Movieline Online

Although The Silence of the Lambs (1991) has oodles of Oscar respectability, earned a mountain of cash and served as the career highlight for almost everyone involved, one could make a case that Manhunter (1986) is the superior adaptation of Thomas Harris' work. Methodical, moody and arrestingly artful, director Michael Mann constructs his film with all the flash and style of his best Miami Vice episodes, while introducing a heady police procedural formula that would eventually overwhelm the small screen again 15 years later in the form of CSI . Will Graham (William Petersen) is a retired criminal profiler who begrudgingly agrees to help hunt down the "Tooth Fairy," a serial killer targeting young housewives and their families. To get back into the proper mindset he arranges to speak with Dr. Hannibal Lecktor (played with soft-spoken, thinly veiled menace by Brian Cox), the psychopathic psychiatrist who Graham put behind bars. But Lecktor proves to be more foe than ...

A giallo double-feature that represents everything good - and bad - about the sexy Italian mystery genre, Arrow Video's Killer Dames set collects two films by director Emilio Miraglia: The Night Evelyn Came Out of the Grave and The Red Queen Kills Seven Times . Ridiculously over plotted in that charming way only gialli seem to be able to pull off, both movies mix gothic elements with more modern slasher touches - and a welcome bit of skin - to generate maximum audience appeal. While one detects a whiff of desperation from time to time, Miraglia approaches the material like a "Giallo Greatest Hits" collection, mixing and matching to create his own murderous playlist. The Night Evelyn Came Out of the Grave (1971) introduces a bit of the supernatural in its story of the mentally unstable Lord Cunningham (Anthony Steffen) whose guilt over the death of his unfaithful red-headed wife, Evelyn, leads him to lure a slew of similar red-heads to his secret torture chamber. Wh...

Although writers like Tolkien, Robert E. Howard and Edgar Rice Burroughs deserve most of the credit for popularizing the fantasy genre, Frank Frazetta was the man who actually moved the merchandise. Frazetta's artwork graced the covers of countless paperbacks, turning these literary creations into irresistible eye candy; misty mountain landscapes populated by impossibly curvaceous women, fierce warriors and otherworldly monsters. For an entire generation, Frazetta's art defined characters like Conan, Tarzan and John Carter of Mars. And filmmakers were only too happy to capitalize on his work. But capturing Frazetta's style on celluloid proved to be a much trickier proposition. While Conan the Barbarian (1982) gets the most attention, Kevin Connor's The People That Time Forgot (1977) got there first with stunning volcanic location footage and imaginative sets that mimic the artist's layouts to a tee (watch for an quick glimpse of Frazetta's famous ...

The first trick to breaking into the movie business is getting people's attention. And as every toddler knows, any attention will do...even the bad kind. In fact, getting your movie banned is a sure-fire way to quick notoriety. Director Nico Mastorakis' Island of Death (1976) followed in the footsteps of video nasties like Texas Chainsaw and Last House on the Left , earning a firm thumbs down from several countries. And quite honestly, it deserved it; consisting of nothing but crude shock tactics (a goat gets raped by the male lead right after the opening credits roll) and uninspired violence. But the film got Mastorakis' career rolling (he was already a well-known TV personality and promoter in his native Greece) and kept him busy for nearly two decades producing mostly low-budget thrillers and two-fisted fare, two of which are now being released on Blu-ray from Arrow Video: a late-to-the-party slasher, The Zero Boys (1986), and a Commando -era copycat actioner, ...

Before Hollywood used superhero sagas as a financial crutch, historical epics were a reliable tent pole for most studios. The sweeping vistas, big name stars and widescreen photography gave them a leg up over the surging popularity of television and, as an added bonus, all the story beats were already plotted out; it was simply a matter of filling in the blanks with costumes, make-up and a battle scene or two. And the story of Alexander the Great would seem tailor made for just such a big-screen treatment. His divine birth, rise to power and mission to spread Greek culture through the ruthless conquest of Asia practically write themselves. However, the 1956 film, starring Richard Burton in the title role, actually feels like a film on autopilot; one that often veers dangerously close to the ditch and sputters to the finish line with the tank on empty. Heralded as the son of a god, Alexander is actually the product of an adulterous relationship. Yet Philip (Frederic March) lets h...