Movieline Online

Although its purpose for most is pure entertainment, cinema can make a most persuasive argument when called upon to do so. Case in point, Stanley Kramer’s 1960 film production of Inherit the Wind , based on the successful play which in turn was based on the highly publicized Scopes “Monkey” Trial of 1925 in which a Tennessee teacher was charged with breaking the law by introducing the concept of evolution to students in his classroom. The resulting media circus made headlines from coast to coast as the “backward” beliefs of the Bible belt were presented in 30-point font for all the world to see. Kramer’s film is decidedly biased (as was most of the country then and now) towards Darwin’s theory of man’s evolution from our slouching ape-like ancestors. Creationism - the idea that God planted humankind on Earth fully formed - is a hard pill to swallow. But Inherit the Wind wisely tackles an even bigger issue: a man’s right to think, to innovate, to argue, to disagree and, most impo...

Oliver Stone might very well have the most impressive string of films produced over the course of 10 years in the history of cinema. Starting in 1986 with Salvador and Platoon (released amazingly enough in the same year) all the way up to Natural Born Killers in 1994, the man could do no wrong. It was as if God had granted him a certain amount of time get his message across and the director was damn well going to make the most of it. Transitioning from standard Hollywood storytelling to an MTV shorthand that kept him one step ahead of his contemporaries, Stone only had one real dud in the whole decade: the third film of his Vietnam trilogy, Heaven & Earth (1993). Based on the memoirs of Le Ly Haslip, her story begins in an idyllic Vietnamese village that is quickly ravaged by the horrors of war. Caught between the seemingly patriotic ideals of the Viet Cong and the influx of American soldiers, her family is torn apart and forced to survive however they can. Le Ly (Hiep T...

The recent passing of director Mike Nichols heralded a celebration of his work, starting with his Oscar winning counter-culture hit The Graduate through his two-dozen odd credits on Broadway. Much deserved compliments abounded, not the least of which was the rather obvious statement, “the man knew how to make a hit.” Surprisingly, The Fortune (1975) wasn’t one of them. Starring the hottest properties in Hollywood (Jack Nicholson and Warren Beatty) and a behind the scenes crew responsible for some of the ‘70s most celebrated films, the film nevertheless sank into the sort of obscurity even basic cable didn’t have the heart to recycle. In an effort to dodge the Mann Act of 1910 which prohibited transporting a woman across state lines for “immoral” purposes, Nicky (Beatty), a married man, convinces a naïve heiress, Freddie (Stockard Channing), to marry his partner-in-crime, Oscar (Nicholson), and run away as a threesome to California. While patiently working on his divorce, Nicky ...

Cinematic failures always seem to draw attention. There’s the catastrophic sort; the big budget, high profile vanity project that audiences slow down and gawk at like a freeway accident. And then there’s the quiet sort like Supernova (2000) that are released almost as an afterthought, flagged for failure by a studio just mitigating its losses. Responding to a deep space distress signal, a medical rescue team is met by a single survivor, a suspicious treasure hunter ( Twilight ’s Peter Facinelli) who brings a glowing inter-dimensional relic onboard that bestows youth and super strength on whoever comes in contact. As acting Captain, Nick Vanzant (James Spader) must rally his crew (including medical officer Angela Bassett) to dispose of the intruder and his device before they’re all sucked into the gravitational pull of a giant sun. Directed by Walter Hill ( The Warriors ) who shepherded the Alien franchise as a producer, Supernova works from a remarkably similar story…or maybe n...

If you don’t mind a quick digression, let’s take moment to lament the lost art of liner notes. While the ‘70s graced us with beautiful album covers often accompanied by informative introductions and anecdotes, the death of vinyl all but killed the written word when it came to music. Home video never even had glory days to wax nostalgic about, unless you count a few deluxe laserdisc titles. But niche DVD labels like Criterion and the short-lived NoShame resurrected the practice of including well-researched, entertaining essays that served as a gateway to the often outré material contained within. What’s the point, you ask? I’m paying to watch a movie, not read some chump’ s opinions . True, but chances are if you’re buying something like Slaughter Hotel or Werewolf Woman you’d likely appreciate the camaraderie of a fellow fan…not to mention a little back story on the production, which Raro Video’s new Blu-ray releases do quite well thanks to liner notes by Fangoria’s Chris Alex...

When a director’s name is used as an adjective it’s safe to assume they’ve reached the peak of cinematic immortality. Kubrickian, Spielbergian, Hitchcockian: one-word descriptions that provide a general feel for the work or its influences. While Otto Preminger never achieved such elevated status, he cultivated his reputation as a taboo-challenging director whose films were worthy of critical acclaim and big box-office returns, much like Hitchcock who seems to be the major inspiration behind Bunny Lake is Missing (1965), a progressively engaging mystery which used the same “no one admitted while the clock is ticking” gimmick as Psycho …as well as an inventive title sequence by Saul Bass. After dropping off her four-year-old daughter at a new school that morning, Ann Lake (Carol Lynley) returns for pick-up only to find her child, nicknamed Bunny, is missing. But not only is Bunny gone, the staff claims to have no knowledge of her whatsoever. The London police launch an investigat...

You don’t have to be a film critic to recognize the common elements in Terry Gilliam’s work. Beginning with his contributions to Monty Python and the Holy Grail , the director always seemed to gravitate to the more ridiculous aspects of our society. For Gilliam you’re either swallowed by the industrial machine or in a constant state of revolt against the same. Neither option seems to be a good theme for a kids’ film, which, based strictly on circumstantial evidence, Time Bandits in generally agreed to be. Gilliam’s second solo feature film is often disturbing, complex and mean-spirited. But it’s just as often hilarious, goofy and unarguably clever. All the ingredients are there for a fracturing of the classic fairy tale: seven dwarfs, magical maps, kings, queens, giants and ogres. But unlike Shrek , which simply littered its story with pop-culturisms for shock effect, Time Bandits goes much deeper down the theological rabbit hole. Kevin (Craig Warnock) is a curious kid who g...

Evil Dead 2 might just have been the most influential movie of its generation. Sam Raimi’s visually tricked-out action-horror spoof contained more imagination than all the other movies released in 1987 combined. And his anything-goes approach inspired a legion of up-and-coming directors who lifted bit and pieces but could never quite equal its inspired lunacy (except for perhaps Peter Jackson who shared the same sense of humor but with more blood and guts). While Raimi’s style has gone mainstream there are still a few aspiring auteurs of the grotesque looking to one-up the original. Norwegian writer/director Tommy Wirkola scored some cult acclaim with his 2009 Nazi zombie flick Dead Snow that stood out in a crowd of undead cash-grabs. Funny, energetic and unapologetically gory, the film became a word-of-mouth hit in the horror community and landed Wirkola a chance at the big time with 2013’s Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters . With a worldwide gross of over $200 million, the d...

Prison movies seem to strike a communal nerve, as if we were all pleasurably whacked on the knee by a tender old physician. Which is odd considering the genre itself is so uncinematic , playing out behind iron bars, brick walls and razor wire that limit our sense of scale and movement. But inherent is almost every screenplay in that longing for freedom - both physical and spiritual - that excuses a somewhat philosophical approach to what should be a soul-crushing scenario. This resonates quite clearly in 1962’s Birdman of Alcatraz , starring Burt Lancaster as the real-life (if somewhat sanitized) prisoner Robert Stroud, a convicted killer who experiences an unlikely transformation while serving his life sentence. Entering Leavenworth prison as an angry, unrepentant sociopath, Stroud runs afoul of the warden (Karl Malden) who promises to add whatever new punishment the law allows after Stroud murders a guard. But as the years slip by, Stroud begins to soften thanks to his adopted p...