[5] Lex Barker takes over the loincloth from Johnny Weissmuller, who was simply getting too old and heavy to continue swinging on vines. Unfortunately, what Barker has in looks, he lacks in charisma. The story in this Lost Horizon-esque episode involves a woman (Evelyn Ankers) who crashed in the jungle thirty years ago and happened upon a tribe possessing a literal fountain of youth. When …
[6] A secret civilization is dying of a mysterious disease, so they start kidnapping women to repopulate! Lex Barker swings into action in his second outing as Tarzan, determined to rescue Jane (Vanessa Brown) and a lustful, headstrong nurse (Denise Darcel) from the kidnappers. Cheeta the Chimp’s antics are thankfully kept to a minimum (though he does get drunk in a scene) and Darcel’s performance …
[5] Lex Barker’s third outing in the loincloth has him caught up with gunrunners, warring tribes, and even a man-eating jungle plant. The script is more scatter-shot than usual, but Barker seems more comfortable in the role than before, playing Tarzan as less brutish and more talkative (though still a stranger to most pronouns and articles). Virginia Huston makes a terrible Jane — you don’t …
[5] Tarzan is tricked into guiding smugglers to a village of dangerous natives who guard a secret stash of diamonds in Tarzan’s Savage Fury. Lex Barker’s penultimate swing in the loincloth is the first to dabble with the Greystoke lineage and the second to feature Boy (Tommy Carlton), though this incarnation of Boy is not a blood relative to Tarzan or Jane (Dorothy Hart). I …
[8] J.J. Abrams hands the reigns to director Justin Lin (director of several Fast and Furious movies), working from a script co-written by Scotty (Simon Pegg). The result? A damn solid entry in the Star Trek franchise, possibly the best of the three newest films. The plot involves your standard new bad guy (Idris Elba) trying to get his hands on a big, nasty weapon …
[8] It’s so refreshing to watch heroes and villains who are over the age of 40. Skyfall repeatedly suggests that sometimes older is better, and I couldn’t agree more. Daniel Craig’s third turn as James Bond is at least as good as his first, Casino Royale. Javier Bardem makes an excellent villain and we also get to enjoy Judi Dench in a full co-starring role …
[6] There’s no director I admire more than Peter Weir (Fearless, Mosquito Coast), even if his latest film left me a tad underwhelmed. The Way Back is about a group of men who escape a Russian labor camp during WWII and risk their lives through thousands of miles of wilderness to find their freedom in neighboring Mongolia. The cast includes Ed Harris and Colin Farrell, …
[6] Marlon Brando plays Fletcher Christian and Trevor Howard takes on the mantle of the sadistic Captain Bligh in this remake from director Lewis Milestone (All Quiet on the Western Front). The bloated run time (three hours) doesn’t help the movie, and neither does a scarcity of closeups in the super-70mm framing. You never get into the minds of the leading characters and Brando is …
[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] Lex Barker ends his five-film tenure as Tarzan with a bit of a whimper in Tarzan and the She-Devil. The plot focuses around ivory poachers, lead by Raymond Burr and icy-cool Monique van Vooren, who enslave a peaceful native tribe to do all their grunt work. This installment had the potential for the greatest emotional impact, with Tarzan’s tree-top home burnt to the ground …
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