The brainchild of Gene Levitt and produced by Aaron Spelling and his partner Leonard Goldberg, Fantasy Island first appeared on ABC in the form of a television movie on January 14, 1977. Due to the film’s high ratings, ABC went…
While not as instantly recognizable as compatriots Fellini, De Sica, Visconti, or Antonioni, director Mario Monicelli was nonetheless influential, considered one of the masters of the Commedia all’Italiana (Comedy Italian style), helmed more than sixty films in a career that…
Shot in black and white, and steeped in realism, director Mathieu Kassovitz’s La Haine (“Hate”) is often thought of as France’s answer to Boyz N’ the Hood. Showing gun fights, riots, police brutality, and gang warfare, this sprawling urban drama…
The late Buford Pusser, a onetime professional wrestler and former Sherriff of McNairy County in Tennessee, gained some national headlines in the mid-sixties when he launched a one man war on the local moonshine rackets, with the help of a…
Finding employment that paid a decent wage in the harsh environment of 19th century Ireland was very difficult. For women, it was next to impossible. Based on a George Moore novella, Albert Nobbs tells the story of a woman who…
Loosely based on the Jane Austen novel, Emma focuses on Cher Horowitz (Alicia Silverstone) a vapid, spoiled teenager living in Beverly Hills. One of the coolest girls in school, Cher drives a white jeep even though she only has a…
Shot in the time between El mariachi and Desperado, Robert Rodriguez’s Roadracers aired as part of a series of features that aired on Showtime in 1994, called Rebel Highway. Each film in the 10-part series got its title from a…
Jack Cardiff was a celebrated cinematographer, notably having worked on Powell/Pressburger classics Black Narcissus and The Red Shoes. Cardiff was also an active director, having helmed over half a dozen films, earning a Best Director Oscar nomination for Sons and…
Camelot first captured audiences’ imaginations when it debuted on Broadway in 1960. Penned by the celebrated team of Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe, who had previously collaborated on Gigi and My Fair Lady among others, Jack Warner was quickly…
At the very least, the filmmakers hit on an interesting concept in deciding to tell the story of an alien invasion in which the malevolent beings are invisible for most of the film. Unfortunately, The Darkest Hour is amateurish, lifeless,…