Movieline Online

The appeal of prison movies is easy to write off as some sort of testosterone-huffing time-waster with little cinematic or artistic merit. After all Jean-Claude Van Damme got sent up the river twice (in Death Warrant and In Hell ) and came out a worse actor than when he went in. But at their best, prison movies represent something more than sweaty pecs and a slow-motion roundhouse kick. Movies like Papillion and The Shawshank Redemption are about the triumph of the human spirit. And both of them owe a huge spiritual debt to director Robert Bresson’s A Man Escaped (1956), a prison movie that keeps its audience caged as well. Based on the true story of Andre Devigny who escaped from Fort Montlue prison in German-occupied Lyon, France, in 1943, Bresson’s film is as meticulous in construction as its central character’s methodical attempts at freedom. Most notably, the film’s creative use of sound - both by necessity and design – limits the viewers’ sensory input to footsteps, ke...

Horror movies were so much scarier before caller ID; not to mention cell phones, Wi-Fi and every other invention that allows potential victims to contact the authorities before some maniac hacks them to pieces. Who could have guessed that modern technology would mean the death of serial killers as we knew them? It makes a movie like When A Stranger Calls (1979) seem positively Amish in terms of the killer’s techniques in stalking his prey. Expanded into a feature-length film from his own short, director Fred Walton begins with the well-known urban legend about a babysitter receiving prank calls from a menacing voice asking, “Have you checked the children?” (Stop reading now if you haven’t heard this one before.) When the police finally trace the line, it’s revealed the calls are actually coming from inside the house ! It’s a doozy of an intro and really stands on it’s own as a thrilling piece of filmmaking. But When A Stranger Calls is so much more than that first 20 minutes....

By now, it seems most people are born with an inherent understanding of the slasher film formula. Although I’m sure medical professionals would disagree, my theory is the information passes via embryonic osmosis like nicotine or alcohol. How else can you explain the beat for beat reconstruction of Halloween 2 - a movie made in the USA in 1981 - by filmmakers in Norway nearly 30 years later? Face it; Michael Myers is stalking us even in the womb! Actually, the folks behind Cold Prey 2 (2008) are following up their first success from 2006. The original Cold Prey followed every cliché in the book, but still managed to be a solid, scary, suspenseful import that introduced us to an abominable snow-slasher picking off a group of snowboarders who stumble into his abandoned hotel. While it doesn’t have much name recognition here in the States, it was a huge success in its native Norway, kicking off an avalanche of imitators. And it’s essential viewing before popping in Cold Prey 2 , w...

While directors Sam Raimi and Peter Jackson both managed to turn early horror movie careers into mega-budgeted tentpole franchisees ( Spiderman and Lord of the Rings respectively), that success somehow eluded Don Coscarelli. The creator of Phantasm (1979) pioneered the same sort of street level auteurism, whipping together a horror / sci-fi / psychedelic fantasy on a shoestring budget that maintains a huge cult following. Yet other than a minor breakthrough with The Beastmaster (1982) – a basic cable mainstay for nearly a decade on TBS and TNT – Coscarelli has never managed to crack the “A”-list like so many of his fellow horror alumni. And the release of Phantasm 2 (1988) on blu-ray only deepens the mystery as to why not . First, a quick recap of the original, which is pretty much required viewing. After the death of his parents, a boy becomes suspicious of the local caretaker who he nicknames the Tall Man. A late-night inspection of the mausoleum reveals an army of vicious...

Steven Spielberg owned the ‘80s. Even the films he didn’t produce or direct went out of their way to have a Spielberg feel, most of them bargain basement adventures appealing to 10-year-olds wandering the mall with their parents’ money. Timerider: The Adventure of Lyle Swann sends an off-road motorcyclist back in time to 1877 where he runs rings around a gang of Wild West outlaws. Trust me, in 1982 that was enough to convince most kids to fork over a five-spot. In 2013, it’s a bit of a harder sell. Produced by former Monkee Michael Nesmith, Timerider is awfully amateurish for a major motion picture. The first act seems to be entirely made up of motorcycle POV shots, as if we were watching an amusement park simulation ride rather than a movie. Eventually, after driving through a scientific test area, Swann is zapped back into the past and faced with a trio of bad guys who want his “riding machine” for themselves. There’s a good idea at work here; one that Robert Zemeckis tur...

It’s rare that I’d recommend watching a blu-ray’s extras before watching the actual movie, but in the case of Zulu Dawn , a 1979 epic re-telling of the British army’s defeat at the hands (or, more accurately, the spears ) of 25,000 Zulu tribesmen, there’s something to be said for knowing a bit of backstory first. A prequel to the well-received but nearly forgotten 1964 film Zulu , which gave Michael Caine his first starring role, Zulu Dawn simply makes too much of an assumption that today’s audiences will be familiar with Battle of Isandlwana. Luckily, Severin’s blu-ray contains a number of special features to help fill you in beforehand, including a History of the Zulu Wars , comments from the film’s historical advisor and a visit to the actual battlefield where tactical errors and British arrogance wound up costing 1500 enlisted men their lives. As for the movie itself, it’s the sort of monumental all-star war film that really didn’t exist anymore in 1979. While most old Hollyw...

Three years after the massacre at Westworld, the most advanced amusement park in the world is set to re-open with a splashy new attraction. But is history doomed to repeat itself? Futureworld (1976) stars Peter Fonda and Blythe Danner (Gwneyth Paltrow’s mom) as a pair of Woodward and Bernstein-type reporters invited to the grand re-opening to ensure that the facility is safe and trouble-free – much like Sam Neil and company in the first Jurassic Park . Only instead of rampaging dinosaurs, our heroes uncover a robotic conspiracy to replace all the world’s leaders in a bid for global domination. Or something to that effect. Actually, the motives behind Delos, the company in question, are a little vague. They have the technology to create perfect human replicas this time around, not just robotic gunslingers and sex slaves; an improvement upon the android assembly lines in Michael Crichton’s original Westworld (1973). But the sequel drops much of the satirical edge in favor of a ...