot of the social message, and fills it instead with plenty of head-blasting zombie-killing mayhem and ….
Dial M for Murder film review
M stands for murder and also for mindfuck in this, one of Hitchcock’s best films. Based on a stage play by Frederick Knott (whose credits also include another great thriller, Wait Until Dark), Dial M For Murder includes one of the most intricate plots of any murder mystery as well as maximum amounts of Hitchcock’s ….
Die Another Day film review
Here we go again. The James Bond franchise – Hollywood’s thinnest excuse to stage elaborate set pieces, photograph scantily-clad women and decimate fleets of sexy cars – returns for its twentieth installment, the fourth with current star Pierce Brosnan. Surprisingly, the all-too-familiar formula continues to wring out passable intrigue. Die Another Day contains everything we ….
The Doors film review
I figure most of us thought The Doors was plenty of movie at 138 minutes. Little did we realize that one of Oliver Stone’s least favorably received movies would call for a two-disc DVD set with 43 minutes of deleted scenes, numerous documentary extras, and a feature length commentary track from Stone. And yet here ….
Dressed to Kill film review
Angie Dickenson isn’t the one that’s dressed to kill – she’s dressed to get killed. When she gets butchered by a razor-wielding mystery woman in an elevator, it’s up to a cop (Dennis Franz) and her shrink (Michael Caine) to figure out who offed the nymphomaniacal Angie. Oh, and Angie’s son teams up with the ….
Ed Wood film review
If you go into this biopic expecting lots of laughs, you may be disappointed. The film’s premise is the joke — that the hapless director Ed Wood, Jr., the most inept figure in the history of the creative arts, would be the subject of a hagiography. Keeping this disclaimer in mind, Ed Wood is a ….
The Empire Strikes Back film review
Twenty years will make you forget how good a movie was. I was excited to see the rerelease of The Empire Strikes Back, but I had forgotten about how masterful the film is realized, and I had especially forgotten what it looked like on the big screen. Empire, newly restored by George Lucas and his ….
Enemy of the State film review
It was a disappointing day on many levels. First I show up to the theater and pay $2.75 for a single slice of pizza. I take it into the theater and didn’t see the Star Wars: The Phantom Menace preview that I wanted to see. After that, I watch the disappointing movie Enemy of the ….
The Final Cut film review
Is it possible for a film to have too many ideas? Anything’s possible, of course, in the realm of science fiction. By exploring an unspecified futuristic society, writer/director Omar Naim raises disturbing sci-fi conundrums in the wildly original The Final Cut. Unfortunately, he leaves the bulk of his more pressing issues in the shadows and ….
The Forgotten film review
Wrap your brain around this one. It has been 14 months since grieving mother Telly Paretta (Julianne Moore) lost her son, Sam, in a plane crash that took the lives of 10 other children. She’s been seeing a psychiatrist (Gary Sinise) on a regular basis, and the shrink has helped her cope with her sadness ….
Frida film review
Year: 2002 The Life of Mexican Painter Frida Khalo Selma Hayek turns in an unforgettable performance as the Mexican bisexual feminist/painter plagued throughout her life by poor health and unrequited love. In concert with Frida’s paintings, director Julie Taymor conceives her life as a sensuous collage, with Frida forever adrift, driven in her quest for ….
Friday Night Lights film review
When the lights come on at the 20,000-seat Ratliff Stadium, the city of Odessa, Texas shuts down. Streets are deserted and stores close early so that everyone can crowd onto the sparse campus of Permian High School to cheer on their Panthers. In this small, barren town, Friday night football is bigger than life. Based ….