People protesting against the movie ‘Silent Night, Deadly Night’ (1984)
Sunday, 30 September 2018
Silent Night, Deadly Night (1984)
People protesting against the movie ‘Silent Night, Deadly Night’ (1984)
Saturday, 29 September 2018
The Tingler (1959)
An obsessed pathologist discovers and captures a parasitic creature that grows when fear grips its host.
Silly and a bit seedy plot is slowly told with some singular effective thrills and a creepy performance by Vincent Price.
Halliwell (no star): "Ridiculous shocker with dull handling but effective moments."
Maltin**1/2: "Preposterous but original shocker..."
The Last Voyage (1960)
After a boiler explosion aboard an aging ocean liner, a man struggles to free his injured wife from the wreckage of their cabin and ensure the safety of their four-year-old daughter as the ship begins to sink.
Old-fashioned disaster movie istold straightforwardly (the catastrophe begins in the first seconds before the credits) and with a solid cast, but the excitement is somewhat limited.
Halliwell*: "Spectacular if dramatically deficient actioner for which a genuine liner (awaiting scrapping) was sunk."
Maltin***: "Engrossing drama..."
Thursday, 27 September 2018
Inside Lehman Brothers (2018)
Ten years after the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers former employees tell their side of the story.
Absorbing and revealing documentary conveys the high-profile criminality of a finance corporation - and how its perpetrators get away with it.
De Flat (1994)
A divorced doctor falls for a copywriter who is a suspect in the murder of two people.
Rather conventional thriller is barely suspenseful, since most of its plot is quite predictable, and the eroticism is added for more exploitative reasons.
Wednesday, 26 September 2018
Tuesday, 25 September 2018
César et Rosalie (1972)
Cesar is in love with Rosalie, but Rosalie isn't making it easy for him, especially when her old flame enters the picture.
A wildly meandering story of a ménage à trois works mostly due to its excellent cast, but its plot is not really that interesting.
Halliwell*: "Wryly amusing comedy for adults."
Maltin***: "Appealing stars in typically French story of a ménage à trois..."
Concussion (2015)
In Pittsburgh, an accomplished pathologist uncovers the truth about brain damage in football players who suffer repeated concussions in the course of normal play.
Professionally made and well cast investigative drama has good intentions revealing a suppressed truth about professional American football, but remains very much in the conventions of this subgenre.
Thursday, 20 September 2018
Crime d'amour (2010)
Ruthless executive Christine brings on Isabelle as her assistant, and she takes delight in toying with the young woman's innocence. But when the protégé's ideas become tempting enough for Christine to pass on as her own, she underestimates Isabelle's ambition and cunning -- and the ground is set for all out war.
Tightly directed with an excellent cast, this is a sharp (and twisted) crime thriller dealing with corporate ambitions and skulduggery and personal revenge.
Maltin***1/2: "Superbly acted and incisively written tale of office politics and the ruthless corporate mind-set turns into a twisty suspense thriller that's all the more chilling because of its coolly detached style."
Eraserhead Stories (2001)
David Lynch discusses the making of the film Eraserhead.
Basically, this David Lynch as talking head telling anecdotes from the making off his first feature, but he's a wonderful storyteller, so it's fascinating and never boring.
Monday, 17 September 2018
Sunday, 16 September 2018
Airplane! (1980)
A man afraid to fly must ensure that a plane lands safely after the pilots become sick.
Deliberately silly spoof of Airport-like catastrophe movies entertains due to a relentless onslaught of hit-and-miss jokes.
Halliwell**: "Arthur Hailey's play Flight Into Danger and the film Zero Hour which was made from it get the zany parody treatment in this popular movie which is often funny but sometimes merely crude. It rang the box-office bell more loudly than most expensive epic of its year."
Maltin***1/2: "Very funny spoof of AIRPORT-type movies...with a nonstop string of gags that holds up almost to the end (why carp?)."
The Most Unknown (2018)
Nine scientists travel to extraordinary parts of the world to uncover the answers to some of humanity's biggest questions.
Unusual, but fascinating documentary which confronts scientists of disciplines from physics to psychology to meet each other and discuss the great unknowns of their fields (and as such the big questions of our existence and our universe); the film does simplified insights in the science, but much more reflects the scientists' enthusiasm.
Friday, 14 September 2018
Because of the Cats (1973)
A gang of wealthy ne'er do wells rape and terrorize women for fun and force their husbands to watch, and a police detective tries to catch them.
Basically a standard crime mystery with a quite construed plot, but interspersed with exploitative elements and with an almost psychedelic and over-the-top end sequence.
Schwarzer Kies (1961)
A West German trucker who illegally sells black gravel reunites with a former lover, now married to an American.
Keen and relentless portayal of postwar Germany panned by critics in its time, but by now is considered a classic and an accurate document of its era.
Thursday, 13 September 2018
Suburbicon (2017)
As a 1950s suburban community self-destructs, a home invasion has sinister consequences for one seemingly normal family.
George Clooney's satire is clearly and successfully exploring Coen Bros territory, this time there's more darkness and dread than humour; the racism subplot, however, seems grafted and has hardly any reasonable connection to the main story.
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