[5] Sophia Loren stars in the final film from director Vittorio de Sica, about an Italian woman despondently searching for her soldier husband (Marcello Mastroianni) in the fallout of World War II. Unable to learn from the government whether he’s even dead or alive, she sets out to the battlefront once the war is over. And what can I say without giving away the second …
[4] In one of Disney Animation’s weaker efforts, a jealous butler seeks to do away with a mother cat and her three kittens before their owner can bequeath her fortunes to the furry little bastards. I can’t blame him, really. The cats are annoying, snobby little characters with sticks so far up their asses, they are incapable of exuding much charm or engendering much sympathy. …
[5] George C. Scott’s charisma is the best thing Patton has going for it. The film is a pastiche of the famous (and infamous) army general’s career through World War II, including his successful invasion of Sicily, media blunders resulting in military reprimand, and his eventual aid in the fall of the Third Reich. The film initially paints Patton as a hard-ass who gets the …
[3] Two Los Angeles couples partake in a seance, not realizing their medium, Count Yorga, is a vampire with intentions of adding the women to his harem. One of the couples, Paul and Erica, take the vampire home and have no memory of what happened afterwards. But when Paul finds Erica chowing down on the family kitten the next day, he’s pretty sure something is …
[6] This first Planet of the Apes sequel is a mixed bag, but the second half wins me over. The first half of the movie is an uninspired retread of the first film, with James Franciscus replacing Charlton Heston as the main character. I like Franciscus. He manages to convey bewilderment and horror without overacting the way Heston does. The movie starts to distinguish itself …
[7] John Wayne worked pretty much right up until the end of his life, and even in that last decade there are gems to be found. Chisum stars Wayne as the title character, John Chisum, a New Mexico cattle baron who ends up in a battle with a greedy tycoon named Lawrence Murphy (Forrest Tucker). As Murphy buys up all the local business in town …
[4] How’s this for an ensemble? Clint Eastwood, Telly Savalas, Don Rickles, Carroll O’Connor, Gavin MacLeod, and Donald Sutherland. If you can’t imagine how that would work, neither can anyone else whose seen this movie. Kelly’s Heroes tries to be both a ‘guys on a mission’ adventure movie and a satirical comedy. It should have committed to the former and given up on its M.A.S.H.-like …
[5] Dean Stockwell and Sandra Dee headline this so-so adaptation of an H.P. Lovecraft story. I gotta say, I’ve yet to see a Lovecraft adaptation I really like. The internalized dread and abstract horror just don’t translate to film very well. Anyway, Stockwell plays an agent of the Old Ones here, Lovecraft’s big squid Gods from another dimension. He’s trying to get his hands on …
[6] A witch casts a spell on a nasty lord’s family after he slaughters several members of her coven. Cry of the Banshee then becomes a “ten little indians” scenario as the witch’s otherworldly servant of evil dispatches of the lord and his family. Vincent Price headlines as the wicked patriarch and Elisabeth Bergner plays Oona the witch. No one really gets a chance to …
[3] There are a couple of Mel Brooks movies that I kinda like, at least a little bit, but for the most part, I don’t get them. The Twelve Chairs is no different. Frank Langella, Ron Moody, and Dom DeLuise are all running around trying to find a chair that has treasure sewn into its cushion. I didn’t care about the chair or its treasure, …
Copyright © 2024 | Theme by MH Themes