[3] Cocktail is everything awful about calculated ’80s studio film making. It’s as if Touchstone Pictures said, ‘Hey, we have Tom Cruise and a killer soundtrack — quick! Someone write a script!” And that script (based on a book by the screenwriter) throws in everything and the kitchen sink in a desperate attempt to recapture the success of Dirty Dancing, Top Gun, and An Officer …
[2] The short review: WTF? The longer review: From the first opening frame, you know right away this is a cheap, watered down, bargain basement Superman movie. (Thank you, Golan-Globus Productions!) But even if you can overlook the astonishingly awful visual effects, the movie will still disappoint you in other more substantial ways. For starters, the dialogue is pointed, the relationship between Clark and Lois …
[7] Two lovers are bewitched by a jealous Bishop — the man (Rutger Hauer) is transformed into a wolf by night, the woman (Michelle Pfeiffer) is a hawk by day. They only see each other in human form for a fleeting second at sunrise and sunset. With the help of a pick-pocket (Matthew Broderick) and a drunken friar (Leo McKern), they journey to the Bishop’s …
[6] Paul Newman stars as an alcoholic ambulance chaser who tries to redeem his career with a high profile medical malpractice case. Directed by Sidney Lumet from a script adapted by David Mamet, The Verdict is a solid combination of character study and courtroom drama. Good supporting performances from James Mason, Lindsay Crouse, and Charlotte Rampling. One thing I especially liked about the film is …
[8] Spike Lee explores racism from multiple angles in Do the Right Thing, a provocative but entertaining ‘day in the life’ flick set in a Brooklyn community on the hottest day of the summer. Films that deal with racism tend to be either maudlin or one-sided, so I was glad to see Lee present the issue as the complicated one that it is. Scenes between …
[8] After impulsively wishing her baby brother away, a teenaged girl must brave a dangerous labyrinth and rescue the tot from a nefarious Goblin King in Labyrinth, the product of a bizarre but winning combination of creative talents. Director Jim Henson reunites with Dark Crystal conceptual designer Brian Froud for a comic fantasy adventure scripted by Monty Python’s Terry Jones. The movie is further energized …
[4] At a government facility where psychics can enter people’s dreams, a wave of deadly nightmares begins claiming lives. Once the President of the United States is affected, two psychics square off — one wanting to save the president, and one wanting to continue his killing spree. Despite a worthy cast that includes Dennis Quaid, Max von Sydow, and Christopher Plummer, Dreamscape never hits its …
[6] Prior to Tron, computer animation appeared in a scene here and there, in films like Star Wars and The Black Hole, but Tron marked the first extensive use of it. So it’s something of a cinematic milestone, the great-grandfather of modern CGI fests like Avatar. Tron looks and sounds like no other movie with its austere digitally-rendered landscapes, the characters in glowing tights, and …
[9] It’s hard to believe we once lived in a time when superhero movies didn’t monopolize the multiplexes. Such a time was the summer of 1989, when Warner Brothers’ very first big-screen version of Batman was due to be released. Many declared the film a folly. Indeed, a superhero film hadn’t been successful since Superman II nearly ten years earlier and most of the world …
[10] This superb dark comedy blows apart any precious John Hughes-like notions of high school life. Winona Ryder stars as Veronica, a high school girl caught in an elitist bitch-clique with three other young women (including Beverly Hills 90210 star Shannen Doherty) — all named Heather. But when the dangerous and alluring JD (Christian Slater) rides into town, Veronica falls under his spell as the …
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