A film of tremendous formal grandeur and emotional discretion, qualities which seem terribly rare on screen, even when (or especially when) seen in as familiar and worn-out a context as the POW camp. The daily rigors of the place are swept to one side, for the most part, in favor …
The funniest "bit" has to do with a restaurant that serves conversations to its customers (fixed menu with daily specials) and a middle-aged and (to be generous about it) middle-brow couple who are talked into trying the Philosophy. But despite that "bit," and despite the title, this scatterbrained rumination is …
It would have been nice if the tone of the opening credits sequence, with old postcards for visuals and a peppy pop-song parody by Lindsey Buckingham, could have been extended into the action. No such luck. The moviemakers show a little knowledge of what actually goes on, and goes wrong, …
It would have been nice if the tone of the opening credits sequence, with old postcards for visuals and a peppy pop-song parody by Lindsey Buckingham, could have been extended into the action. No such luck. The moviemakers show a little knowledge of what actually goes on, and goes wrong, …
Carroll Ballard does not go back on the promise of The Black Stallion. He goes forward on it, if anywhere. The photography here may be less glossily gorgeous, or anyway the terrain is certainly less touristically enticing. But whatever is lost in that area is no loss. It is rather …
With this, the opportunity existed to re-chart the course of the James Bond series, to re-think the image of him perpetuated by Roger Moore, to take into account, for one thing, the number of years -- twelve of them -- that have passed since Sean Connery last occupied the role. …
This begins with, and would never have gotten off the ground without, a marketable hook — male exotic dancers — and then for good measure casts out another marketable hook — older-women-younger-men relationships: hot topics such as would be taken up in the best-selling women's magazines. The central relationship is …
Four-part horror anthology. The first three parts, about a nicotine fiend, a video-game fanatic, and a backsliding priest, are all written by Christopher Crowe. They are all somewhat mechanical, and come to a finish before they ever get started. The fourth, however, about a suburban home with a very large …
Russian filmmaker Andrei Tarkovsky's first film in exile: made in Italy about a Russian in exile. It has every reason to be painfully vivid, including its lentissimo tempo and finely etched photography. But vivid is the last thing it is: in other words, only the climactic walk across the water, …
If there is any renewed vitality in this, the thirteenth installment in the James Bond series, the credit must go to the sharpened animosity in real life between the Western allies and the Soviets. In the larger view, the perceptible benefit of this state of affairs to the Bond series …
"In this world you have entered," remarks the CIA dirty trickster, "things are rarely as they seem." Indeed, sometimes in this world you have entered -- this world of Robert Ludlum spy fiction -- things are so far from what they seem that when they are revealed for what they …
It does not go against all logic, at least not against the mushiest liberal sort, for a director who has previously pitched himself against capitalists, militarists, romanticists, and other Leftist bogies, to attempt all of a sudden to exalt teenagers into anti-Establishment heroes. This attempt might be viewed with less …
Very light entertainment from Eric Rohmer, in the "Comedies and Proverbs" series. Six people, three of each sex, pursue their individual ideas of love, on or near the Normandy beach. They pursue little else. Swimming, sailing, and windsurfing are spoken of, even engaged in, but only off screen. It is …
Joseph Papp's production of the Gilbert and Sullivan piece, transferred, with the cast intact, from stage to screen. It is not a mere documentation of the stage performance, but it remains essentially a stage play. True, we get fantastical sets evocative of the dream-scene sets in old MGM musicals. We …
Unauthorized followup to what might be Hitchcock's most overrated thriller. The project inspires Australian filmmaker Richard Franklin to do a sort of fitful impersonation of The Master. But, except for an isolated moment or two, it hasn't inspired him to any great heights, unless you count the literal overhead shots …