The Elephant Man Understated and masterful in its use of costumes, makeup, and low-budget camerawork, David Lynch’s portrait of John “The Elephant Man” Merrick stands as one of the best biographies on film. From his discovery by Dr. Frederick Treves (Hopkins) in a carnival freakshow, to his rehabilitation in the hospital and acceptance into London […]
Elling Reportedly the most popular Norwegian film, Elling proves itself as eminently worthy of its Best Foreign Film Oscar nomination. This hilarious tale about two neurotics just outta the asylum and living together would get Adam Sandler-style slapstick treatment here in America. (Sadly, the Odd Couple and Cuckoo’s Nest days seem to be long lost
Elvis Lives: The 25th Anniversary Concert Today, Hollywood aggressively seeks actors through the music industry, not necessary because musicians are talented actors (or talented musicians, for that matter), but because their names sell tickets. Today’s generation probably doesn’t realize that music pop stars laced the silver screen long before Britney Spears and Mariah Carey. In
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Star Wars: Episode V-The Empire Strikes Back I was excited to see the rerelease of The Empire Strikes Back, but I had forgotten about how masterful the film is realized, and I had especially forgotten what it looked like on the big screen. Empire, newly restored by George Lucas and his cronies, makes the remastered
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End of Days Here it is, November of 1999, and I thought we weren’t going to get a good end of the world, Satan-conquers-all apocalypse movie (Dogma doesn’t count). Whew! End of Days arrives just in time (no pun intended) to quench that Linda Blair thirst. If you know the basic plot of End of
Dracula: Dead And Loving It After the vastly disappointing Robin Hood: Men in Tights, Mel Brooks really needed to prove himself by getting back to his Young Frankenstein and Blazing Saddles-type comedy. The Dracula legend seemed like the perfect way to do it, especially considering how perfectly Brooks skewered ol’ Frank. But sadly, Brooks manages
Dumb and Dumberer: When Harry Met Lloyd Dumb and Dumberer: When Harry Met Lloyd is without doubt the worst movie I’ve seen in a long time! It hardly warrants the pity star I have to give it because we don’t give anything lower! In fact, this movie is so bad that I should, in retrospect,
The Duellists In every director’s past there are some strange departures. Ridley Scott’s directorial debut, The Duellists, is no exception: It’s a competent but slow-paced outing that offers no hint that Scott would soon be making exciting thrillers like Alien and Blade Runner. To be fair, The Duellists (based on Conrad’s The Duel) is a
Duck Soup Widely considered the best Marx brothers film ever (and landing at #5 on the AFI’s list of top comedies), Duck Soup presents Groucho at his best, playing a dictator (of a country called Freedonia, natch) who starts a war over a girl who lives in a neighboring country (and who has saved Freedonia
Dr. T and the Women Dr. T and the Woman is the relatively harmless tale of the aforementioned Texas gynecologist (Gere) and the women who surround him. His wife (Farrah Fawcett) is a nut job with a psychiatric illness so rare and strange (it makes her act childish) that it can only be fictional. His
