Movieline Online

What if Bobby and Cindy Brady were actually homicidal maniacs? That’s essentially the premise behind Bloody Birthday , a 1981 slasher shot with all the style of a Sherwood Schwartz sitcom. Three kids are born at the same time, in the same hospital during a solar eclipse. If you keep up with your horoscopes you’ll know that means they’re destined to be born without a conscience; little Ted Bundys with taped glasses and church pants. For no particular reason they start off-ing horny teenagers, then move on to any family members who become suspicious. Bloody Birthday sports a few recognizable faces, including an extended striptease from ex-MTV personality Julie Brown and Elizabeth Hoy (perhaps better known as the little girl John Belushi offers to “buy” during the restaurant sequence in The Blues Brothers ) as one of the murderous kids. And even with its flat, unflattering look, the movie has a certain late ‘70s appeal, trying desperately to capture just a little of that leftover ...

Prison movies like The Shawshank Redemption always seem to feature men reaching down deep within themselves to persevere in the face of injustice. Meanwhile, women in prison movies are typically just an excuse to provide some T & A. With that in mind let’s go over the top three signs you know you’re watching a women in prison movie: 1) The warden’s office has a hot tub. 2) Instead of drab prison uniforms each inmate is assigned a slinky negligee. 3) In case of emergency the prison bars can substitute for stripper poles! You’ll find all that and more in the Women In Prison Triple Feature , gathering three titles from the ‘80s (two of which spotlight Exorcist child star Linda Blair) for an enjoyably sleazy marathon. Chained Heat (1983) is the raunchiest of the bunch and also the most ridiculous. How seriously can you take a movie when the aforementioned warden not only has a hot tub, but a stuffed cougar with glowing eyes? Baby-faced Linda Blair is the perfect naïve pin...

Cinematography has often been described as “painting with light.” And few films can lay claim to achieving this goal better than Barry Lyndon , director Stanley Kubrick’s 1975 period piece that follows an ambitious cad (played by real-life cad Ryan O’Neal) who Gump ’s his way from humble Irish beginnings to a life of wealth and privilege…at the expense of almost everyone around him. While the film has been buried in Kubrick’s canon of work in comparison to revivals and reissues of 2001 and The Shining , it’s finally getting critical reappraisal and recognition for being more than just “that movie they shot using real candlelight.” Cinematographer Jon Alcott’s ability to capture motion picture images using only natural flame - thereby recreating the true sense of 18th century life – won him an Academy Award. But it’s Kubrick’s painterly compositions throughout the rest of the film that make it more than a simple technical achievement. Few directors can compare with Kubrick’s eye f...