Of all the Universal monster movies, The Wolf Man “deserved” a real sequel most. With Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man, Lon Chaney Jr.‘s abilities to essay the Larry Talbot role really shine through. I’ve read (and maybe even repeated here) Chaney never gets credit for playing such a physical role while being a bigger man.
Here […]
Entries Tagged as '★★'
Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man (1943, Roy William Neill)
February 26th, 2010 · No Comments
Tagged: Bela Lugosi· Curt Siodmak· Dwight Frye· Lon Chaney Jr.· Roy William Neill· Universal Pictures· ★★
The Evil Dead (1981, Sam Raimi)
January 20th, 2010 · No Comments
For whatever reason, Sam Raimi now has The Evil Dead released in a matted version (to 1.85:1 from 1.37:1). It looks awful.
Raimi’s strength as a director comes from his constantly agitated camera; his static shots are–well, I guess the shots of the sun setting and the moon rising in Evil Dead are cool–mediocre at best. With […]
Tagged: New Line Cinema· Sam Raimi· ★★
The Towering Inferno (1974, John Guillermin)
January 13th, 2010 · No Comments
For a disaster movie to succeed, I suppose all it really has to do is keep you interested for its running time. The Towering Inferno runs almost three hours and manages that task, so much so, the ending seems a little abrupt . It’s not like the first act breezes by, either. In fact, it […]
Tagged: 20th Century Fox· Dabney Coleman· Faye Dunaway· Frank M. Robinson· John Guillermin· Paul Newman· Richard Martin Stern· Robert Vaughn· Steve McQueen· Stirling Silliphant· Thomas N. Scortia· Warner Bros.· William Holden· ★★
G-Force (2009, Hoyt Yeatman)
September 7th, 2009 · No Comments
I’m not a fan of the popcorn movie argument–it’s the one where people tell you you’re just supposed to enjoy the movie and not think about it–Stephen Sommers uses it in his defense and so does, somewhat more interestingly, Cameron Crowe (I think he called it populist to prove he’d been to college). Except if […]
Tagged: Bill Nighy· Cormac Wibberley· Hoyt Yeatman· Jon Favreau· Marianne Wibberley· Nicolas Cage· Sam Rockwell· Walt Disney Pictures· ★★
Lethal Weapon 2 (1989, Richard Donner)
August 29th, 2009 · No Comments
Lethal Weapon 2 opens with the Looney Tunes music. It’s appropriate. I don’t think any other film series has so successfully adapted the sitcom to the big screen. The whole point of Lethal Weapon 2 is not to think–maybe as a ten year-old, I believed the South Africans could get away with all their crimes […]
Tagged: Danny Glover· Jeffrey Boam· Mel Gibson· Richard Donner· Shane Black· Warner Bros.· Warren Murphy· ★★
The Saint’s Double Trouble (1940, Jack Hively)
March 12th, 2009 · No Comments
George Sanders can do no wrong in The Saint’s Double Trouble, so much so, he has the ability to smooth the film over. He’s such a joy to watch, the critical part of the brain shuts down. Eventually, as the film nears the conclusion, Sanders looses his control, letting judgments percolate to the surface. This […]
Tagged: Bela Lugosi· Ben Holmes· George Sanders· Jack Hively· Leslie Charteris· RKO Radio Pictures· ★★
Home for the Holidays (1972, John Llewellyn Moxey)
February 23rd, 2009 · No Comments
Director Moxey has–there’s no better word for it–a compulsion for zooming. He absolutely loves it. I imagine it saved the time and money needed for additional set-ups–and I think short zooms from character to character were a 1970s TV movie standard–but it looks just terrible. It kills some of the scenes in Home for the […]
Tagged: American Broadcasting Company· Eleanor Parker· John Llewellyn Moxey· Joseph Stefano· Walter Brennan· ★★
