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This fast-paced follow-up to A Night at the Opera, has the brothers Marx invading a sanitarium, as they try to peddle Groucho off as a respected neurologist. In the meantime, Chico and Harpo are trying to save the business of a friend (Maureen O'Sullivan), by entering their horse at the race track. As a result of these situations, everything runs amok, as things tend to do in a Marx Brothers' film.Once again, you'll find some truly memorable bits, especially from Groucho and Chico with their word games and double-talk. The film is hampered somewhat by some rather dull musical numbers, but the Brothers triumph over these minor problems and walk away with the film. This would be a great film to watch as a double-billing with A Night at the Opera.
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An attempt to capture the glory days of the James Dean era and set them down into the 80's. Lewis Smith plays the title character, a greaser who died in a chicken race in the 60's. He finds that he cannot get into Heaven, because of his past exploits on Earth. So to make amends, he agrees to help a teenage nerd (Jason Gedrick) in the 1980's gain popularity. How does Smith do it you ask? Why, simply turn that hopeless nerd into a "cool" greaser like him. It's a sure thing, right?I wish I could say the same for the plot. Never could a filmaker find more unappealing characters such as Smith's and Gedrick's, and make them even more unlikable. Richard Mulligan, as a angelic messenger on a motorcycle, is utterly wasted in a role that's sure to haunt his career for many years. If there is anything good I can say about this, it's the exciting homages to the car racing of Rebel Without a Cause. Alas, if only the rest of the story were as interesting as that classic landmark film.
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A limp Television adaptation of a book I consider to be a masterpiece of horror. Stephen King's epic-length novel is trimmed, butchered and made incomprehensible for those who have never had the good chance of reading the book. The story follows the lives of seven friends at two periods of each one's life, and how monstrous events lead them into the ultimate battle between good and evil. We see them as young children confronting the cold-blooded creature without a name, who can take on any form it pleases. Its favorite one seems to be in the form of a clown called Pennywise (Tim Curry). We flash forward and backward between their childhoods and 30 years afterwards, as the lucky seven reunite to finish the evil they thought was finished years before.Because of its being originally broadcast on television, those fine boys from the TV censors have rendered King's awesome tale impotent of any substance whatsoever. Important plot points from the story are cut out here, leaving certain events in the film unexplained. The acting, despite a fine ensemble (Annette O'Toole, Richard Thomas, John Ritter, etc.) is mostly dull and at times unintentionally funny. Curry however appears to be having a ball in the title role, adding his usual wicked touches to a truly menacing character. You'd be much better off reading the book (especially for those of you who are Stephen King fans).
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Jason finally gets it (or so it seems) in this ninth entry in the series. This time, the filmakers try not to take the slasher aspects too seriously. Most of the time is spent lampooning the grossness of the past entries. Horror fans will get a kick out of some of the humorous references to other horror series. Most others will be rightfully repelled. Logic is gleefully thrown out the window (as is expected of the series), but this film came out at a bad time for horror films.Although Jason (that hockey-masked, knife-wielding maniac extraordinare) has strangely become part of American pop culture, the fanfare for these Slasher extravaganzas dried up long ago. There are the few, the bold and the brave that still wish to hold onto this relatively dead genre (no pun intended), but maybe it's time we should leave them dead and buried where they belong. Save for Candyman and Scream (which does for Friday the 13th what The Naked Gun did for police dramas), most of the horror genre filmakers still believe that if you cut a few half-naked morons heads off, you'll get plenty of optimistic reaction (and lots of dough) from the public. But it doesn't seem that's the case anymore.
Take this film. The problem with this sad, unexciting entry into a dying series is that it tries too hard to please its intended audiences. It in turn alienates people looking for a truly original horror film (like The Exorcist and A Nightmare on Elm Street) which will give them a good scare. As for the others just looking for a good "splatter" film, they will be shocked to find there isn't anything here you can't find in over a hundred other horror films. If there is anything that I found even remotely surprising in this truly awful movie, it's the last scene. That one gave me a few chuckles. But that scene alone is not worth the price of admission, nor is the rest of this movie for that matter.
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One of last year's hit action blockbusters, the plot takes place at the former prison Alcatraz, where a mad General (Ed Harris) and Co. have taken the various tourists hostage. They plan to collect a huge ransom from the government, by threatening to spread a deadly nerve gas over the city of San Francisco. A special team, lead by an escapee of the rock (Sean Connery) and a chemicals expert (Nicolas Cage), is sent to do battle against these well-armed (and well-trained) foes. Unfortunately, most of the team is killed, leaving the bickering Cage and Connery to fight the good fight themselves.I wouldn't dislike it so much, if it didn't blatantly copy from countless other mismatched-partners-take-on-the-bad-guys action pictures of recent years. This leaves the story with nothing but Connery and Cage's star power to hang on to. Even some stunts are borrowed from previous pictures (One seemed to be a complete rip-off of a scene from Raiders of the Lost Ark). The plot is as unbelievable as it can get in this type of picture, and the violent actions of the characters make this film seem sick and twisted, rather than tense and exciting. This is one film that really needs to be stuck between a rock and a hard place.
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Rightfully regarded as one of the best miniseries ever made, this magnificent adaptation of Herman Wouk's novel focuses on the years 1939-1941, before America's entry into WWII. In the midst of the growing chaos, Commander Victor "Pug" Henry (Robert Mitchum) and his family get into the thick of it. Mitchum becomes President Roosevelt's naval attache to Germany, and ends up in a conference with Adolf Hitler himself. He also travels to England, during the height of the Blitz and falls for an Englishwoman, Pamala Tudsbury (Victoria Tennant), while Mitchum's wife Rhoda (Polly Bergen) flings herself into a passionate affair with nuclear physicist, Palmer Kirby (Peter Graves).Meanwhile, Mitchum's son Warren (Ben Murphy) is a naval pilot in the Pacific, while the younger son Byron (Jan-Michael Vincent) is off in Europe, falling in love with the free-spirited Natalie (Ali MacGraw), niece of acclaimed Jewish author Aaron Jastrow (John Houseman). As the winds of war continuously rise, Mitchum finds himself further entrenched in the growing Pandemonium when he goes to Russia and sees the horrors of the battlefront. We also enter the Third Reich, as seen through the eyes of the fictional General Armin Von Roon (Jeremy Kemp). We witness Hitler's plans for conquest, as he prepares to take on the world and begin a reign of terror as gruesome as any that has come before. From the invasion of Poland to the attack at Pearl Harbor, the characters are constantly forced to take part in the impending horror that will be known as WWII.
A sweeping epic of enormous proportions, with excellent performances by all and some of the most well-staged battle scenes in film history. Mitchum is the superb choice for the main character, with his trademark cool perfectly used here. He is wonderfully supported by such talents as MacGraw, Vincent, Bergen, Houseman, Kemp, Tennant and Ralph Bellamy as the indomitable Franklin Roosevelt. Some of the scenes involving the rise of Adolf Hitler and the Third Reich are both stunning and terrifying in their realism. This is one of those films that gets your passion to learn about history geared up. But this is just a prelude to the real horrors of WWII to come.
"The beginning of the end of war lies in remembrance." - Herman WoukThe thrilling sequel to The Winds of War, Herman Wouk adapted from his own novel, which is a story that is better in many ways than it's predecessor. The years focused here are the truly turbulent ones of 1941-1945. America is now at war with Nazi Germany and Japan. Robert Mitchum returns as navy man Victor "Pug" Henry, who with his family is not only in the thick of the war, but is also helping make history during the war. He still seems to have eyes for Pamala (Victoria Tennent), while his relationship with Rhoda (Polly Bergen) appears to be falling apart. But this soap opera is minor, compared to the trials and tribulations of Mitchum's son Byron (Hart Bochner), Bochner's wife Natalie Jastrow Henry (Jane Seymour), Seymour's uncle Aaron Jastrow (John Gielgud) and her son Louis. Bochner is a submarine officer in the Pacific, constantly dodging enemy ships.
Seymour's journey is ultimately more horrifying, as she is caught in Europe just as Hitler's plan for a "Final Solution" of the Jewish question is getting geared up. We enter the brutal worlds of Auschwitz, the most notorious of the Nazi concentration camps, and the dreaded "Paradise Ghetto" Theresienstadt. The scenes in the camps are filmed with such unflinching realism, it becomes frightening. As in The Winds of War, the plot also focuses from time to time on the inside of the Third Reich, which now appears to be crumbling. Adolf Hitler (Steven Berkoff) is falling apart with his dying empire, as the tides turn in Stalingrad, El Alamein, Italy and Normandy. The Pacific battles are also featured prominently, such as Midway, Guadalcanal and Leyte Gulf, and the nuclear holocaust of Hiroshima. The horrors will eventually end and the various characters will reunite, and attempt to piece their lives back together. But the message of the story (as commented by the character "Pug" Henry later in the series) still remains in our minds long after we've finished watching it. "Either war is finished or we are".
More glorious than any miniseries before it, this could possibly be one of the last of it's great kind on Television. The performances are awesome. Mitchum is great once again in the lead role, but this time, it's the passionate, heartfelt acting by Gielgud and Seymour that really hold your attention. Their acting is so good, they will have you reaching for the Kleenex by the end of the series. The acting ensemble in general is wonderful. Berkoff gives a most memorable portrait of a truly menacing Hitler. The battle scenes are gloriously produced, while the concentration camp sequences send chills up your spine. This makes all the made-for-TV tripe that's come out in the 1990's look absolutely banal by comparison.
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