Movieline Online

THE FLICK: It’s hard to make a case for the Harry Potter films being underappreciated. I mean, after all, they’ve topped a billion dollars in box-office revenue around the world. That’s a whole lotta appreciation, by anyone’s standard. Still, from a critical perspective I’ve always had the feeling that the Potter films were lost in the flotsam and jetsam of summer and holiday release schedules. They received overwhelmingly positive notices, but never earned respect as lasting cinematic achievements, which I’ve no doubt they will be judged 20 or 30 years hence. Case in point, the fourth adventure of J.K. Rowling’s boy wizard, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, furthers the evolution of a film franchise that’s remarkable for both its consistency and innovation. Harry is growing up, and he’s dragging the series with him. Director Mike Newell has to deal with teenage hormones in addition to the usual parade of visual effects, in a story that has Potter and his pals facing not only the ve...

THE FLICK: John Ford had as much hand in shaping American culture as he did reflecting it through the lens of a camera. His films captured the idealized community spirit of a burgeoning country and projected it into cinematic history so successfully that it’s Ford’s vision of events we recall most clearly. His accuracy might be questionable, but his intentions were always honorable; a description which fits his first exercise in Americana, Young Mr. Lincoln starring Henry Fonda, to a tee. Rather than deliver a staid version of Lincoln’s latter-day accomplishments set against a suitably patriotic backdrop, Ford chooses to follow Abe as a struggling lawyer, a man of the people with a gift for language and a well-timed joke. Indeed, Lincoln may be the ultimate American in Ford’s lexicon, a man of words and action, who’s as comfortable with his fists as he is with the law. No other figure in the director’s films, not Ethan Edwards in The Searchers, not Ransom Stoddard in The Man Who Shot L...

THE FLICK: Fans far more obsessive than me could likely put Atragon in some sort of historical perspective. Classic Japanese sci-fi and kaiju eiga in particular, inspire that sort of in-depth research. But you can probably figure out if the film is of interest to you just by perusing these simple facts: it’s directed by Ishiro Honda, produced near the height of Toho’s creative power (1963), and features a rare appearance by Manda. If you thought “Honda,” “Toho” and “Manda” were foreign car manufacturers stealing American jobs, then move on to the next review. For the rest of us, Atragon is one of those near mythological films that, thanks to Media Blasters’ new release, adds another volume of Japanese sci-fi that’s been incomplete for far too long. And even if the actual cinematic experience itself might be lacking (there’s not a whole lot of miniaturized destruction or monster mashing on display), the collectible region of your brain should be in pleasure overload. Once again, Japan i...