Yo-ho-ho, yes. Ho-ho-ho, no. The Spanish galleon, with its elaborate carved figurehead, is magnificent, and the costumes are splendid, and the production overall is grittily detailed. But none of this has a lightening effect. (Nor does Walter Matthau's woozily unreliable Cockney accent.) At times -- such as during the rat-eating …
It is only natural to find something a little behind-times about a front-line Vietnam movie of 1986, just as one would have done about a tub-thumping World War II movie like Darby's Rangers in 1959. And for all of writer-director Oliver Stone's credentials as a Vietnam veteran himself, the sense …
French policier, more real than Maigret, more real than Castang, more real even than real. There are lengthy passages of transcript-style dialogue, the sort of thing that dries up sooner on screen and becomes much harder to follow than on the printed page. But perhaps the illusion of reality is …
Any sequel to any movie as bad as the original Poltergeist stands a good chance to beat the odds on so-called sequelitis. How could it be worse? But then again it could easily be as bad. You might have thought, in this particular case, that the Pandora's Box of evil …
Sidney Lumet on the American political scene, coming at it from a slightly new angle, shifting the spotlight to illuminate a formerly shadowed nook of it: the anonymous groomer behind the public candidate. On the pretense of enlightening the benighted, Lumet can content himself with, or console himself for, any …
That snobbery is a two-way street, that it is just as pernicious either way, that even the occasional "richie" is blessed with a speck of decency — these are worthwhile lessons. But the assumption in John Hughes's screenplay is that any lesson worth teaching doesn't need to be taught well. …
Anthony Perkins resumes the role of Norman Bates on the condition that he get to direct it himself. Not too awfully forbidding a task: he doesn't have to equal the original, only the first sequel. This he does, within an inch or so, one way or the other. Of course …
A bicycle-motocrosser (Bill Allen) tries to enter a corrupt promoter's nationally televised cash-prize race in Hal Needham's cult-BMX-classic.
Arnold Schwarzenegger, who has proven himself to be at least adequate when cast as himself (Pumping Iron) or a fictional version of himself (Stay Hungry) or a comic-book superhero (Conan the Barbarian and the Destroyer) or a robot (The Terminator), is nonetheless an actor of severe and obvious limitations. It …
A deep salaam to American jazzmen, with a bit of bootlicking thrown in, by French filmmaker Bertrand Tavernier. The venerable Dexter Gordon, with a ponderous raspy speaking voice and a mellifluous supple saxophone (as well as an artful method of blowing out a birthday candle), plays a fictional composite of …
Billy Crystal and Gregory Hines are partners on the Chicago police force, rather bantam-cockish for that line of work -- but not for their more earnest vocation as a fast-patter comedy team. Loosey-goosiness is the order of the day; and suspense, when wanted, is impossible to summon. Billy Crystal gets …
Respectably black comedy, even if really only charcoal-gray, and disappointingly rosy at the end. A nice young couple kidnap the wife of the clothing manufacturer who has stolen their idea for a Spandex Miniskirt. They want half a million or they'll kill her (just bluffing). But the businessman, who has …
The final film, before his death by cancer, of Russian director Andrei Tarkovsky, made in Sweden with local cinematographer (and regular Bergman collaborator) Sven Nykvist — and recommendable on that count alone. In fact recommendable on the basis of the first shot alone, a placid, contemplative long-take, with leisurely and …
The final film, before his death by cancer, of Russian director Andrei Tarkovsky, made in Sweden with local cinematographer (and regular Bergman collaborator) Sven Nykvist — and recommendable on that count alone. In fact recommendable on the basis of the first shot alone, a placid, contemplative long-take, with leisurely and …