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The Animal World

“The major problem with The Animal World, which which renders the film practically unwatchable today, can be traced directly back to this quote from Irwin Allen, the writer-director-producer of this nature documentary: “We don’t use the word “evolution.” We hope to walk a very thin line. On o” read more

It Came from Beneath the Sea

“The acting and directing are a step-up from The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms in It Came from Beneath the Sea, but its Ray Harryhausen’s quirky effects work that’s the real charm here. Another run through “giant radiated creature destroys the city,” It Came from Beneath the Sea is another fast-m” read more

The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms

“The faux-dinosaur at the heart of The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms (dubbed Rhedosaurus) is the twisted atomic heart of an entire genre of films about gigantic monsters created or awakened by nuclear bombs. For all of the stilted dialog, slumberous pacing, and wooden acting, those big set pieces make th” read more

Mighty Joe Young

“Sixteen years after King Kong frightened the masses, several of the primary players reteamed for this novelty, yet another film about a gigantic ape and the pretty young woman who can tame him. Whereas King Kong was all about scaring the daylights of its audience and sending them on a thrill-a-minut” read more

The Story of the Tortoise and the Hare

“First, a little bit of background information is in order. Begun as the sixth entry in his fairy tale series in 1952, “The Story of the Tortoise and the Hare” was abandoned once Ray Harryhausen realized there was more money in making movie monsters than there was in making short films for school” read more

The Story of King Midas

“All of these fairy tale adaptations have flirted with terrifying images, but “The Story of King Midas” gives us a warlock that looks like Nosferatu manifesting from a loose golden coin in a puff of smoke. This creature of dark magic wouldn’t be out of place in one of Ray Harryhausen’s Sinbad” read more

The Story of Hansel and Gretel

““The Story of Hansel and Gretel” is a remarked improvement over the same year’s “Rapunzel,” creating a sustained air of dread throughout its ten short minutes and then ending in a bittersweet happy ending. The innocence is forever lost in Hansel and Gretel’s dewy youth, but at least they” read more

A Cat in Paris

“Made up of equal parts of the colored pencil warmth of a children’s storybook and European noir-ish intrigue of To Catch a Thief, A Cat in Paris is a charming mixed bag. The combination of flavors never settles into anything coherent, but it’s consistently lovely to gaze upon, cozy and artisanal” read more

The Homesman

“The Homesman is something of a mess, but in fractured moments it possess a stark, uncompromising poetry and a stellar pair of lead performances. The problem is, instead of just leaving well enough alone and pointing the camera at Hilary Swank and Tommy Lee Jones, Jones, who also directs, takes the n” read more

The Story of Rapunzel

““The Story of Rapunzel” is probably the weakest of the fairy tale shorts that Ray Harryhausen made. Not for any particular reason besides the lack of a truly memorable villain to make it all worth the trip, of course this can be traced back to the source. The fairy tale drops the witch quickly a” read more

The Story of Little Red Riding Hood

“I first encountered these semi-campy, semi-terrifying stop-motion fairy tale films from Ray Harryhausen on a VHS tape collecting hundreds of public domain cartoons. Sandwiched in-between Fleischer cartoons, Little Audrey, Felix the Cat, and Mighty Mouse, these things stuck out not only for their jer” read more

Mother Goose Stories

““Mother Goose Stories,” or “The Storybook Review” depending on where you’ve learned the title, is a ten minute short film encompassing four nursery rhymes, complete and unabridged. It’s also just absolutely bizarre to watch given that stop-motion animation was nowhere near as fluid as it” read more

Tulips Shall Grow

““Tulips Shall Grow” is a short film made during WWII that exists to give weight and artistic design to the phrase, “hope springs eternal.” It tells the story of a Dutch boy and girl romancing each other in a storybook Eden before mechanical screws render it a wasteland, only for divine inter” read more

The Heiress

“The Heiress is a prime example of the kind of literary adaptations that Hollywood once trafficked in. Films that fashioned intelligent frameworks from great novels allowing for a kind of cinematic poetry between the finely honed performances and staid melodrama, a type of cinematic language that no ” read more

Ghostbusters (2016)

“Ghostbusters, or Ghostbusters: Answer the Call as it’s dubbed during the end credits, is much better than the loud, annoying crybabies would have you believe. Much like the original, this spin on the material is a herky-jerky ride between improve comedy and jump-scares. When it works, it’s very ” read more

Mame

“What a mess this is. Everything you’ve ever heard about what a disaster the film version of the Broadway smash Mame is, well, it’s all true, every word of it. There’s no amount of exaggeration that can quite explain just how inept and fascinatingly awful this is. There’s a few bright spots, ” read more

Critic’s Choice

“The final big screen pairing of Bob Hope and Lucille Ball, two indomitable performers and towering icons, and it is not worthy of rafter-shaking comedic talents. It plays not dissimilarly to an episode of I Love Lucy where she writes a questionably autobiographical novel and Ricky disapproves, only ” read more

To Catch a Thief

“Cary Grant. Grace Kelly. Alfred Hitchcock. The French Riviera.   There’s nothing else you need to make a wildly entertaining thrill ride, complete with some romance, action, and beautiful jewels. It’s charming minor Hitchcock, but an entry that is demonstrative of his range as an artist. Aft” read more

Rear Window

“It makes a strange sort of sense that the hero of Rear Window is confined to a wheelchair in his apartment. His immobilization only highlights his character’s obsession and fascination with voyeurism, hinted at with the opening crawl through his apartment that slowly caresses a broken camera and t” read more

High Noon

“A tough, lean 85 minutes marks High Noon as a study in economy. There’s no fat in any of the stories, the characters feel authentic and lived-in, the pace never wavers, and the tension slowly increases until the nail-biter of a climatic shootout. High Noon uses all of the pieces of a typical weste” read more

Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides

“After a five year dry spell, the Pirates of the Caribbean returned with a new director (Rob Marshall), two returning players (Johnny Depp and Geoffrey Rush), and minus two others (Keira Knightly and Orlando Bloom). On Stranger Tides, based on a novel by Tim Powers, is what a franchise looks like whe” read more

Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End

“If the prior year’s Dead Man’s Chest was a rollercoaster that consistently threatened to careen wildly off the tracks at any moment, then At World’s End is a whirligig on a crumbling foundation. The sense of bloat that’s always threatened to devour these films reaches its apex here, with nea” read more

Queen of Katwe

“True emotional uplift is hard to accomplish in the movies, especially in “based on a true story” variations that trend towards easy emotional manipulation and sugary sentimentality. Leave it to a more idiosyncratic director like Mira Nair to take the “child prodigy-made-good-through-sports” ” read more

Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest

“Everything wrong with Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest can be perfectly summarized in the frenzied battle that encapsulates much of the climax. There’s Will, Jack, and a dispossessed Commodore Norrington (Jack Davenport) fighting in a gigantic spinning wheel across an island terrain. M” read more

Pirates of the Caribbean

“Forgive the groan-worthy pun, but the pirate film genre was dead in the water by this point. Cutthroat Island was the most recent big-budget pirate film, and it was a notorious bomb in 1995. More ominous signs loomed over Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl prior to its release. H” read more

Eyes Wide Shut

“Mystique and contradictory impulses abound in Eyes Wide Shut, the final film from cinematic master Stanley Kubrick. Is everything we are witnessing but a strange dream, a stroll through the subterranean sexual lives of Manhattanites both rich and poor, or is this happening in real time? Does it real” read more

Liebestraum

“Operating under the logic of dreams, with everyone delivering their dialog at a sleepy pace, Liebestraum is a series of beautiful images signifying nothing of interest. All it offers is moody and stylish surfaces, interminable verbal exchanges about architectural designs, and a central mystery that ” read more

The Mirror Crack'd

“Agatha Christie’s star-studded film adaptations are perfect excuses for slumming movie stars to have a bit of fun with a polite murder-mystery story. They line up in a series of eccentric roles, providing a colorful, and loud, cast of characters to bicker, plot, and deliver red herrings galore, be” read more

Just a Gigolo

“As a massive devotee and fan of David Bowie, I’ve been known to refer to him as God on more than one occasion, I’ve been strangely looking forward to viewing this. I wasn’t sure what exactly to expect, but I knew it was going to be a mess. Perhaps these low expectations lead to my odd enjoymen” read more

The White Buffalo

“Given the creative team behind this, many of the major players of the kitsch-minor classic 70s King Kong, I was ready to view The White Buffalo as a kissing cousin to that oddity. Imagine my surprise when I finished watching it only to discover a film of great promise and premise, undercut only by i” read more