Mexican-made historical re-enactment of the adventures of a shipwrecked conquistador among American Indians in the 16th Century, his separation from his fellow Spaniards, his apprenticeship to a native medicine man, his independent career as an itinerant miracle worker. The account of any such conversion and assimilation is bound to be …
Takeoff on Captains Courageous, in which a full-grown upper-class twit (Chris Elliott) gets marooned on a fishing boat with a crew of rummy old salts. From there, it takes off into Seventh Voyage of Sinbad and Mysterious Island territory: a nautical zone called Hell's Bucket, with its shark-man (Russ Tamblyn), …
Five friends, in one log house, surrounded by numerous flesh-eating neighbors. Sound familiar? It should, seeing how only fourteen years separate this from its predecessor. Not since Gus Van Sant plunged a knife in Psycho have we witnessed such an unnecessary remake. Had Quentin Tarantino upped the number of “Hatefuls” …
Terrorized teens in a desolate location become unwitting participants in a faith-based reality TV show. For 40 minutes we’re treated to an encyclopedic vivisection of everything wrong with contemporary horror movies. The overly clever script by Joss Whedon and director Drew Goddard eventually falls victim to its own satirization, but …
Deprived of parenting as a lad, reared by television ("I learned the facts of life from watching The Facts of Life!"), he's now a lisping cable installer with a flypaper personality: he wants to be best friends with his new customer. Despite some side trips -- Court TV, "theme" restaurants, …
Well-chilled French thriller comparable in degrees centigrade to Time Out, With a Friend Like Harry, Merci pour le Chocolat, Red Lights, et al. An anonymous videocassette in a plastic bag is left without explanation at the doorstep of the civilized host of a book-chat TV show: a two-hour static surveillance …
Comedy out of the better-slob-than-snob school. But then, it hasn't much to be snobbish about. Its main boasting point is in finally giving Rodney Dangerfield a film role large enough to move around in: a nouveau-riche vulgarian who invades the inner sanctum of an exclusive country club. Bill Murray has …
To save time from running the title through Wikipedia, the cadejo are a pair of magical creatures along the lines of Oz’s good witch/bad witch sisters. The only reason Bea (Pamela Martinez) invited older sister Sarita (Karen Martinez) to the club that evening was so that grandma would let her …
Robin Williams slightly (and strangely) constrained as a car salesman and womanizer: we don't see much of his technique in either pursuit, though we get a definite whiff of squalidness. Midway through, a Dog Day Afternoon-type "hostage situation" puts an end to all that, and also to all interest. A …
The emergence of rock-and-roll, as seen from the catbird seat of Chess Records in Chicago: Muddy Waters, Little Walter, Howlin’ Wolf, Chuck Berry, Etta James, et al. The golden music, the vintage cars, the period hairdos retain their glamour; the backstage clichés are just old. Adrien Brody, as producer Leonard …
So what would happen if you staged Julius Caesar in a modern-day Roman prison? These guys found out.
Woody Allen gives a tour of Woody Allenland, complete with gentle and largely unnecessary narration. Unnecessary for the movie, that is. But it’s just possible that this is something else: a primer of sorts, a re-introduction of the old guy’s schtick to a generation that’s only ever read about him …