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If you thought that you knew scary , think again . . .
Fear plays a factor in most of Roman Polanski's movies that I've seen , but in none more so than in the blood-freezing " Repulsion " . His first English-language movie casts Catherine Deneuve as London manicurist Carole Ledoux . She lives a sexually repressed life in her sister's apartment . When her sister and brother...
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I learned how to spell a certain body part by watching this movie . . . and I still remember the ad shown before " The Addams Family "
As Mike Myers is now best known as Austin Powers , it's easy to forget that he started out as Aurora , Illinois , goof-ball Wayne Campbell . " Wayne's World " is just as funny today as it was back in 1992 . I'd never seen the " Saturday Night Live " skit before the movie came out , but that didn't hurt anything ; the m...
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This is what indies are all about !
This gem of a movie about a Brooklyn cigar shop , its owner , and various customers , is especially good because it shows how everyone has done something wrong , but they all atone for it . And they all have their own quirks . Owner Augustus Wren ( Harvey Keitel ) takes the same picture every day , writer Paul Benjamin...
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camera angle
It all begins when tennis star Guy Haines ( Farley Granger ) and Bruno Anthony ( Robert Walker ) meet on a train . Bruno suggests that they perform tit-for-tat murders , but Guy thinks that it's a joke . Unfortunately , it turns out not to be . And after Bruno carries out his part of the " deal " , he expects Guy to do...
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she's sick of these mother - ( censored ) snakes coming out of this mother - ( censored ) toilet
Bob Clark's untimely death in a car crash a few days ago brings to mind his career , including " Porky's II : The Next Day " . This one hilariously continues the get-laid-at-any-cost adventures of the teenage boys portrayed in the original movie . The actual plot has their school putting on a production of Shakespeare ...
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Happy 50th , Tom !
As today is Tom Hanks's 50th birthday , I thought it appropriate to review one of his funniest movies . " Big " portrays a boy who wishes to be big , and gets turned into an adult ( Hanks ) , thereby having to learn on his own how to navigate the adult world . As a previous reviewer noted , the movie also does a good j...
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God bless Ameri-Bugs !
Still in his relative infancy , Bugs Bunny becomes a superhero out to fight an anti-rabbit cowboy . I really liked the scene of the two of them on the horse . Maybe the wartime themes make us cringe a little bit nowadays , but they're not vicious by any stretch ( although I hear that some Looney Tunes cartoons were ) ....
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You usually don't expect to see some of these things .
The second Best Foreign Language Film winner from the Soviet Union was something impressive . " Moskva slezam ne verit " ( called " Moscow Does Not Believe in Tears " in English ) starts out portraying three college friends in 1958 , and picks up twenty years later . In 1958 , Katya ( Vera Alentova ) is motivated , har...
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five'll get you ten
When " V for Vendetta " came out , maybe reviews called it the first pro-terrorist movie of the post - world . And seeing what kind of society the movie portrays , it's hard not to sympathize with the terrorist ( or is he a freedom fighter ? ) . The movie portrays an arch-totalitarian England sometime in the future . B...
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Now this is life after death !
You gotta figure that only Tim Burton could come up with this ! An ultra-zany story of rural couple Adam ( Alec Baldwin ) and Barbara Maitland ( Geena Davis ) , who accidentally get killed and witness a tasteless couple moving into their house , forcing them to hire " bio-exorcist " Beetle Juice ( Michael Keaton ) , is...
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Shelley Winters , RIP
In one of the many movies showing him as a morally firm black man , Sidney Poitier plays Gordon Ralfe , who develops a relationship with blind white girl Selina D'Arcy ( Elizabeth Hartman ) - much to the chagrin of her racist mother Rose-Ann ( Shelley Winters ) . Winters , who died today , won her second Best Supportin...
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Let's go sailing !
People who say that some of what the Looney Tunes cartoons show is inappropriate for children have apparently forgotten something : they weren't originally intended for children . They were produced for the cinema , to be shown before feature films , and so they could show anything that they wanted . " Tweety's S . O ....
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Keep rockin ' and rollin ' ! Speaking of which , why isn't the sequel available on DVD ?
Probably the best portrayal of the ' 50s rebel culture has working-class Brit Jim MacLaine ( David Essex ) with a chip on his shoulder - due to his father abandoning the family - and doesn't care about school ; he's into rock ' n ' roll . His friend Mike ( Ringo Starr ) is no more responsible but gets Jim some jobs . B...
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so much for changes in Russia
One unfortunate reality of post-Soviet Russia was that the people's welfare didn't change much from Soviet times . As we see in " Window to Paris " , most people are still as depressed as ever , while they are encouraged to go after money . Then , everything changes for music teacher Nikolai Chizhov ( Sergei Dontsov ) ...
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Let's face it : the Russians do a better job at making war movies than we do
If you believe that any given war movie can make you really feel the war , you need to see " Letyat zhuravli " ( called " The Cranes are Flying " in English ) . It tells the story of Veronika ( Tatiana Samoylova ) and Boris ( Aleksey Batalov ) , who are in love on the verge of WWII . They are walking along the waterfro...
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A most unusual treat .
The Silence of the Lambs will have to go down in history as one of the most ingenious movies of all time . After a string of bizarre murders , FBI agent-in-training Clarice Starling ( Jodie Foster ) is hired to interview psychopath Hannibal " The Cannibal " Lecter ( Anthony Hopkins ) to find the perpetrator . In the ...
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The 3rd time IS the charm !
After " Temple of Doom " went off in another direction , Steven Spielberg got the trilogy back on track with " Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade " . The plot of course has the eponymous archaeologist ( Harrison Ford ) and his father Henry ( Sean Connery ) battling Nazis while searching for the Holy Grail . The hot bab...
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Robert Forster before " Jackie Brown " , John Sayles before " Lone Star " , and other stuff
Fun , satirical horror flick reminding us of the dangers of flushing our aquatic pets down the toilet . In this case , a flushed alligator ends up in the sewer , where he gets exposed to a chemical and grows to behemoth size and moves above ground to look for people too stupid to pay attention to their surroundings . W...
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Remember not to call him Shirley !
By now , everyone must know about " Airplane ! " . A spoof of the disaster movies of the 1970s replete with every gag imaginable . Whether it's the announcers arguing over the red zones and white zones , the obnoxious solicitors , the jumping artificial heart , the oddly named crew , the automatic pilot , or the variou...
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for anyone who's ever hated their boss
Ever wanted to take revenge on a really creepy person ? Well , Jane Fonda , Lily Tomlin and Dolly Parton do just that in " Nine to Five " . After their undesirable-in-every-way boss ( Dabney Coleman ) threatens to have them arrested after a misunderstanding ( it's a long story ) , the three take him hostage and institu...
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See it , thou knave !
In " Rabbit Hood " , Bugs Bunny makes mincemeat of a guard after trying to steal some of Prince John's royal carrots while Little John idiotically claims that Robin Hood is coming . Knowing that this is Bugs Bunny , you can probably guess what sorts of tricks he has up his sleeve ( or wherever he keeps them ) . Cartoon...
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So this is Louisville . . .
Okay , so this is a zombie movie . As we all know , that means lots and lots of gore . And in " The Return of the Living Dead " , they play it to real cool effect . The plot of course has a pair of chemical plant employees accidentally opening a container , and a series of events brings all the cemetery residents back ...
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I'm talking to you-tah
After political documentaries were all the rage in 2004 , " This Divided State " looks at the result . A Utah college's decision to let Michael Moore speak there sparks emotions on both ends of the political spectrum . One of the professors tries to get the college to stop Moore from coming , and the college invites Se...
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vintage Bill Murray
Bill Murray plays goof-ball Wallace Ritchie in London to visit his brother Jimmy ( Peter Gallagher ) for his own - read : Wallace's - birthday . Since Jimmy is having guests over , he knows that he needs to keep Wallace out of the way . The only problem is , Wallace accidentally gets mixed up in an espionage ring , lea...
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revenge . . . revenge
Some people just live their lives in agony , but few can compare to bored , abused Muriel Heslop ( Toni Collette ) . Things just plain suck for her . But that's all about to change . You see , she's getting married . . . and then some . I saw " Muriel's Wedding " in an Australian Cinema class . It's the sort of movie t...
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A bright spot in a summer of " The Lost World " , " Speed 2 " , and " Batman and Robin " .
When " Ulee's Gold " came out , it seemed as though Peter Fonda had been off of the radar for many years . But he made a comeback here as Florida beekeeper Ulysses Jackson , having to raise his granddaughters after their father gets put in jail and their mother can't take care of them . A triumph for all involved . Thi...
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No wonder people like drugs so much ! This movie makes them look fun !
My rating is of course because " Reefer Madness " is so bad that it's good . And boy is it ! Meant as an anti-marijuana propaganda film , the whole thing basically makes marijuana look fun . The plot has some wholesome teenagers getting duped into smoking marijuana and turning into lunatics ( thereby idiotically implyi...
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girls gone wild
As I'd never seen a Russ Meyer film , I figured that I might as well start with what is probably his most famous one . If Meyer believed that a movie just needed to have speed , sex and violence , then he sure accomplished it with " Faster , Pussycat ! Kill ! Kill ! " ( although it's quite tame by today's standards ) ....
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disturbing equals true-to-life
In one of many great British movies , a man ( Bob Hoskins ) helps working-class youths try to make something of themselves in an economically depressed town in England . It is the first time that they can ever be anything greater . But then tragedy strikes and the whole thing falls apart . The gritty " 24 7 : Twenty Fo...
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Orson Welles's 3rd great movie
The Third Man functions as a sort of half film noir , half look at post-WWII Vienna . The plot centers on Holly Martin ( Joseph Cotten ) learning of his friend's ( Orson Welles ) death in Vienna , meeting various and sundry strange people , and getting a big surprise at the end . Probably the movie's strongest aspect...
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this is what modern classics are all about
I may not know anyone named Thelma , but whenever I meet someone named Louise , I will probably be tempted to remember " Thelma & Louise " . This story of two women ( Susan Sarandon and Geena Davis ) who have to go on the lam after one of them kills a rapist in chauvinistic Texas truly shows the potentials of life . I ...
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1980s time capsule
In this ultra-gross-and-proud-of-it B-movie , some people discover a strange substance bubbling out of the ground . They taste it ( yes , they find something on the ground and just eat it ! ) , like it , and decide to start marketing it as The Stuff ; it quickly becomes the most popular food of all . But , sure enough ...
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Who says that blondes have to be dumb ?
If you've never heard of " Legally Blonde " and you only see a few ads for it , you'll probably get the wrong impression . This is not some half-formed , oh-I'm-so-totally-hot story . This is Reese Witherspoon showing that she can be hilarious and biting in the same movie . It all begins when fashionista Elle Woods ( W...
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Is he Armenia's most famous director ?
In case you've never heard of Sergei Paradjanov - 1924-1990 - he was an Armenian movie director in Soviet times who was imprisoned for " same-sexuality " . " Paradjanov : A Requiem " features him talking about his movies ( I saw it on the B-side of " The Color of Pomegranates " ) . Like many directors , he goes to grea...
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Holy mother of . . . ! They said it !
In case you've ever doubted just how in-your-face the Looney Tunes cartoons were , just check out " Gonzales ' Tamales " . In this one , Speedy Gonzales - who , as you may have noticed from other cartoons , is a total playboy - is seducing the female mice , and making the male mice very angry . So , they get Sylvester ...
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a " signs " of " rings " to come
My rating assumes that you decided that you like " Scary Movie 3 " before you saw it . And it doesn't disappoint . Spoofing " Signs " , " The Ring " and " 8 Mile " ( among other things ) , it's another gag-a-minute comedy from the director of " Airplane ! " . But how could it not be , starring Leslie Nielsen ? I think ...
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Yeah , what is the deal with John Wayne's teeth ?
For years , Hollywood movies portrayed Indians as bloodthirsty savages who deserved the genocide that the white people committed against them . Then , there was the " Little Big Man " and " Dances with Wolves " mold : going a little overboard on portraying them as virtuous , even if they showed what the white people di...
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You'll be having the time of your life watching this movie !
Drop Dead Gorgeous implied that beauty pageants can make for great humor , but " Miss Congeniality " takes it to a whole new level . Starring Sandra Bullock as a sarcastic FBI agent participating in the Miss America pageant to thwart an attack , the movie pulls no punches . I think that my favorite part is when her t...
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it would be just like a corporation to do this to someone
Truman Burbank's ( Jim Carrey ) life is a TV show . Nothing about his idyllic small town is real , but rather created for him to live in . And he doesn't know about any of it , because a cabal of slimy people have successfully kept him there his whole life . Until one day when he starts to get suspicious that there's s...
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Hedy Wamarr ? Bawbwa Stanwyck ? Owivia de Haviwand ? Did children recognize those names in 1940 ?
On one level , " A Wild Hare " is a historical reference as it was the first teaming of Bugs Bunny and Elmer Fudd . But even ignoring that , it's still a hoot , with that " wascawy wabbit " making mincemeat of Elmer . There's just one thing that raises my eyebrows nowadays . Elmer asks about Hedy Lamarr , Barbara Stanw...
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If this is what happens , then kidnap me !
In what may be his funniest role to date , Denis Leary plays kidnapper Gus , who takes wealthy Connecticut couple Lloyd ( Kevin Spacey ) and Caroline Chasseur ( Judy Davis ) hostage one Christmas Eve , only to have them drive him absolutely nuts due to their bad marriage ! As Gus puts it : " I kidnapped my f - - king p...
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I will assert that I prefer Andy Griffith's movie roles to his TV show .
Everyone probably knows about the dangers of fame and / or fortune . " A Face in the Crowd " does a really good job with it . Lonesome Rhodes ( Andy Griffith ) is a nobody in a backwards town who gets turned into a superstar almost overnight . But as time goes by , his burgeoning greed and egotism begin to take over , ...
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Like " Dude , Where's My Car ? " , it shows that movies can be stupid and funny at the same time .
Just imagine every dopey duo ( e . g . , Bill and Ted ) and imagine them trying to get into a cool club , and you basically have " A Night at the Roxbury " . I had never heard of Will Ferrell before this movie came out , but he did a hilarious job here and has of course seen his career proliferate since . He and Chris ...
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I guess that school just sucks for some people !
OK , I don't mean that seriously . It's just that when you see what Max Fischer ( Jason Scwartzmann ) goes through , you're truly going to be shocked . He's a student in a prep school in Houston whose life is about to get irrevocably turned upside down , more or less through his acquaintance with the school's main bene...
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Bugs Bunny is the best
When I try to decide which is the best Looney Tunes cartoon ever , it's a shoo-in between " Long-Haired Hare " and " What's Opera , Doc ? " . In " Long-Haired Hare " , Bugs Bunny is singing some songs and playing instruments to accompany them , when overstuffed opera singer Giovanni Jones smashes Bugs ' instruments and...
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buddy comedies ever after
Obviously , " Rush Hour " is mostly just another buddy comedy , but there's so much hilarious dialogue between Jackie Chan and Chris Tucker , that it's all worthwhile . When a consul's daughter gets kidnapped , Tucker gets hired to take the case , but Chan gets brought in from Hong Kong to assist . Naturally , they hav...
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The West just gets wilder and wilder !
Before she became a political activist / Oscar winner , Jane Fonda starred in the wacky " Cat Ballou " , as the gun-slinging title character . Seeking to avenge her father's murder , she hires Kid Shaleen ( Lee Marvin ) and gets a lot more than she bargained for ! That's the plot , but more important is the movie's pac...
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There's nothing fictional about this movie's high quality .
Pulp Fiction has partly gone down in history as the movie that revived John Travolta's career , but it's more than that . A look into the lives of several criminals , it's likely to shake up almost anyone . The first time that I ever saw the movie , my dad ( who'd already seen it ) sent me out of the room for the sce...
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You'd better believe that these vampire babes bite . . . hard !
To the pantheon of erotic 1970s horror flicks we can add " Vampyres " , about hot lesbian vampires Fran ( Marianne Morris ) and Miriam ( Anulka Dziubinska ) who thumb rides from unsuspecting travelers , take the travelers to the English estate where they dwell , and go into full orgy mode . In a way , much of the movie...
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You won't end up saying " Good grief ! "
Charles Schulz's death a few years ago ( in fact , a few weeks after " Peanuts " ended ) , brought to mind his creations . Obviously , " A Charlie Brown Christmas " was one of them . And it remains a classic to this day . The plot of course has Charlie Brown getting put off by the commercialism surrounding Christmas an...
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Might " Jeopardy " be rigged ?
I was rooting for " Quiz Show " to win Best Picture for 1994 ( although I've since sided with " The Shawshank Redemption " ) . Portraying the real-life story of a rigged 1950s game show , the movie captures 1950s TV the same way that " Good Night , and Good Luck . " does . We also see how after they get tired of lettin...
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Forsooth ! Friz Freleng hath created another hilarious cartoon !
Halt thee , knave ( or wench ) ! I shall tell thee a story of a classic Looney Tunes cartoon . OK , I'll cut the Medieval talk , but my point is that " Knights Must Fall " is just great , as Bugs Bunny torments Sir Pantsalot in a Medieval jousting contest . As you may imagine , there's a dynamite gag , but Bugs also do...
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drooling and drooling more
Johnny Depp may be the most interesting actor of his generation , and " Charlie and the Chocolate Factory " reaffirms that . The story of course has destitute Charlie Bucket ( Freddie Highmore ) winning a trip to confectioner Willy Wonka's ( Johnny Depp ) factory . Probably the neatest aspect is how they've reworked Wi...
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better than anyone might expect
Bill Murray really does his best when playing outright wacky characters like the one in " What About Bob ? " . In this case , he's a mentally unstable psychiatric patient who follows his psychiatrist ( Richard Dreyfuss ) on vacation and practically takes over . In a way , the whole movie's sort of silly , but it shows ...
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Lasse Hallstrom shows shades of his later movies
After I had seen " The Cider House Rules " and " Chocolat " , I took some interest in Swedish-born director Lasse Hallstrom , and so I decided to check out one of his movies from his native country . " Mitt liv som hund " ( " My Life as a Dog " in English ) really impressed me . This story of abandoned boy Ingemar hits...
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southern comfort
I knew almost nothing about Phil Morrison's " Junebug " when I started watching it ( save what I read on the DVD case ) , and I would say that knowing nothing made the movie all the more impressive . Embeth Davidtz plays Madeleine , an art dealer in Chicago . While visiting a client in North Carolina , she and husband ...
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sooner or later , we're all eighteen with a bullet
Guy Ritchie made his mark on the world with the madcap " Lock , Stock and Two Smoking Barrels " , about organized crime in London's underbelly . I remember that when it came out was right after Columbine , so some people got irked by the violence , but I suggest that you ignore that and luxuriate in the pure hilarity ....
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Pronounce it right , Herr Doktor !
Can you imagine the first time this movie came out ? Everyone must have died laughing ! The plot of course has self-deprecating Dr . Frederick Frankenstein ( Gene Wilder , and you know how to pronounce the name ) suddenly deciding to carry on his grandfather's work with the help of wisecracking Igor ( Marty Feldman , a...
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One ring - and three great movies - to rule them all .
A pop culture phenomenon , " The Lord of the Rings : The Fellowship of the Ring " is unlike anything that you've ever seen . The plot of course has several hobbits and humans joining up in Middle Earth to destroy a ring that corrupts whomever possesses it ; in the process , they have to fight off evil beings . The movi...
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I did not have sex with that woman , but I am wearing her underwear .
My rating assumes that you're not actually going to bother looking at this page unless you've decided that you like " Jane Austen's Mafia ! " before you've seen it ( I found it pretty funny ) . For anyone else , it's the sort of spoof that - as many reviews said at the time - is destined to sleep with the fishes . A ga...
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Burning Patience
Right after I saw " Il postino " in 1995 , I got really into Pablo Neruda , and I read the novel " Burning Patience " , on which the movie is based . While I will say that I liked the book better - they set the movie twenty years earlier than the original story happened , and they set it in Italy - I won't deny the mov...
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It stars Chevy Chase . What else do you need to know ?
Chevy Chase returns as goofy reporter Irwin Fletcher . This time , he inherits a Louisiana mansion and decides to move there . On the way , he expects the mansion ( and the South overall ) to be a " Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah " world , but finds just the opposite when he arrives . To complicate matters , he finds himself involv...
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In nomine Jay , Silent Bob , et spiritus . . . uh , I mean everyone else in Kevin Smith's movies . . .
Everyone likes a movie that irks religious people , but " Dogma " is beyond that . Matt Damon and Ben Affleck play Loki and Bartleby , fallen angels who plan to reenter Heaven and thus undo all existence . So , some loyal angels call upon Bethany Sloane ( Linda Fiorentino ) to stop them . From there , Jay ( Jason Mewes...
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The Philadelphia Story vs " High Society "
In the role that affirmed her as possibly the greatest actress of her generation , Katharine Hepburn plays heiress Tracy Lord , about to get married yet again . When her ex ( Cary Grant ) reenters her life , it throws everything into flux , but when a reporter ( Jimmy Stewart ) enters , all bets are off . Above all , I...
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After hearing Charlie Dog say " shut up " , who wouldn't want to go around saying it ?
Watching " Often an Orphan " , it's surprising that Charlie Dog didn't become a regular Looney Tunes character . In this cartoon , he gets abandoned by his master and starts pestering Porky Pig to adopt him . When Porky refuses , Charlie launches into an emotion-manipulating monologue about the horrors of city life . I...
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How many movies has the MPAA censored today ?
John Waters continues his trashing of " traditional " Americanism with the raucous " Cecil B . DeMented " , in which an indie filmmaker ( Stephen Dorff ) kidnaps an air-head actress ( Melanie Griffith ) and makes her star in his anti-Hollywood flick in which they go around attacking anything associated with Tinseltown ...
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Elke Sommer . . . hubba hubba
My rating of of course applies only if you're a horny teenage boy . Considering that the movie stars Elke Sommer , I probably don't need to explain the plot ( the sexual exploits of a bunch of women ) . I can also note that Virna Lisi , Monica Vitti and Gina Lollobrigida co-star , and . . . you know something ? Let me ...
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She's still my favorite artist .
Salma Hayek does a perfect job playing Frida Kahlo . We see her tortured life and manage to feel it . Like " Ray " and " Walk the Line " , this is a warts-and-all portrayal . Maybe the movie didn't go into her politics as it could have ( her last public appearance was protesting against the CIA's overthrow of Guatemala...
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. . . vs " Apt Pupil "
Ian McKellen had never been part of my cinema vocabulary before 1998 . That year , he played two very impressive - and dissimilar - roles . The first was the role of a Nazi fugitive in " Apt Pupil " ; in that case , you fear his character , but at the same time can't help but admire him . The other role was in " Gods a...
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things work when mother and daughter co-star
Probably the main reason that we can hold " Halloween H20 : 20 Years Later " in high regard is simply because it brings back Laurie Strode ( Jamie Lee Curtis ) . But there's something else : it takes a cue from " Scream " , going for a mildly campy approach ( in one scene , they even watch a scene from " Scream 2 " ) ....
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This was the last movie that I saw in 1999 . . .
. . . and I'd say that it was a perfect way to end the 20th century ( unless you say that the 20th century ended in 2000 ) . For years , movie adaptations of Stephen King novels bungled everything , but with " The Green Mile " in the hands of the man behind " The Shawshank Redemption " ( also about a prison ) , it clea...
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incredible
I had only heard a little bit about " Wandafuru raifu " ( called " After Life " in English ) when it came out , but I was blown away by the movie . Focusing on some people in Japan considering what will be the memory that they take with them when they die , the movie really holds you . The story is somewhere between me...
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And did what corporations always do . . .
When " 54 " got released , many critics claimed that it was just another attempt to get into the ' 70s nostalgia that had swept the country . It's more than that . The movie shows New York's Studio 54 , an unusual club where young people danced to disco and could meet celebrities , as seen through the eyes of employee ...
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10
the devil made him do it
In case people have forgotten the Tasmanian Devil , " Bedevilled Rabbit " reminds us of him . When Bugs Bunny gets parachuted into Tasmania ( where's that ? ) , Taz quickly gets hungry and sets his sights on Bugs . Sure enough , Bugs is way ahead of Taz , and always can pull anything seemingly out of thin air to play a...
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Hitch comes to Hollywood
Alfred Hitchcock's first Hollywood movie won Best Picture and Cinematography ( unfortunately , he didn't take home a Best Director Oscar ) . " Rebecca " portrays widower Max de Winter ( Laurence Olivier ) and an unnamed woman ( Joan Fontaine ) getting married . But on their honeymoon , she discovers that the memory of ...
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10
Termite Terrace's folks needn't be anonymous ( especially since AA is essentially a religion )
Birds Anonymous is one of the many classic Looney Tunes cartoons that comes across funnier when you're an adult than when you're a kid , as you understand what it's spoofing . In this case , the target is Alcoholics Anonymous , as Sylvester enters an organization that helps cats break their bird addiction . But it's ...
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120,603
10
Sophie's Choice transferred to the post-slavery era , and unfairly ignored
Clearly , the racism of this country led people to ignore " Beloved " ( to add insult to injury , 1998 had a piece of Hollywood crap like " Armageddon " as one of the top grossing flicks ) . This one tells the story of Sethe ( Oprah Winfrey ) , a former slave in 1877 Ohio who many years earlier killed her daughter ( Th...
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10
So his name is Claude . . .
I never even knew that the cat in " Mouse Wreckers " was named Claude until I read about it on this site . But either way , Claude really suffers here , as New York-accented mice Hubie and Bertie pull a series of tricks to scare him out of the house . Probably the coolest gags are the stunt with the rope , and then the...
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10
They did it . . . they really did it !
One has to wonder how they came up with the idea for this movie , but that could distract from the movie itself . " Being John Malkovich " is so hilarious in every way , that I can't even describe it . You have to see it to believe it . As one of the many movies ( along with " The Blair Witch Project " , " The Sixth Se...
364,168
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10
Just why did Shirley Temple's ex star in these kinds of movies ?
My rating of course only applies because I assume that only ' 50s-B-movie fetishists would even take any interest in " The Brain from Planet Arous " . But previous reviewers have noted that this movie takes a slightly different approach : criminal brain Gor comes to earth to inhabit a man's body and thereby rule the un...
363,436
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10
American history , French-style
Marco Ferreri's " Touche pas a la femme blanche " - " Don't Touch the White Woman " in English - could easily be an extension of " Little Big Man " or a movie version of " A People's History of the United States " , although it came out a few years before Howard Zinn published his famous book . It portrays the US gover...
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10
One day , when I'm an old man , I'll still be telling about when I saw this movie .
Yimou Zhang continues his saga of super-impressive , mind-blowing fantasies with " House of Flying Daggers " , about a man releasing a warrior from prison so that she can . . . well , I don't think that I can do the movie justice by trying to describe it . This is one of those movies that you actually have to see . Dur...
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10
Even for someone who doesn't like Mel Gibson .
As I have a very low opinion of Mel Gibson , it is especially noteworthy that I liked " Chicken Run " . Made by the same people who make the " Wallace and Gromit " cartoons , it portrays a gaggle of hens trying to break out of a British farm - some scenes even spoof " Stalag 17 " and " The Great Escape " - with the hel...
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one of those movies that you don't usually expect
In the early 20th century , the English government moved several people from India to Uganda to build the railroad . Some of the Indians stayed and became lawyers , physicians , etc . When Idi Amin came to power in the early 1970s , he expelled all non-black Africans . Some of the Indians moved to Mississippi and began...
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10
This may very well be the best Bugs Bunny cartoon ever .
At first , you can't quite figure out what's going on : lightning flashes , the clouds open , and a menacing shadow moves majestically . Then , we see that it's just Elmer Fudd dressed like a Germanic warrior . He sings gracefully : " I'm hunting wabbits . . . " When he finds a hole in the ground , he belts out ( to th...
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as this movie proves , the ' 70s will NEVER die
One of the great things about movies that look at times past is the way they poke fun at individuals who didn't get into popular culture . In this case , four friends in 1970s Michigan worship KISS , but one's mother is a fundamentalist Christian who believes that KISS stands for " Knights In Satan's Service " . In a w...
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events that led up to other unpleasant things
Part of what makes " Rosewood " so hard to watch - but I recommend it very much - is not only that it really happened , but also the thought that the events portrayed may have partly been the root of what happened in Florida in 2000 . With this vicious racism so deeply ingrained in our society , it's no surprise that F...
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10
So will Steve Martin be able to equal Peter Sellers ?
The upcoming release of the " Pink Panther " remake brings to mind the original series , including this one . When the famous diamond gets stolen for a second time , Insp . Jacques Clouseau ( Peter Sellers ) gets put on the case , and I shouldn't have to tell you what sorts of things he does , especially since this mov...
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this shows why the great movies always come out at the end of the year
Before " Walk the Line " came out , some people thought that Joaquin Phoenix and Reese Witherspoon would be miscast as Johnny Cash and June Carter . They were not miscast at all . Not only do they both do a great job playing the roles , they do their own singing . This movie does as great a job with its subject as " Ra...
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10
seri ( al ) ously cool
John Waters continues his trashing of " traditional " Americanism with the dark but masterful " Serial Mom " . Kathleen Turner plays Baltimore housewife Beverly Sutphin , who loves her family but also likes to kill people who don't adhere to certain social norms . You read that right . After all , this is coming from t...
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10
How do they come up with these things ? !
This one has Lt . Frank Drebin ( Leslie Nielsen ) trying to stop villain Quentin Hapsburg ( Robert Goulet ) from kidnapping a solar power advocate . That's the plot , but the movie is of course an excuse for a series of gags , many of which just pop out from the sides . And of course there's Frank's relationship with s...
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10
many ways to look at Ireland
I have liked every one of John Sayles's movies that I've seen , and " The Secret of Roan Inish " is no exception . The movie mainly focuses on ten-year-old Fiona going to live with her grandparents in Donegal , Ireland , and learning family stories . But there were two aspects that I found particularly important . One ...
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No , My Dear !
' Don't Drink The Water ' hadn't exactly set the world on fire , yet what did Ronald Wolfe and Ronald Chesney do next ? Another spin-off , this time from their series ' Romany Jones ' which had starred the late James Beck ( ' Private Walker ' from ' Dad's Army ' ) and Jo Rowbottom . ' Yus My Dear ' chronicled the furth...
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Its Make Your Mind Up Time !
There has been renewed interest in Hughie Green recently thanks to a B . B . C . - 4 play called ' Most Sincerely ' starring Trevor Eve . The ex-'Shoestring ' actor gave a decent performance , if not quite capturing the sheer awfulness of the real Green . To say that I did not like him would be an understatement - the ...
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Has Chris Taken Liberties With The Truth ?
It had to happen . Noting the success of the Michael Moore anti-Bush polemic ' Fahrenheit ' , someone in the U . K . has tried to cash in by fashioning a similar movie attacking Tony Blair's Government . The trouble is there's not enough evidence to support the extraordinary claims it makes . Yes , the arrest of Maya E...
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1
Alice In Zombie Land !
It used to be the case that zombie movies were purely the preserve of filmmakers with low budgets and no stars , now it seems everyone is making them . In ' Resident Evil : Apocalypse ' , a virus escapes from a top secret facility known as The Hive , infecting the inhabitants of Raccoon City , and a small group of surv...
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1
Once upon a time there were three bad actresses . . .
The ' 70's was a golden age for American television with groundbreaking shows such as ' Roots ' , ' M . A . S . H . ' and ' All In The Family ' . ' Charlie's Angels ' was a huge step backwards . Even as a testosterone-fuelled teenager , I found it mindless and demeaning to women . Nobody in the show could act , the vio...
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The Original ' Sorry '
The A . T . V . sitcom ' Big Boy Now ! ' played like a middle-class version of ' Steptoe & Son ' , only with the gender of the parent reversed . The late Leslie Crowther had worked with writer Ronnie Taylor before on the popular ' My Good Woman ' , co-starring Sylvia Syms . ' Big ' cast him as ' Tony Marchant ' , a mid...
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The Cuckoo Schmaltz
This Granada sitcom gave Lewis Collins his first taste of television stardom . He played wealthy ' Gavin Rumsey ' , on the rebound from a failed marriage , who moves in with the poor but happy Chris and Fliss ( yuck ! ) Hawthorne . Er , why ? With his money , why doesn't he get a place of his own ? His presence disrupt...
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Wogan At His Most Woeful
The best thing to be said for ' Eldorado ' was that it displaced Terry Wogan's thrice-nightly ego trip . For the benefit of those fortunate enough to have never seen it , let me explain . Each edition began with hideously garish opening titles in which Tel's surname loomed like Godzilla over the London skyline , backed...