Schirmer Cinema – A Century of Cinema: Reviews by Scott Schirmer

One Million Years B.C. (1966)

[3] Britain's Hammer Films spent over four times their normal budget to produce this goofy prehistoric drama about a caveman (John Richardson) and a cavewoman (Raquel Welch) from different tribes who partner up and brave the wild together, battling various…

June 23, 2026

Make Mine Music (1946)

[4] If musical animated shorts had to audition to be part of Disney's Fantasia, then Make Mine Music is a compilation of the rejects. Without an overarching narrative to connect these shorts in any way, the film hinges on the…

June 23, 2026

The Lady Gambles (1949)

[5] Barbara Stanwyck catches the gambling bug something fierce in this melodramatic film co-starring Robert Preston as her worried husband. Stanwyck dips her toes in a Las Vegas casino during a vacation and quickly falls under the spell of craps…

June 21, 2026

Big Trouble in Little China (1986)

[6] Kurt Russell stars as a cocky truck driver who gets embroiled in a mystical adventure beneath San Francisco's Chinatown in this cartoonish action-comedy from director John Carpenter (Starman, The Thing). When the fiancée of a friend (Dennis Dun) is…

June 21, 2026

The Blair Witch Project (1999)

[8] While it wasn't technically the first 'found footage' horror film, The Blair Witch Project gets credit for popularizing the subgenre, capturing the attention of audiences worldwide with its cogent, documentary-style approach to its subject matter. The film appears to…

June 21, 2026

Xanadu (1980)

[6] Singing sensation Olivia Newton-John (Grease) headlines this surreal musical as a supernatural muse who brings a young painter (Michael Beck) and a retired musician (Gene Kelly) together so they can build an extravagant dance club called -- you guessed…

June 20, 2026

Beautiful Girls (1996)

[8] Timothy Hutton (Ordinary People) heads up an ensemble cast in this warm and funny comedy/drama from director Ted Demme (The Ref) and screenwriter Scott Rosenberg (Venom, Disturbing Behavior). Hutton's a Chicago piano-player returning to his small, blue-collar hometown for…

June 19, 2026

James Bond

Hammer Films

Disney Animation