Reviews

We wait for an hour and half to finally see the snowmen and all we get is glimpse of the eyes! And it's a great payoff to boot! A wonderfully layered script capped off with great performances, this little gem overcomes the typical low budgets of British sci-fi during the time; in fact a large budget may have ruined this film. A thinking person's movie, not for those with short attention spans or low IQ's.

Two great performaces: Karloff's subtle satanist and Lugosi's OTT sadist! Add to the mix some great macabre set designs, wonderful dialouge and great paceing and you a classic old fashioned horror peice, the kind that must have inspired Tim Burton!

Imagine if this film were done today. The effects would all be cg-includeing the stunts. There would most likely be some toilet humor injected into the shenannigans of Professor Fate and instead of period music we would get a rap peice or two.

Blake Edwards wisely dedicated the film to two great comedians and stuck to the period with great flavor. While it is a bit labored in some spots, there is much to reccomenmend: The pie fight, the bar room brawl and the sword fight (with a great payoff for the late Ross Martin)all make nice set peices; Professor Fate's daredevil attempts to one-up The Great Leslie and the wonderfull chemistry between Jack Lemmon and Peter Falk.

At the end of Rear Window, the killer has confessed and Jimmy Stewart now has two broken legs- a penalty for his voyeurism, despite his good deed of bringing a criminal to justice.

What Hitchcock has crafted is a masterpeice of suspense, acting, writeing, photography and set design. But what lingers most is not Raymond Burr's murderer, Grace Kelly's beauty or Thelma Ritter's one liners. Hitchcock exposes in us our dark voyeuristic nature, and this is what always freightened me the most about this classic.

I just saw this film for the very first time-on the big screen during a summer film festival. And I consider myself to be very fortunate.

A true testiment to Chaplin's genius, there are many set peices such as the opening statue dedication and the boxing match that one cannot describe; you just have to view it. And the story is a brillaint mixture of comedy and pathos all wrapped up in the final, touching and haunting scene.

From the has-to-be-seen-to-be-believed school. A giant bird from space descends on earth, snatching up entire trains, hot rodding teenagers, and overacting bit players. Toss in terrible effects, hammy acting and science of the Ed Wood school and you have a surefire winner for any bad film fest. Then there is the bird itself, which comes complete with flareing nostrils.......

Basically British variation on The Day Earth Stood Still, which Neal also starred in. It tries to overcome it's low budget limitations but just falls short of the mark. A for effort; C for execution. British sci-fi would take off the following year with the arrival of Professor Bernard Quatermass.

All of the elments of the first Quatermass film are repeated here: Great cast, story and direction that transcends the films low budget. We see another side of Quatermass when he cowardly abandons a female aide after being captured, thus adding more depth to the character and there are some great shocks here: Broadhead emerging from the tank after having into the 'alien food' and the fate of the workers after the good Professor and his cohorts realize how the ventilation has been cut off!

Donlevy scores again as Quatermass and most noteable here are Tom Chatto as the doomed Broadhead; James Longden's Inspector Lomax; and Sid James as Jimmy Hall, a reporter who "when he's drunk he's good. Sober, he's brilliant!" Guest scores again with his direction working with Kneal's nicely layered script. I wouldn't recommend this for anyone with a short attention span; it is a film that steadily builds to a tense climax and the brief wordless denoument says more then you'r typical Hollywood happy ending that seems to be the norm nowadays.

A great adaption of the first Quatermass serial dealing with the uncertainties of the new scientific age (in this case, the post-war 50's), here seen from the British point of view. Brian Donlevy was obvioulsy cast to bolster overseas sales but his portrayal ranks among his best; a man dedicated to scientific exploration, stern, sometimes forcefull to the point of being arrogant but also sympathetic. This is countered by Richard Wordsworth's excellent portrayal as the doomed astronaut. Add to the mix fine turns by Jack Warner, Margia Dean and a young Lionel Jeffries (did he ever have hair?). But is Val Guest's direction that wraps it all up. Guest uses the film's low budget to his advantage allowing certain revealtions to come without overdone musical interruptions and as is the case with a good British film, what is implied is much more effective than what is shown. And I've always loved the ending: The monster has been dispatched and Qautermass walks past a crowd of military, police and press people all demanding anwears; straight to his faithful assistant and says: "I need you Mike. To begin again." Cut to the final shot of another rocket lifting off- admist a flurry of new questions, yet no answers.

I've always thought Robert Redfords' Gatsby was a little wooden, but I could deal with it, because Mia Farrows Daisy was not. My opinion of Coppolas' adaptation has been dramatically elevated after "watching" A&E's snooze-fest last night. The acting was tepid, even by performers whom I usually like very much. (Paul Rudd, Mira Sorvino, Martin Donovan - although he never seems to change much). The flash-backs were un-needed, and at times insufferable. . (I don't need to actually see Gatsby & Daisy "doing it" to get the idea they were once linked.) And the pacing was an even keeled blur, building all the tension of watching spaghetti cook. And I have a big problem with the Gatsby who would build an empire to win over Mira Sorvinos drab Daisy Buchanan. No wonder Tom sought his pleasure elsewhere. I will too, in Coppolas tense and watchable piece of art.

An terrorist nuclear strike on a Russian target leads to a limited nuclear exchange between the superpowers while a gravely injured President attempts to stop both sides before going all out. Top notch production values capped off by excellent performances. "Welcome to Tomorrow."

When I first saw this in theatres I was under the impression that you could do a good space opera with a mega budget. How wrong I was! Here is a film that manages to overcome it's budget limitations with good writing, direction, performances, music and art direction. Part of the fun is looking over the cast and credits and seeing where they have gone since, another facet of the Roger Corman legacy.

Sellers at his most subdued, and Sellers at his best. A film whose subtlety speaks volumes about politics and our televised society. Sellers went on to make an awful Fu Manchu spoof before his death; I prefer to think of this as his last piece. A classic.

A high tech funfest that pays tribute to old fashioned gangster films, comic books and Chester Gould's immortal creation without going overboard like the last two Batman films. A little something for everyone can be found here for students of film technique, fans of old films and musicals and even the kids will enjoy it.

This was one the first of the many Star Wars knockoffs and it does borrow certain key elements (the bad guys operate from a mobile planet which blows up real good at the climax, the spoiled rich girl rides around in a ship that is basically a rectangular version of The Millineum Falcon). Okay, so the effects and art direction are a throwback to the sixties, but it does have some original ideas-the heroes are a motly bunch; all seeking redemption for their wasted lives-, Kinji Fukusaku keeps it belting along at good pace, and once Sonny Chiba starts beating up on the bad guys in the final, there is just no stopping him!

Fields in top form as Harold Bissonette (pronounced Bee-so-nay), a henpecked New Jersey grocer with dreams of relocateing his family to a California orange grove. Naturally he encounters numerous obstacles along the way from Baby Leroy to an insurance salesman looking for Carl LaFong. The result is 63 minutes of classic comedy, with a great cast, direction and enough memorable oneliners to fill a webpage!