The Movie Rat Posted by Bernardo Villela on September 21, 2011

Most holidays worth their while encompass entire seasons, such as Christmas, for example. However, as you may have noticed there is a corporate push every year for us to think about the next holiday even sooner. While this has many negative side effects I figure I may as well embrace...   read more

The Stop Button Posted by on December 17, 2010

Buckaroo Banzai‘s greatest contribution to cinema–well, if it didn’t get Peter Weller the Robocop role at least–is as a warning against trying to adapt authors like Thomas Pynchon to motion pictures. Banzai goes out of its way–the Pynchon references are well-known, to   read more

Hollywood Revue Posted by Angela on April 21, 2010

In the 1980s, Marlene Dietrich was a virtual recluse.  When people think of reclusive stars, Greta Garbo is likely the one who first comes to mind, but Dietrich was just as reclusive as Garbo, if not more so.  Dietrich spent most of the 1970s performing her one-woman stage shows, but...   read more

Noir and Chick Flicks Posted by Dawn on April 17, 2010

Top Secret!(1984). Comedy. Director: David Zucker, Jim Abrahams, and Jerry Zucker. Cast: Val Kilmer (in his first feature film), Lucy Gutteridge, Omar Sharif, Peter Cushing, Michael Gough and Jeremy Kemp. The film is a parody of the GDR era and Elvis films. The original music score is composed by M   read more

The Stop Button Posted by on August 7, 2009

The best thing about A Nightmare on Elm Street is the font in the opening titles. It’s something sans serif and it’s slightly off and it looks good. To be fair to the movie’s reputation, I did jump twice, both times at the end; maybe because it was waking me...   read more

The Stop Button Posted by on March 23, 2009

I wonder if the U.S. Army would like to get a movie like Tank out today. The movie’s politics are… well, they’re not hilarious, but they’re so blatant, it’s stunning. It’s a pro-Army film and an intensely anti-Georgia film. It likes Tennessee though. From Tank, a   read more

The Stop Button Posted by on February 25, 2009

Directed by Joseph Zito; screenplay by Barney Cohen, based on a story by Bruce Hidemi Sakow and on characters created by Martin Kitrosser, Ron Kurz, Victor Miller and Carol Watson; director of photography, João Fernandes; edited by Joel Goodman; production designer, Shelton H. Bishop; produced by F   read more

The Stop Button Posted by on October 13, 2008

Greystoke ought to work. From the opening, it really seems like it might. It survives a massive narrative hiccup–switching perspective from young Tarzan to explorer Ian Holm. It establishes people in ape costumes as believable, sympathetic, feeling characters. It’s got beautiful cinemat   read more

The Stop Button Posted by on October 8, 2008

I’m glad I’m not the only one who observed the pervasive misogyny in Purple Rain. Apparently, it’s a well-known feature of the movie. It’s constant from the start and frequently surprising in its intensity. At some point, that frequency wears down any reaction–the only   read more

The Stop Button Posted by on August 12, 2008

I remember The Terminator being a lot better. Even as it started–I think during the first chase sequence (Michael Biehn in the department store)–I thought about the great highway chase sequence at the end. Then, as things went sour during, I kept waiting for that sequence, sure it would   read more

The Stop Button Posted by on August 1, 2008

It must have been Bette Midler’s former manager, Aaron Russo (Teachers‘s producer), who somehow confused Arthur Hiller as the creative force behind The Hospital. Teachers is very much like The Hospital, but in its stoic protagonist, the stoic protagonist’s ultimate choice in the e   read more

Critica Retro Posted by Lê on November 30, -0001

Feitiço do Rio / Blame it on Rio (1984) Não existe pecado do lado de baixo do Equador. Esta é a visão que Hollywood sempre teve do país em que eu vivo: o Brasil. Um lugar muito sensual, com praias, mulheres lindas, muita música, festas religiosas e alguns animais exóticos....   read more