By John H. Foote (**) Everyone I think wanted this to be a movie for the ages, a masterpiece documenting the life of the great abolitionist Harriet Tubman, a former slave from Maryland, who escaped across the state border into Pennsylvania, where slavery was outlawed and she could live free. Directed by the gifted Kari…
By John H. Foote Some major and minor changes this week. This will be the order of things until the big night, because as we keep finding out, there will be changes each week, we really do not have a clue until that envelope is opened. I suppose the biggest news this week is Eddie…
By Craig Leask Who doesn’t like a good old black and white monster movie, especially around Halloween? My other half and I pull them out each year to help us get in the mood for the annual night of haunts. I guess they’re all somewhat simplistic today, but they really are a weird kind of…
By Alan Hurst The 1930’s were a heyday for comedy films. Other decades may have owned other genres, but the world needed – and wanted – to laugh during a decade of intense depression, poverty, and the slowly simmering build up to World War II. Comedy was the great escape. Gangster films also flourished, as…
By Nick Maylor Kevin Smith took a brief sabbatical from filmmaking after the perceived failure of Zack & Miri Make a Porno (2008), a film that saw the worst box office opening for star Seth Rogen. With Zack & Miri, Smith was clearly trying to make a film that would play to a certain type…
By John H. Foote (*) Just four years after his film Chariots of Fire (1981) stunned Hollywood by winning the Academy Award for Best Picture, besting the superior Reds (1981), Hugh Hudson delivered this mess in December 1985. Touted as a massive epic about the American Revolutionary War, the film was expected to be an…
By John H. Foote (****) “Now I want you to remember, no bastard ever won a war by dying for his country. He won it by making the other poor dumb bastard die for his country.” – General George S. Patton (George C. Scott in Patton) The United States military believed having a General as dangerous…
By John H. Foote (****) What turned the son of blue-collar parents living in New Jersey into the greatest poet in the history of rock and roll? It is as if the ghosts of Beethoven, Mozart, Elvis, Janis Joplin, and Buddy Holly reached down to stroke him with their genius, blessed by them, he forged…
By Melissa Houghton As a child I was terrified of vampire movies. I’d only seen Dracula (1931) starring Bela Lugosi and later Nosferatu the Vampyre (1979) with Klaus Kinski, but it was enough to keep replaying in my mind, plus feeling sheer terror recalling shadowy images of the walking dead. My cure for embracing vampires…
By Alan Hurst Movie fans can usually trace their fascination with movies/film/cinema (take your pick) back to one or two events: the first time seeing a movie in a theatre, an actor or actress who struck a chord, first time viewing of a classic on TV, video or DVD. Whatever it was, something ignited that…