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Tremors (1990, Ron Underwood)
When I first rediscovered Tremors, around 1995, it was on laserdisc. In the 1990s, Universal was one of the finest laserdisc companies, probably the finest. They put out a special edition of Tremors...
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Tremors (1990, Ron Underwood)
Tremors is a unique film. Even with the derivative setting–the isolated desert town reminds of 1950s Universal sci-fi pictures–and whole “Jaws with giant worms” aspect, it’s a monster slash thriller...
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Frost/Nixon (2008, Ron Howard)
Once upon a time (in Hollywood), there was a bald director (who always wore a cap) who first got famous on television as an actor, then as a director of comedies, who then started making excellent...
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X-Men: First Class (2011, Matthew Vaughn)
When the best thing in a 132-minute movie is a thirty-second cameo… it’s not a good sign. X-Men: First Class is self-important dreck. The four credited screenwriters do a bad job with everything except...
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Hollow Man (2000, Paul Verhoeven), the director’s cut
Is Hollow Man the last of the “for CGs’ sake” blockbuster attempts? In the nineties, post-Jurassic Park Hollywood assumed doing genre standards over with CG would get big grosses. Hollow Man feels like...
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Apollo 13 (1995, Ron Howard)
While Tom Hanks, Bill Paxton and Kevin Bacon’s characters are the only ones in danger in Apollo 13, they remain calm for almost the entire runtime. There’s no point to panicking, something Hanks points...
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Planes, Trains & Automobiles (1987, John Hughes)
Planes, Trains & Automobiles is probably most impressive technically. The narrative is problematic but not a bad narrative, it’s just a problematic one. Director Hughes can’t decide if he wants...
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Diner (1982, Barry Levinson)
I’ve probably seen Diner ten times but I still don’t know where to start with it. Barry Levinson sets the present action between Christmas and New Year’s, so one probably could sit down and chart out...
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Footloose (1984, Herbert Ross)
Footloose isn’t so much awful as dumb and obvious. Some of it is awful–the scene where Kevin Bacon, fed up with the small town getting him down, just has to go to an abandoned mill and dance it...
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Friday the 13th (1980, Sean S. Cunningham), the uncut version
There’s nothing wonderfully terrible about Friday the 13th. It’s not like any of the cast are bad in funny ways, not even Betsy Palmer who’s doing inept histrionics. Are any of the cast members good?...
View ArticleClik here to view.
X-Men: First Class (2011, Matthew Vaughn)
When the best thing in a 132-minute movie is a thirty-second cameo… it’s not a good sign. X-Men: First Class is self-important dreck. The four credited screenwriters do a bad job with everything except...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Hollow Man (2000, Paul Verhoeven), the director’s cut
Is Hollow Man the last of the “for CGs’ sake” blockbuster attempts? In the nineties, post-Jurassic Park Hollywood assumed doing genre standards over with CG would get big grosses. Hollow Man feels like...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Apollo 13 (1995, Ron Howard)
While Tom Hanks, Bill Paxton and Kevin Bacon’s characters are the only ones in danger in Apollo 13, they remain calm for almost the entire runtime. There’s no point to panicking, something Hanks points...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Planes, Trains & Automobiles (1987, John Hughes)
Planes, Trains & Automobiles is probably most impressive technically. The narrative is problematic but not a bad narrative, it’s just a problematic one. Director Hughes can’t decide if he wants...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Diner (1982, Barry Levinson)
I’ve probably seen Diner ten times but I still don’t know where to start with it. Barry Levinson sets the present action between Christmas and New Year’s, so one probably could sit down and chart out...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Friday the 13th (1980, Sean S. Cunningham), the uncut version
There’s nothing wonderfully terrible about Friday the 13th. It’s not like any of the cast are bad in funny ways, not even Betsy Palmer who’s doing inept histrionics. Are any of the cast members good?...
View ArticleClik here to view.
JFK (1991, Oliver Stone)
JFK is a protracted experience. It runs over three hours, it has no real narrative structure–the film opens with the Kennedy assassination and an introduction to the principal characters (and some of...
View ArticleFrasier (1993) s02e09 – Adventures in Paradise (2)
I wonder how this episode would play in one sitting. Even just marathoning it (as opposed to cutting out the recap at the beginning of this second part, which Kelsey Grammer performs quite well)....
View ArticleMystic River (2003, Clint Eastwood)
Mystic River is at all times a very American tragedy. Eastwood approaches it as such, both as director and composer (it’s Aaron Copland levels of romanticized, you eventually just have to go with it...
View ArticleFlatliners (1990, Joel Schumacher)
I spent much of Flatliners’s first half trying to figure out if there was anything technically redeeming about Jan de Bont’s photography. While it’s easy to qualify certain failings—with Schumacher’s...
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