Check Out the Trailer

Representing the archetypical 1970s disaster film, THE POSEIDON ADVENTURE starts poorly, but makes up for it with just enough thrills to make it a good entertainment.

With a large all-star cast, the beginning peeks into the lives of the characters. Rev. Frank Scott (Gene Hackman, HOOSIERS) is a rebellious preacher on his way to Africa. He believes that God doesn’t want us to play the victim, but be the hero in our lives. Det. Lt. Mike Rogo (Ernest Borgnine, MARTY) is a loud-mouthed cop, who is married the younger and beautiful former prostitute Linda (Stella Stevens, THE BALLAD OF CABLE HOGUE). James Martin (Red Buttons, THE LONGEST DAY) is a lonely health nut, who befriends the scared singer Nonnie Parry (Carol Lynley, THE CAT AND THE CANARY). Acres (Roddy McDowall, PLANET OF THE APES) is a waiter, who works on the ship and serves as the survivor guide through the levels of the ship. Belle Rosen (Shelley Winters, LOLITA) is an over-weight woman, who panics easily and is married to the caring Manny (Jack Albertson, WILLY WONKA AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY). Susan Shelby (Pamela Sue Martin, TV’s DYNASTY) is a pretty teen, who is taking care of her intelligent, but pushy, little brother Robin (Eric Shea, 1968’s YOURS, MINE AND OURS). Capt. Harrison (Leslie Nielsen, NAKED GUN) is the stoic head of the ship, who tries desperately to save the vessel when the giant wave comes racing toward them.

Read the rest of this entry »

Check Out the Trailer

This film is the oddest title on Robert Altman’s resume. Based on the legendary comic strip character created by E.C. Segar, this musical has an oft-kilter feel that’s hard to put a finger on.

First and foremost, the casting is perfect. Robin Williams (HOOK) is wonderful as the muttering sailor man, who is looking for his long-lost Pappy (Ray Walston, TV’s MY FAVORITE MARTIAN). He arrives in Sweethaven, a seaside town built on a hillside, which is a magnificent feat in production design. Bluto (Paul L. Smith, MIDNIGHT EXPRESS) is a bully who runs the town for the never-seen commander. His Taxman (Donald Moffat, CLEAR AND PRESENT DANGER) wonders the streets collecting taxes for every move anyone makes. Bluto is engaged to the ditzy and clumsy Olive Oyl (Shelley Duvall, THE SHINING), but she doesn’t seem to want to marry the large Bluto, running out on their engagement party.

Read the rest of this entry »

Going in I was expecting a shlock-fest, but I should have known better with Joe Dante (GREMLINS) as the director and John Sayles (MATEWAN, LONE STAR) as the writer. Honestly, the film is a Roger Corman JAWS rip-off, but it’s a good one.

Paul Grogan (Bradford Dillman, THE SWARM) lives in a cabin and drinks most of the day, pinning over the break-up of his marriage. Maggie McKeown (Heather Menzies, SSSSSSS) is a young detective, who is looking for a young couple that has disappeared into the woods. She ropes Paul into helping her look for the kids at an old seemingly abandoned military outpost deep in the woods. There they unknowingly release mutated piranha into the river, which leads to a summer camp and new lake resort.

Read the rest of this entry »

Watch the Film

Coming out in the same year as screen classics like THE GOLD RUSH and BATTLESHIP POTEMKIN, PHANTOM OF THE OPERA doesn’t match the quality of those films, because it’s not trying to be those films. What the film succeeds in doing is taking a fairly simple story with thin-characters and lifting the material to another level with iconic imagery and action. The film isn’t about emotional subtlety, but grand notions. You could say it’s one of the first truly great popcorn flicks.

Much of its success lies in the hands of Lon Chaney (LAUGH, CLOWN, LAUGH) as the Phantom. Having done his own make-up, Chaney creates one of the greatest character design feats in cinema history. Because the face of the Phantom has become an icon of pop culture, the lead up to the big reveal is not nearly as shocking as it was in 1925, however we still anticipate it with eagerness. The filmmakers (created director is Rupert Julian, uncredited directors have included Ernst Laemmle, Edward Sedgwick and even Chaney) knew exactly how to play that moment. They even filmed it with flare, having the camera go out of focus like its scared of the Phantom’s hideousness and to enhance the skull-like look of the creature.

Read the rest of this entry »

Arthur Penn is best known for his revolutionary BONNIE & CLYDE. NIGHT MOVES is a thriller/neo-noir that finds a way to use the actions of a genre to embody its main character.

Gene Hackman (THE CONVERSATION) plays former pro-football player turned private eye Harry Moseby. The character has an internal need to figure everything and everyone in his life out. However, for as much as he wants to believe he is in control of his investigation, the mystery is playing itself out around him with or without his involvement.

Read the rest of this entry »

Check Out the Trailer

I love W.C. Fields, so I had to see this film. It’s really not a W.C. Fields film, but more of a Mae West flick though.

West (SHE DONE HIM WRONG) plays Flower Belle Lee, a hussy in the Old West who gets kicked out of town for romancing a masked bandit. She is unable to return to respectable society until she marries. On the train out of town, she meets Cuthbert J. Twillie (Fields, THE BANK DICK), who she thinks is loaded, but is really a conman. She goes through a sham marriage with him and when they arrive in the next town he ends up being made sheriff. While in town, Flower Belle is courted by the shady bar owner Jeff Badger (Joseph Calleia, GILDA) and his rival — the town’s newspaper owner Wayne Carter (Dick Foran, TV’s LASSIE).

Read the rest of this entry »

Check Out the Trailer

This Cannes Film Festival winner and Oscar nominee is a quiet, observant film about the good and bad of Christianity. Set in 18th Century South America, Jesuit priests aim to convert the Guaraní Indians to Christ. As the startling opening sequence displays, not all approaches were successful.

Father Gabriel (Jeremy Irons, REVERSAL OF FORTUNE) succeeds with a peaceful approach, spurred by love and respect of the Guaraní, whose very existence is threatened by the war raging between the Spanish and the Portuguese. Rodrigo Mendoza (Robert DeNiro, GOODFELLAS) is a mercenary, who kills and enslaves the Guaraní. Then a tragedy makes Mendoza rethink his ways and repent for his sins by serving the people he once murdered. The Guaraní had an advanced culture before the Jesuits arrived, but the beautiful missions served as their protection — for it kept them safe from the rule of the warring European powers.

Read the rest of this entry »

Check Out the Trailer

This British film from master filmmakers Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger was released in the U.K. under the title A MATTER OF LIFE AND DEATH and in the U.S. as STAIRWAY TO HEAVEN. The British title is far better for it holds various meanings.

Squadron Leader Peter D. Carter (David Niven, THE PINK PANTHER) is about to bail out of his burning plane, however he doesn’t have a parachute. He puts out a distress call so that his fellow pilots can be picked up where they parachuted out. He reaches an American girl named June (Kim Hunter, PLANET OF THE APES), who is taken by the way Peter handles himself. Peter’s friend Flying Officer Bob Trubshawe (Robert Coote, THE GHOST AND MRS. MUIR) waits for him in heaven, however he never arrives. Conductor 71 (Marius Goring, THE RED SHOES), an angel assigned to pick up Peter, missed Peter in the damn English fog.

Read the rest of this entry »

This true-life tale follows the friendship of playwright Lillian Hellman (Jane Fonda, KLUTE) and her politically active friend Julia (Vanessa Redgrave, A MAN FOR ALL SEASONS).

The two were very close as young girls, but began to grow apart after college. At the start, Hellman is struggling to become a writer, living with her lover and fellow writer Dashiell Hammett (Jason Robards, MAGNOLIA). For a good portion of the film, we watch as Hellman struggles to become famous and how she reacts to celebrity when it comes. Meanwhile, Julia is actively engaged in the resistance going on in Germany against the new Nazi leadership.

Read the rest of this entry »

Check Out the Trailer

One of the classic sci-fi films of the 1950s, INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS is the perfect product of its times. Miles J. Bennell (Kevin McCarthy, THE HOWLING) is a recently divorced doctor in a small California town. His old flame Becky Driscoll (Dana Wynter, 1970s AIRPORT) has moved back in with her father after getting a divorce as well. She comes to see him about her cousin Wilma (Virginia Christine, 1964’s THE KILLERS), who believes that her uncle isn’t really her uncle despite the fact that he looks and sounds just like him.

This starts the building strangeness going on in the town, leading up to an urgent call from Bennell’s friends Jack and Teddy Belicec (King Donovan, THE DEFIANT ONES, & Carolyn Jones, TV’s ADDAMS FAMILY). They found a body — it’s the size of Jack, but without any physical definition like fingerprints. As we all know by know, the town is being taken over by alien replicants birthed from giant seedpods.

Read the rest of this entry »