Reviews
Every good film deserves another take
Heaven Help Us
Every once in a while, you find a film from youth that is full of great scenes with great actors who most people didn’t know at the time, but today has the makings of a classic. “Heaven Help Us” follows a group of Catholic School boys through pranks, dates and other...
Witness
There’s hardly any part of “Witness” I don’t love. In fact, I wonder how a film like this even got green-lit. Much of the supporting cast and the two writers were perennial television workers, the director had never directed an American film, and films...
Class of 1984
I’ll admit it. Many of the films I enjoyed as a child were supremely influenced by a PBS show called “Sneak Previews” with Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert. They left the show in 1982 and went to network syndication with “At the Movies”. “Sneak Previews”...
The Long Kiss Goodnight
How the hell did this cost $65 million? That’s almost as much as it cost to make “The Rock” the same year, and that got us Sean Connery, Nicholas Cage and Ed Harris, and it got the studio more than twice that at the box office. But darn it, I love “The Long Kiss...
When Harry Met Sally
I became a fan of rom-coms because of “When Harry Met Sally.” For once, the guy was a smart alec who didn’t look like a Ken doll. One of those “He could be me” situations. And Meg Ryan was everybody’s high-maintenance but sweet girl next door. In fact, I...
The Incredible Shrinking Man
I can’t tell you how many times I saw “The Incredible Shrinking Man” on television as a kid, but it was a lot. This film is emblazoned on my childhood. Oddly, it gets very little respect. It wasn’t a huge hit, and took a few re-releases to make a...
Malice
The early 1990s were a good time to do husband and wife thrillers, and “Malice” is just about the best. Coming of his hit play-turned-movie “A Few Good Men”, Aaron Sorkin pens this story of intrigue, after which he veered off into politics with “The American...
Christine
I never understood why this film never really found an audience. It’s classic Stephen King directed by classic John Carpenter. I never understood why this film never really found an audience. It’s classic Stephen King directed by classic John...
Fright Night
This is one of those stories where a studio head says “What the heck. Let’s make a movie.” Scriptwriter Tom Holland was a successful writer and wanted to direct his next script, a horror film. Horror was in during the 80s, but vampire films were in short...