[6] On a continental flight from Los Angeles to Chicago, everyone who ate the fish dinner becomes gravely ill, including the entire cockpit crew. It’s up to a traumatized war pilot (Robert Hays) and a bumbling ground team (including Robert Stack, Lloyd Bridges) to bring the imperiled flight to a safe landing. That’s the scenario behind this goofy comedy from writer/directors Jim Abrahams, David Zucker, …
[7] Sissy Spacek took home the Best Actress Oscar for her portrayal of Loretta Lynn in this dramatization of the country singer’s rags to riches story. Tommy Lee Jones co-stars as her husband ‘Mooney’, who encouraged her to pick up the guitar, sing, and produce records. Their relationship, warts and all, is the heart of the film. It’s tested through poverty, young marriage, several children, …
[4] Five teams of Los Angeles college students compete in an all-night, city-wide scavenger hunt in this comedy from writer/directors Michael Nankin and David Wechter. Midnight Madness isn’t a laugh riot, nor is it anywhere as puerile or naughty as you might expect with a college comedy. There’s no nudity, no foul language, no sex… It’s an odd duck of a movie, closer in tone …
[6] Writer/director Colin Higgins (Harold & Maude, The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas) serves up an office space comedy starring national treasures Jane Fonda, Lily Tomlin, and Dolly Parton as three women who enact revenge on their sexist, egotistical boss (Dabney Coleman). The script works best in the early stages, when the women bond over their mutual misery. High points include their pot-smoking chill session …
[7] Robert Forster (Jackie Brown, The Black Hole) stars as a police detective in this better-than-average monster movie about a giant alligator that terrorizes the Chicago suburbs. Screenwriter John Sayles (Passion Fish, Lone Star) probably deserves most of the credit, giving Forster and co-stars just enough character and backstory to elevate them above the two-dimensional pawns you usually find in these flicks. He also makes …
[7] Producer/director Sean S. Cunningham admits Friday the 13th was a post-Halloween cash grab, but slasher fans decided there was plenty of room in the world for more than one killer franchise. All Cunningham needed was a great title that lent itself to recurring significance, and a compelling core piece of mythology — that a little boy drowned at Camp Crystal Lake when the teenaged …
[5] A masked killer stalks four teenagers at the prom, six years after they accidentally killed a fellow classmate. Prom Night is part of the slasher boom of the late ’70s and early ’80s. Jamie Lee Curtis stars as the sister of the killed classmate. Leslie Nielsen also appears as her father. Neither of their talents are put to especially good use here, though. The …
[8] George C. Scott stars in this creepy ghost story about a grieving widower who moves into a historic mansion where a young child was murdered over seventy years ago. As the child’s spirit communicates with Scott’s character, he’s able to begin an investigation into who the child was and why they were killed. Only then will the haunting cease! The Changeling is one of …
[8] Paul Verhoeven (Soldier of Orange, RoboCop) brings his devil-may-care attitude toward sex and morality to this slice-of-life story about three young Dutch boys who dream of escaping their restrained provincial lives by winning motor cross competitions. One of the boys, Rien (Hans van Tongeren), has a real chance of unseating the current champion (Rutger Hauer), while Eef (Toon Agterberg) struggles with his sexual identity in dark ways, and …
[7] The Apple is a glorious abomination of cinema that must be seen to be believed. Catherine Mary Stewart (The Last Starfighter, Night of the Comet) and George Gilmour star as singing lovers who are torn apart when an evil record label drives a wedge between them. Through religious allegory, disco, lavish song numbers, sex, and camp, the two are finally reunited at a hippie …
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