Naked Lunch (1991)
[3] I want to be nice to this movie because so many of my friends adore it. But I've pondered this review for over a month and can't put it off any longer. I don't like this movie. Like, at…
The Loved Ones (2009)
[8] Half-way through The Loved Ones, I was hating it all over. The fact that it won me back impresses the shit out of me. It's an Australian horror flick about a hapless teenager struggling with survivor's guilt (Xavier Samuel)…
To Be or Not To Be (1983)
[7] Mel Brooks and Anne Bancroft star as leaders of a Polish theater troop forced to entertain the Nazis while simultaneously plotting their escape to Allied territory. You might think the material is too heavy for a comedy, but To…
Birth (2004)
[6] Nicole Kidman stars as a recently widowed woman who meets a young boy claiming to be her husband reincarnated. Jonathan Glazer (Sexy Beast) directs from a script he co-wrote, keeping the true nature of the piece shrouded in mystery…
Scrooged (1988)
[5] I thought I'd get a lot more from a dark comedy directed by Richard Donner (Superman, Lethal Weapon) and starring Bill Murray, but Scrooged is neither dark nor funny enough to leave much of a lasting impression. Murray plays…
Gremlins 2: The New Batch (1990)
[7]
Gizmo the cute Mogwai is back, and he gets wet again — this time in a New York City skyscraper run by a Donald Trump-like billionaire. Billy Peltzer and Kate Beringer (returning stars Zach Galligan and Phoebe Cates) both work there and re-team with their furry companion just in time to do battle with another army of nasty gremlins. This sequel to the 1984 original is more a madcap comedy than a horror movie, with none of the fable quality or dark atmosphere of the first film. The script is meager enough to allow for large blocks of gremlins shenanigans that overwhelm the movie. This is good if you like monster mayhem, bad if you like a little more in your creature features. While the animatronics and special effects are far superior to those in the first film, director Joe Dante (The Howling, Explorers) indulges in a display of technological prowess that spirals into a busily boring mess before things are over.
Tarzan the Ape Man (1932)
[6]
Call me a sucker for an Olympic swimmer in a loincloth, but I enjoy Johnny Weissmuller’s maiden swing through the jungle. This first feature in the long running matinee series is the one where Tarzan meets Jane (Maureen O’Sullivan), whose on expedition with her father to find a fabled elephant graveyard. He kidnaps her, but then she saves him from her angry father, he learns a little English (“Me Tarzan, you Jane”), and the two fall in love. Hey, if it can happen that fast for the J-Lo, it can happen that fast for the Lord of the Apes.
Eyes Wide Shut (1999)
[7]
In the final film from Stanley Kubrick, a socialite couple (Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman) get in over their heads when they decide to follow their adulterous impulses. This movie gets a bad rep, but I think it’s primarily because the casting of two superstars led to more commercial audience expectations. It’s a more intimate portrait than that, and beautifully made. I really love the weed-smoking scene, especially for the sinister undertone in Kidman’s performance. She outshines Cruise in this movie. Thematically, I enjoyed the exploration of infidelity — men’s, women’s, real, imagined. I find it interesting that the female character needs her husband to acknowledge her desires, while he seems uncomfortable acknowledging his own. (Ironic casting of Cruise? I think so.) And of course, it’s also fun to see the posh, clandestine orgy scene of Kubrick’s dreams (with the full-frontal shots restored to the most recent DVD and blu-ray releases).
Woman of the Year (1942)
[6] Katharine Hepburn plays a journalist who bad-mouths sports in her widely-read column. Spencer Tracy plays a sportswriter who publishes a rebuttal. The two continue sparring publicly until they meet in person... and start to fall in love. Now don't…
Sophie’s Choice (1982)
[8] Meryl Streep snared the best actress Oscar for her disarming performance as a Polish refugee forced by a Nazi soldier into one of the cruelest scenarios a mother could imagine -- choosing which of her two children will die.…