Kurt Vonnegut’s quirky sci-fi novels didn’t always adapt well to film, but George Roy Hill’s 1972 effort is a faithful winner. The filmmaking craft used to ‘unstick’ Billy Pilgrim in time is nothing short of brilliant, highlighting the camera talent of Miroslav Ondricek and the editing skill of Dede Allen. The book even has a…
An amazing Blu-ray year is now capped by a genuine favorite, rescued by its filmmaker and set aside for almost twenty years. Wim Wenders was forced to drastically shorten what he hoped would be his greatest success, following Wings of Desire. But he cleverly saved his 4.5-hour uncut version, which is making its Blu-ray debut…
I wrote the pair of articles here in 1998 after seeing the long ‘Die Trilogie’ version of Until the End of the World at the Harmony Gold Preview Theater on Sunset Blvd. in Hollywood. The articles contain plenty of Spoilers, so beware. A new 2019 disc release is reviewed at CineSavant. The Strange Case of…
One of America’s favorite holiday movies plays strangely today, and despite being one of the most popular pictures of its year, really should have disturbed people when it was new as well. Director Leo McCarey and his glowing stars Bing Crosby and Ingrid Bergman do remarkable work, and the show has its heart in the…
This must be an official Bette Davis month… Criterion has two vintage Davis pictures on offer, and TCM is devoted to a roundup of the actress’s work as well. This one qualifies as the all-time champion Women’s Weepie, but one that holds up as a great picture on all levels. Director Irving Rapper guided this…
Michael Cimino could have done worse for his first directing gig — a big Clint Eastwood-Jeff Bridges buddy picture with guaranteed major attention. It’s a simple crime caper for simple audiences, and he pulls it off in style. The Sunday movie supplements celebrated Cimino as a great new talent. His picture still looks handsome and…
Extra-special extras adorn this stunning reissue of a modern sci-fi action classic. Paul Verhoeven’s sledgehammer of graphic-novel brutality and wicked political satire (courtesy of a Michael Miner-Ed Neumeier screenplay that should have won awards) hasn’t diminished one iota. We still feel like we’re being subjected to a shockingly ultra-violent entertainment from the future. Both versions…
One of Vincente Minnelli’s best is this glamorous ‘Hollywood Looks At Hollywood’ exposé of sin and conniving among the actors, directors and producers that make Quality Entertainment for us unglamorous nobodies. It’s overstated and often grossly overacted (Kirk Douglas, front and center!) but still carries a grandiose charm. Lana Turner gets to play an idealized…
Manhattan detective Richard Widmark is up the creek without his .38 special — a maniac killer has stolen it. He’s desperate to get it back, while his personal and professional problems pile up. Henry Fonda, Inger Stevens and Harry Guardino give sterling performances, but the assured direction of Don Siegel is what keeps us on…
Did star James Stewart and director Anthony Mann corner the market on upscale ‘A’ ’50s westerns? This beauty sends Stewart, Ruth Roman and Corrine Calvet on a breezy trek over a Canadian glacier, with Walter Brennan as a folksy, ditsy sidekick — not very original but endearing. John McIntire saves the day as a charmingly…
Oh, have you reached the right page? We know you were looking for the review of Aunt Minerva’s Hymns of Faith in 3-D. We instead have uncovered a blistering, too-too spicy duo of ‘adult movies,’ created for dirty old men in the prehistoric days before humanity was transformed by X-rated porn. The first show may…
Sinister stabbings, women kicked and beaten, perverse hoodlums selling cocaine and murdering street-beat bobbies: what happened to civilized English crime? Cavalcanti’s vicious postwar Brit Noir shocked critics for The Times and was cut to ribbons for American distribution. A disillusioned, bored RAF hero turns to smuggling and skullduggery; this fully restored crime classic gives…
Jacques Tourneur’s ‘big sky’ western gives us the beauty of Colorado mountains plus stunning color images (originally Technicolor) of his attractive cast: Robert Stack, Virginia Mayo, Ruth Roman. North-South antagonisms break out in Denver City, before the Civil War begins, and Robert Stack’s loner opportunist must choose a side. The WAC’s disc includes four Jacques…
Critics compare this sophisticated spy thriller to Carol Reed’s earlier Triumph set in Vienna with Joseph Cotten and Orson Welles — but it’s a different story altogether, not about black-market evil but the perils of moral compromise in a divided Berlin. James Mason and Claire Bloom are stunningly good together, in a moody suspense that’s…
Mean-spirited ‘Bad Movie’ satirists forget that production values aren’t everything, even if the collected works of Barry Mahon and Coleman Francis say otherwise. This threadbare backyard production has ‘endearing’ written all over it. I judge many independent movies to be like picture puzzles with pieces missing, and this one is missing a LOT of them….
‘Mission impossible’ escapism about high-stakes wartime sabotage looks at an authentic, dramatic episode of WW2 — the onslaught of futuristic V-Weapons on London — and then veers into fictional fantasy (think big explosions). George Peppard toughs it out to get free of his MGM contract. Lili Palmer and Barbara Rütting do the heavy lifting, while…
Italian horror from the early 1960s covers a wide range of quality, from eerie hauntings to tacky vampire romps. For one of his first major credits ace giallo scribe Ernesto Gastaldi cooks up Lycanthropus, a murder mystery in which the savage slashing is committed by a drooling maniac with a hairy face, wild eyes and…
Powerhouse Indicator continues its series of exotic attractions from the house of Hammer with four more titles, three of which are front-rank winners. Once again, the company’s extras make all the difference. We’re given alternate versions, censor comparisons, and for one reel, an entire roll of outtakes and stage waits featuring Peter Cushing. Hammer…
Is this movie ground zero for Atom-fear science fiction? The Boulting Brothers assemble the very first movie about a nuclear terror plot, without cutting corners or wimping out. The incredibly dry, civilized André Morell must track down a rogue scientist who threatens to nuke London; the entire city must be evacuated. Barry Jones is the…
The world could come to an end in a lot of ways but 1950s sci-fi was fond of making it end like a One-Act play. Harry Belafonte’s personal project soon drops the spectre of annihilation to cozy up to a statement about race relations. Despite the fact that his co-star Inger Stevens likely had the…
John Sayles’ coal strike epic is grand American filmmaking bolstered by fine Haskell Wexler cinematography, great performances by dedicated actors, and a screenplay that avoids the common pitfalls of liberal filmmaking — by assuming the structure of an action Western. Filmed on a shoestring not far from the site of historical events, the pro- Union…
Brian De Palma’s 1983 saga of hoodlum Tony Montana is an exceptional remake that’s become a classic almost by default — it’s too strikingly original to ignore. De Palma did the Latin male stereotype no favors, while bringing attention to the outrageous drug trafficking aided by law enforcement and criminal banks in a shameful decade…
An old-fashioned monster movie gore-fest that hasn’t dimmed in popularity, John Landis’s slightly twisted telling of a hiking mishap pulled nervous laughter from audiences pre-primed to expect ground-breakingly shocking special effects. Rick Baker delivers the shape-shifting fireworks in a two-minute sequence that goes way beyond easy laughs. The story is thin but the execution slick…
The experts were right when they said that silent filmmaking was developing something unique and beautiful, before talkies came along and spoiled the party with all that noise. This ‘handy three-pack’ of once-obscure Josef von Sternberg classics proves the theory 100% — his intense dramas excite audiences with something that’s gone missing from the movies,…
Don’t run away because we use the word ‘profound’ to describe this 1967 sci-fi classic — some call it the best of the Hammer Quatermass films, this time fully written by Nigel Kneale and acted by a terrific cast — Andrew Kier, James Donald, Barbara Shelley and Julian Glover. A subway excavation uncovers strange human…
Hammer’s key Satanic Mass epic comes to Blu-ray in a terrific improved transfer. Christopher Lee’s pitched battle with Charles Gray’s necromancer Mocata has long been a favorite of fans of symbolist rituals with candles, magic circles, Christian icons, etc. We’re happy to report that after all the monstrous demons and human sacrifices, good prevails through…