[8] The Coen Brothers broke onto the film scene with this claustrophobic mystery/thriller featuring Frances McDormand, John Getz, and Dan Hedaya in a murderous love triangle. M. Emmet Walsh complicates matters for all of them as a hitman for hire. The concept is simple, but mined for every ounce it’s worth — just how hard is it to kill someone? Everything you love about the …
[6] This Dino DeLaurentiis production of the infamous tale of mutiny welcomes more shades of gray into the characters of Captain Bligh and Fletcher Christian than the 1935 original film, though I wouldn’t say it’s a better film overall. Bligh and Christian are portrayed by Anthony Hopkins and Mel Gibson, respectively. Bligh is a more complicated and sympathetic character; Christian is a more blindly passionate …
[5] In the first film, Mick Dundee (Paul Hogan) was a fish out of water in New York. This time around, the action is transported largely to the Australian Outback, with Linda Kozlowski’s character being more of the fish. Unfortunately, this sequel is short on laughs and anti-climactic, but Hogan and Kozlowski are charming enough to make it worth a gander for those who enjoyed …
[8] As unnecessary sequels go, The Fly II is far, far better than it has any right to be. I think the fact that Shawshank Redemption director Frank Darabont co-wrote the screenplay has something to do with it. The film is more of a standard monster movie than Cronenberg’s 1986 version, especially after the mid-point, where director Chris Walas (who won an Oscar for effects …
[7] Mel Gibson returns as the iconic Mad Max, joined by Tina Turner in a fun, villainous role. But the third film in the series is also the weakest, first signaled by the PG-13 rating, a ridiculous attempt to make a hard-edged action franchise more family-friendly. The script splits the story into two distinct parts that then converge on each other in the third act. …
[6] A sexually infatuated twelve-year-old boy does what his teddy bear tells him to, which includes feeding the locals to a pack of monsters who dwell in a pit in the woods. I don’t know what the teddy bear and the pit monsters have to do with one another, but the first half of The Pit is remarkable in its depiction of a nascent psychopath. …
[6] The ‘alternate universe’ aspect of Lovecraftian horror is something I don’t think I’ll ever appreciate, but if that’s your bag, Stuart Gordon’s From Beyond might float your fancy. I like the psycho-sexual stuff going on, especially when everyone’s pineal glands are unknowingly stimulated, causing Barbara Crampton to don a dominatrix outfit and straddle an unconscious man. I’d like the movie to have been more …
[8] Brian DePalma serves up a twisty Hitchcockian thriller about a female slasher hunting a prostitute who witnessed her last murder. Michael Caine stars as the shrink who tries to help the call girl, who’s played by Nancy Allen (Mrs DePalma at the time). But it’s Angie Dickinson who delivers the film’s most memorable performance as a married woman who nervously initiates a one-night stand. …
[6] When a WWII vet returns home to find his true love in the arms of another man, the town scores a legendary double-murder. Thirty-five years later, the town decides to throw the same dance… and the killer decides to pay a return visit. It may not be as famous as Jason or Michael’s outings, but The Prowler is a quintessential slasher film nonetheless. Tom …
[7] Formulaic romantic comedies don’t usually fly with me, but when you place a genuine, sincere element into the formula, an element like Paul Hogan, it sometimes doesn’t matter how old the story is. And I have to credit Hogan and his fellow screenwriters for writing a central love relationship that doesn’t belabor itself. The characters don’t have to talk a lot for us to …
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