Reviews

Every good film deserves another take

Anatomy of a Murder

Anatomy of a Murder

Courtroom dramas are about as frequent as star-crossed lover romance films, but we know how the romance films usually end. We sometimes know, or hope we know, how the courtroom drama will end.   The test of a good movie, especially a courtroom one, is in the...

Trading Places

Trading Places

A staple of American comedy since the 1970s has been the “Saturday Night Live” film where cast members from the famed sketch comedy show hit the big screen with varying success levels. The early cast members had two names involved:  Ivan Reitman, who generally...

Caddyshack

Caddyshack

The funny thing about comedies is how hard it is to be funny in a film. There isn’t really a designed method to it.  There really aren’t rules.  In the early days of sound films, the Marx Brothers would basically take a show on the road, find out what got...

The Poseidon Adventure

The Poseidon Adventure

If there was a time when the world was turning upside down, it was the 60s and 70s.  The turmoil from Vietnam to Watergate made many question the things Americans relied on for decades.  That anti-establishment arc found its way into many films. ...

Time After Time

Time After Time

Really good science fiction answers a really cool question that begins with “What If.” Sadly, since Star Wars, science fiction his been thought to be spaceships flying through the galaxy or if we go back as far as the fifties, spaceships landing or attacking Earth....

Saturday Night Fever

Saturday Night Fever

Norman Wexler, the reason I love Saturday Night Fever. He suffered from mental illness most of his life and was rumored to be the inspiration for Tony Clifton, Andy Kaufman’s stage alter ego. But he turned a movie about nightclub dancing into a social commentary. He...

American Graffiti

American Graffiti

There would be no “Star Wars” without “American Graffiti”.  The behind-the-scenes stories about what George Lucas did to get “American Graffiti” made is a plot within itself and a deeper storyline than the movie had. Lucas to make this type of movie.  Lucas...