1981

[7] Sam Neill and Isabelle Adjani star in this disturbing horror film from writer/director Andrzej Zulawski. Adjani’s character asks Neill’s for a divorce, but when Neill refuses to let her go, both of them descend into madness. Possession is part psychological thriller, part dark fantasy, eventually introducing threatening doppelgangers and a weird octopus monster that scores with Adjani. If you ask me what Possession means, …

[7] John Cassavetes (Rosemary’s Baby, Love Streams) stars in this odd horror film about a boy whose recurring nightmare seems to coincide with a string of rapes and murders in a small New England town. Cassavetes plays a doctor who discovers vast quantities of unusual sperm in many of the victims. While many authorities believe it to be the result of rape gang, Cassavetes teams …

[7] Katharine Hepburn had never acted with Henry Fonda before, and Fonda had never acted with his daughter Jane. On Golden Pond united the three screen legends for their first and only film together. Hepburn and the elder Fonda play an old couple vacationing at a rustic lake cabin. Fonda has had heart problems and is preoccupied with his own mortality, while Hepburn enjoys picking …

[4] A sorcerer’s apprentice confronts a fire-breathing dragon that likes to eat virgins. If only Dragonslayer were as exciting as it sounds. Peter MacNicol (Sophie’s Choice, Ghostbusters II) plays the apprentice with all the charisma and screen presence of driftwood, not that writer/director Matthew Robbins (Corvette Summer, The Legend of Billie Jean) gives him much to work with. He’s easily upstaged by a couple of …

[7] Willem Dafoe made his big-screen debut in this meditative homage to The Wild Ones from writer/directors Kathryn Bigelow (The Hurt Locker, Near Dark) and Monty Montgomery. Dafoe plays a greaser who lays over in rural Georgia to wait for the other members of his motorcycle gang to catch up with him on their way to a Daytona racing competition. But a busted chain lays …

[6] The body count continues at Camp Crystal Lake, as a new batch of teenaged camp counselors gather at a neighboring campsite and learn about the legend of Jason Voorhees — the little boy who drowned in the lake when counselors were too busy having sex to notice him. We know right away, courtesy of killer point-of-view shots, that someone’s watching and planning to kill. …

[7] Director Jean-Jacques Annaud (The Bear, The Name of the Rose) takes us on a prehistoric adventure about three cave-dwelling early humans who embark on a search for fire after an attack by animalistic Neanderthals extinguishes the flame their tribe maintained for generations. Along the way, the three men encounter cannibals, sabre-tooth tigers, and wooly mammoths. They also meet a woman from another tribe who …

[4] Ten years before he picked up Julia Roberts in Pretty Woman, Richard Gere played a ho himself in American Gigolo. As a male ‘chauffeur’, Gere’s plenty pretty to look at, aided by an array of Armani suits and moody cinematography by John Bailey. He even gives us a sustained full-frontal shot. But the fantasy fulfillment element of American Gigolo quickly dissolves into a tedious, …

[7] A filthy rich, alcoholic man-boy is threatened with disinheritance if he doesn’t immediately marry a well-to-do woman his family has approved for him. Trouble is, the flyboy suddenly finds himself infatuated with a lower-class shoplifter. Will true love triumph over the all-mighty dollar? Arthur, written and directed by Steve Gordon, is a welcome, class-oriented throwback to screwball comedies of the ’30s and ’40s. It’s …

[6] Lily Tomlin stars in this gender-bent retelling of Richard Matheson’s short story. Tomlin plays Pat Kramer, who after being exposed to a combination of myriad household chemicals, begins to physically shrink. As she becomes a reluctant worldwide celebrity and her family tries to adjust to her ever-changing size, an evil corporation plans to kidnap her and use her ailment as a weapon of warfare. …

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