The Blair Witch Project has the bizarre distinction of being the first horror film ever to give me nightmares before having seen it. The nightmares will probably continue for awhile, even though Blair Witch is not, contrary to the reports I’ve heard, the scariest movie ever made. Not even close. The conceit of The Blair […]
Blazing Saddles isn’t the funniest Mel Brooks movie (that’d be The Producers), but it’s by far the least politically correct. Oddly, by venturing into new realms of racist humor, Brooks finds comedy gold, because he’s mocking a genre (the western) that’s chock full of racist content. And Brooks realizes, as do we during the screening
Yes, August is upon us and with it comes the second appearance of the twice-yearly dumping ground for Hollywood. Like the February doldrums, August brings us films filled with fading stars and awful storylines that weren’t deemed good enough to break even after a big summer marketing campaign, nor will they be able to go
Blind Shaft shows you the literal underbelly of China. Set in and around shabby little coal mines in the middle of nowhere, it’s a shocking and totally gripping tale of murder and flimflammery that will keep you guessing all the way through. Tang (Wang Shuangbao) and Song (Li Yixiang) are two itinerant workers who wander
A documentary’s potency is usually measured on two levels: the ability to convey information, and its power at swaying you emotionally. When a filmmaker accomplishes both, they truly have something precious to share with others, but striving to do one or the other well can also be acceptable provided you still feel different walking out
Clint Eastwood is back to lay down the law and settle a new score. This time, his pursuit of justice has a new wrinkle (or many, I suppose) his age. In Blood Work, his aging lawman portrayal is highly convincing, but by the end of the film this fascinating character study looses all credibility at
The year is 1984. Reagan is looking forward to four more years as president. Orwell’s book by the same name is at the top of the popularity bell curve. The Olympic games are held in Los Angeles and two unknown guys named Joel and Ethan Coen decide to team up and write a movie script.
In the famed cocaine drama Scarface, I remember a lot of gun battles and bowl after bowl of cocaine spilled on the table. I do not remember heartfelt talks with dad, a cancer-stricken girlfriend, and a child custody battle. Yet such is the world of Blow, the most wildly anticipated drug thriller since, well, last
The mid to late-‘60s were a heady time for art cinemas in America. While Hollywood was still saddled with content restrictions that forbade nudity, sex, and other bankable cinematic ingredients, less puritanical cultures like those of France, Italy, and Sweden were turning out highbrow features that played to the id and the intellect at the
At 104 minutes, Blue Crush puts the “endless” in the popular surf phrase “endless summer.” It certainly feels longer than any movie derived from a magazine article deserves to be (in this case, it’s author Susan Orlean’s 1998 Women’s Outdoor magazine piece “Surf Girls of Maui”). But the bloated undertaking especially disappoints because Crush positively
