Anchorman: The Legend Of Ron Burgundy Will Ferrell’s fame in comedy can seem rather inexplicable to the typical layman type who prefers their humor to be cool, sophisticated, and funny. Back from his early SNL days when he seemed almost determined to emulate his performing style based on various legendary alumni from the show’s past […]
Angel Heart It’s pretty difficult to come up with a list of the greatest horror movies of all time and NOT think of one that didn’t spawn several sequels of varying quality, but when one thinks of the best and scariest stand-alone horror flicks this 1987 film from Alan Parker invariably tops the list, a […]
Anguish What starts out as a typical 80s slasher turns into something with a quite brilliant and effective gimmick. The plot follows an orderly in an eye clinic played by Michael Lerner who after being hypnotized by his bizarre mother, goes on a murder rampage during which time he removes the eyeballs of his victims. […]
Animal Crackers With The Marx Brothers now firmly entrenched in Hollywood filmmaking (although their films were being shot on soundstages in New York) after the success of their debut feature (The Cocoanuts), in 1930 they came along with their second film, one which was also based on a stage play which they had starred in […]
Another 48 Hrs Although it is still one of the more entertaining sequels of the era, Walter Hill’s follow-up to his seminal action-comedy is nonetheless hamstrung by rigidly sticking to the formula established in the original: Introduce the villains first thru a violent opening scene, show the audience Nolte’s Jack Cates character in action in […]
Any Given Sunday Before it turned into the watered down, money hungry, showbiz spectacle where the hype and revenue earned by ratings was more important than the game itself, the sport of football was one of the last examples of truly primal, almost bestial displays of open combat allowed and enjoyed in our culture, where […]
Apocalypse Now From the hypnotic opening shot (with Jim Morrison almost acting as the voice of God as he sings “The End”) to the solemn final minutes, Francis Ford Coppola’s Grand Masterpiece (worlds better than his beloved Godfather movies) in some ways can be seen as truly the Ultimate Film, seemingly about the Vietnam War […]
Appaloosa Going into this I feared the worst, that this film would resemble Kevin Costner’s Open Range, a boring pretentious western with a leaden script and story. Fortunately Ed Harris (who directs, stars, writes, and produces) doesn’t quite give us that here. Regardless, Harris’ Virgil Cole is a perplexing creation. Obviously patterned after the neo-conservative […]
Army Of Darkness When it came time for the third chapter in The Evil Dead Trilogy, Sam Raimi and Bruce Campbell decided to dispense with the isolated horror theatrics and go forward with a sprawling epic (at 80 minutes) action comedy that continued the story and lineage already established by the ending of Evil Dead […]
As Good As It Gets Romantic comedies often fail for a number of various reasons. For one, you have the two leads who are both designed to be pretty and perfect yet come across as being inherently unlikable simply because so much of their lives and personalities come off as being so movie star fake. […]