Reviews

I liked it. Old-fashioned, hokey derring-do. Whore with heart of gold? Check. Impossibly fast gunfighters? Check. Unbelievably bloody climactic gunfight at the end with bodies strewn everywhere? Check, check, check. What's not to like? In the good old days, Audie Murphy would have played the hero who is so straight arrow that one is surprised that he doesn't order a glass of milk in the saloon scenes. Furthermore, I could watch the actress who plays Cassie May for a long time without complaining. I admit that this one is in no way original, but that really isn't the point. If you ever hear yourself complain that they don't make 'em like they used to, then you really ought to give this one some love.

I watch all movies that are based on ERB novels. All of 'em. I think I even watched that Bo Derek nightmare. But I could not go the distance on this dog. As has been mentioned, the martians are quite grotesque and this makes one wonder why they cast Ms. Lords. The effects, I concede, are surprisingly credible given the low budget. The problem lies in the atrocious script. It is as dull as an old knife. A Burroughs flick can be a lot of things, but boring should not be one of them. Even on a skimpy budget, I could have done a better adaptation than this. So could your eight year old child or perhaps your Border Collie. If you loved the book as I did, you simply must stay away from this. It will actually hurt you.

I quite like this film, and I suspect that it will become better regarded as time goes on. The long tracking shot that begins the movie as the credits roll is so artfully and subtly done that one almost misses what a very long tracking shot it is....And I say that as someone who does not like DePalma's work and generally regards him as the most unsubtle and derivative of directors. This one take earns him big-time director's chops.

It is difficult to see how a hard SF fan could be disappointed by Mission To Mars. The effort at technological verisimilitude is really commendable and is largely persuasive. There aren't very many really hard SF movies out there and,at it's best, this one conjures up memories of Kim Stanley Robinson's Red Mars novels. The film only misses fire at the end due to the gooey, sentimental and thoroughly anthropomorphic alien (Tear ducts? Gimme a break.) Not an action flick in the least, but lots of points for intelligence. No 2001, but coming off second-best to Kubrick isn't so bad.

This probably doesn't deserve the "B Movie" sobriquet. The production values are pretty high and it is quite heavy on the movie stars. This looks to me like it would have taken the A spot on a bill. Dix is good but Victor Jory nearly steals the show. The high point is likely one of the most over-the-top barroom brawls I've ever seen on celluloid. The script is also fine, although nothing too original. The low point in the movie....aside from a really unfortunate racial caricature.... is probably represented by a really ghastly World War II style showgirl routine based around "When Johnny Comes Marching Home". All in all, a satisfying show.

This is likely the worst of the Universal horror flicks....Yes, even worse than House Of Dracula. Lugosi is dreadfully miscast as The Monster and Lon Chaney Jr. is as good or as bad as he always is. As some of the other commentariat have pointed out already, there is just zero attention paid to the continuity from the previous entry in the series. The encounter between the two monsters is a huge letdown (I even felt that way as a little kid). The best part of the whole movie is when the studio trots out a completely ludicrous and inappropriately festive song at a Bavarian Beer Garden. After about a year of this, Chaney starts screaming "Stop! Stop Singing! I want to die!" There can be little doubt that he spoke for a large proportion of the audience.

Inept adaptation of the John Gardner novel and a tremendous disappointment for John Gardner's fans. The film captures none of the beauty of the story and descends into the very cheapest of melodramas. The completely sympathetic character of Willard becomes a mouth-breathing villain and the gentle, pensive, shy Henry Soames is portrayed as something of a jealous lunatic and rather prone to violence in the bargain. Heather Lagenkampf is fine, however, though the script gives her very little to work with. The movie is adequately shot but is never inventive. In short, the movie is a long hard slog to watch and at no point repays the viewer's efforts.

Vastly better than the awful 2005 effort and it's lame sequel. The special effects are awful, yes, but hardly cheesier than the lame big budget CGI we have seen since. The overall flavor is very in keeping with the early Fantastic Four comics, and you can tell that the folks who made it really loved those comics - again in sharp contrast to the soulless efforts of the 21st century. The acting is even better than the later version and,in my opinion, the script as well. The casting is virtually perfect.

As you can easily tell, I really loathed the Big Hollywood versions. If you like the original comic magazines, though, you could do a whole lot worse than blow an evening with this.

And I Loved the line: "Hi Mrs. Storm! Can Johnny and Sue go to outer space with us?"

Superb serial. The only one that matches it in quality is the first Flash Gordon. The production values are exceptional and eclipse many better known B movies. Ralph Byrd is perfectly cast in the title role. The only explanation I can think of for some viewers to rate this any lower than an "A" is that they just haven't seen very many serials. One of the few efforts in this line that actually has some atmospheric touches and, as another commenter has pointed out, the special effects are genuinely good.

Folks who don't really like serials are....well, they're folks who don't like serials (probably don't much like Christmas either). For those who do like serials, this is like a trip to the circus. Good action and WAY better than usual script and acting. As movies go, this probably only deserves a 7 but for a serial it deserves a perfect 10.

I really wanted to like this movie, as it was quite the hot ticket back when I was a kid....that, plus the superb soundtrack. I can hardly describe my disappointment when I actually got to viddy the thing. Bad script, bad sound, atrocious camera work, and awful direction. It looks and feels a lot worse than some high school film productions. The script is insulting to it's audience and demonstrates what today seems like an incredible contempt for the black characters. It is true that the movie was incredibly influential for the first half of the 1970s....in a way that got brutally parodied in the film _I'm Gonna Get You, Sucka_.

There are lots of good blaxploitation flicks out there. Don't waste your time with this incompetent piece of junk.

A lot of the reviewers pretty well panned this, so I actually was quite reluctant to watch it. Turned out that it was a good thing that I did, as it was quite a satisfying SF flick. The young leads are both very engaging, the set design and art direction are excellent and the whole affair is kinda suspenseful. The myriad big-name character actors are slightly distracting, particularly Bill Murray and Tim Robbins, but all turn in OK performances. I think some of the critics were a little turned off, frankly, because the movie did so very poorly at the box-office. As the years go by, I am betting that this little movie holds up a lot better than some of 2008's big hits.

Jeez, this is a hard bunch to satisfy. As my screen name indicates I am a stone cold Edgar Rice Burroughs freak and, for ERB fans, Tarzan flicks are less to be enjoyed than to be endured. Our suffering has been great and it has been long. When you have paid hard wampum to sit through "At The Earth's Core"....when you have an actual opinion as to whether Buster Crabbe was a better actor than Johnny Weissmuller....when you can explain the difference between Nyoka, Sheena and Rulah....then you can tell us what a lousy Tarzan movie this is.

For those Happy Few who fit the description above, you are going to like this film just fine and, in fact, you have probably already seen it. It's not the real McCoy, but you've doubtless given up on that by now.

Trite. Pretentious. Shallow. Anyone who doesn't think this is dated will probably also dig the movies of Theda Bara. Bad performance (if you can call it that) by Peter Fonda, who appears to be maxed out on ludes. Jack Nicholson rescues his scenes, but since he only appears for a few minutes it ain't enough. Educators could use the script to hammer home the distinction between "story" vs. "plot".

There are many better pictures from this period, thank God. Wild In The Streets and THX-1138 aren't really great flicks, but they hold up a lot better than this stiff. How do you make guns, sex and drugs boring? Watch Easy Rider and find out.

Near-perfect ghost story. Comparisons to Turn Of The Screw and The Haunting, as well as to The Sixth Sense, are apt. In my opinion The Others is actually superior to the latter.

The performances by the various actors have been widely acclaimed, and justly so. Kidman, who seems literally luminous here, is actually upstaged at times by the performances of the children.

It would be hard to praise the direction and editing too highly. The climactic scene contains a POV cut that feels and acts like a dissolve (you'll know it when you see it), but that is to pick only one example from an overall virtuoso effort.

Though this is not a film that will appeal to all fans of Sam Raimi or Wes Craven,it will move quite fast enough for those who enjoy subtler, less effects-laden spookers.

Very good SF film. Willis gives the best performance of his career and finally proves to those of us who had our doubts that he actually can act. The plot is quite easy to follow provided the viewer pays a little attention. The movie is very funny throughout, with Brad Pitt's manic appearances being the side-splitters (he perhaps owes a bit to Dennis Hopper in Apocalypse Now).

Visually, 12 Monkeys resembles Gilliam's Brazil a great deal and shares some of that film's atmosphere as well. I give this one an 8 out of 10

Naw, this is a great movie. Well, OK, it's not quite great, but it's pretty good. Actually, it's not even maybe all that good but I like it anyway. The stop motion animation is of very high quality when you consider that the folks who made this had something like fifty cents to spend on it. The animated sequences are fairly long and rather original. The story line, to the extent that there is one, resembles THE EVIL DEAD crossed with PHANTASM. The movie also had one of the greatest theatrical posters of all time.

I am descended from Confederates and I've never allowed current mores to interfere with my enjoyment of a movie like, for instance, Gone With The Wind. However, I must acknowledge that this particular example of pro-slavery dreck is one of the most offensive movies I have ever seen. It is slickly made, with plenty of stars and good action, but the appalling racism and revisionism.....startling even for the period in which it was made....would ruin this film for most of today's audience. This is really the type of movie that makes the viewer wish to apologize to the first black person you can find

Captivating and offbeat SF animated adventure. The use of the waltz in Gorageur's musical score during the climactic scene is worth watching the film for in itself. The script is absorbing and while the animation is not as expensive as, say, Disney it is vastly more original in conception. This isn't for everyone but it certainly deserved the award it won at Cannes.

Pretty fair horse opera set during Oklahoma land rush. Features Randolph Scott along with just about every "B" star in business such as Anne Jeffries (Tess Trueheart), Tom Tyler (Captain Marvel) and Lex Barker (Tarzan). Outlaws, calvary, bandit queens, the works. Scott does his usual Oscar-caliber imitation of a cigar store Indian.

This is a difficult film to rate. Most viewers will find it an annoying bore, but devotees of the bands who appeared over the first year of the British Invasion will be mesmerized. The movie is a series of lip-synched "performances" by the also-rans that flourished in the wake of The Beatles during 1964, including The Honeycombs, The Spencer Davis Group, The Animals, Tommy Quickly, Peter And Gordon, Herman's Hermits, Nashville Teens and several others. The standout is probably The Animals featuring a young and deadly looking Eric Burdon. The film is decorated with tons of 1960's set design and art direction and a team of pretty dancers in gold-lame hip-huggers shaking same in Hullabaloo style choreography.

This fine little film might be entirely unremembered were it not for the appearance of Orson Welles in the movie's frame and as the narrator throughout. The story is quite predictable to anyone who has ever heard a ghost story told aloud, but manages to deliver a chill anyway. Oddly, the least effective part of the script is that given over to Welles narration. The photography, however, is so good throughout as to approach perfection. The performances are all competent, though Welles can be faulted for chewing the scenery in the old Mercury Theatre manner.

Ultra lightweight movie almost floats away. Jean Gillie is fine as Pat Holm (borrowed from the very early Saint novels), but Hugh Sinclair suffers compared to the more magnetic George Sanders and lacks the vocal charm of Vincent Price's radio Saint. One of the appealing things about the Simon Templar character was the suspicion that he was only on the side of the good guys for as long as it would prove profitable. None of this comes through in this Republic effort, though the production values are reasonably high.

Excellent film from the late British period of Hitchcock's career. Plot is the innocent man accused of a crime, on the run, and befriended only by one girl....sound familiar? Hitch used this story-line at least seven times that I can think of off the top of my head. It always worked for him and it does the trick again here. Nova Pilbeam is scrumptious and the other cast members are adequate. Odd that this one isn't better known, as it is far better than some of the later films like STAGE FRIGHT or I CONFESS.

Real western addicts acknowledge that Republic Studios, despite their cost-cutting measures, turned out the absolute best horse operas in history. This fine and little known movie is exceptional even by Republic standards. No subtle stuff here....just an unusually tight and suspenseful script, committed performances from seasoned western stars and, of course, plenty of the usual gunfight action.