Nightmares and Dreamscapes
October 31, 2006
Stephen King adaptations are traditionally hit or miss affairs. For every superior one like Salem’s Lot (1979) there are many more lackluster ones like Maximum Overdrive (1986). And so each new King adaptation is approached with a certain amount of...
The Ninth Gate
October 31, 2006
Critical and commercial reaction to Roman Polanski’s films has always been mixed at best. To say that they are an acquired taste is an understatement. The Ninth Gate (1999) is no exception. Despite what the film’s misleading trailer promoted at the...
The Office: Season 2
October 30, 2006
It came as something of a pleasant surprise that The Office didn’t completely suck in comparison to its infinitely superior British counterpart. It came as an even greater surprise that the show developed enough of a following that it survived to a...
Hands Over the City
October 27, 2006
Edoardo Nottola (Steiger) is an ambitious land developer who wants to build up a promising, rough piece of real estate in Francesco Rosi’s hard-hitting expose of corruption, Hands Over the City (1963). From the opening establishing shot, Rosi presents...
Once in a Lifetime
October 26, 2006
In the 1970s, the New York Cosmos succeeded in bringing a significant amount of attention to soccer in the United States. Once in a Lifetime: The Extraordinary Story of the New York Cosmos features narration by Matt Dillon with interviews with many of...
The Omen
October 24, 2006
The Omen (2006) is the latest in a long line of 1970s horror films that did not need to be remade but is anyway by an unimaginative major Hollywood studio with a contemporary spin. Priests in the Vatican arrange a powwow with the Pope to inform him that...
Reds: 25th Anniversary Edition
October 23, 2006
The 1970s saw the rise in prominence of the director in Hollywood and this resulted in many movies being pushed through the system that wouldn’t normally have been made. However, by the time of the Heaven’s Gate (1980) debacle, the rule of the director...
Fat Man and Little Boy
October 21, 2006
Released in 1989, Fat Man and Little Boy was a fictionalized account of The Manhattan Project, a top-secret military mission that created the first atomic bomb. The film was considered a costly commercial failure and critics weren’t too crazy about...
Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels: Locked ‘N Loaded Director’s Cut
October 20, 2006
Guy Ritchie burst on the scene with Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels (1998) as England’s answer to Quentin Tarantino, only funnier. Like his American counterpart, Ritchie took movie characters and put everyday conversations into their mouths with...
Loverboy
October 18, 2006
Kevin Bacon continues to diversify an already fascinating career with his directorial debut, Loverboy (2005), adapted from Victoria Redel’s novel of the same name. Emily (Sedgwick) is a fiercely independent woman who isn’t looking for a husband but...
