The month of May was packed full of high-grossing box office hits, but the opening week was most notable for a stylish low-key comedy with a big heart. Based on a crime novel by Chester Himes, Bill Duke’s Rage In Harlem is a touching tale about an ingenuous churchgoer named Jackson (Forest Whitaker), who wins the heart of a salacious female grifter (Robin Givens) after becoming a key component in her latest con […]
Timothy Dalton’s reign as James Bond was cruelly brief, but it was also extremely important for the series as a whole.
When Dalton was finally announced as the fourth James Bond (if you count David Niven’s camp entry in the original Casino Royale), fans were more than a little dubious about the Welshman’s credentials for the role, but this was 007, and historically that has always been the case […]
During preview screenings for James Whale’s Frankenstein, Universal Pictures began to consider the possibility of a follow-up. Such was the clamour to see the studio’s new monster, it seemed reasonable to suggest that maybe more could be done with the story.
The trouble was, at that time, Frankenstein culminated with the death of Henry Frankenstein and, without him, Universal didn’t see a way forward. So, thinking ahead, they had Whale re-shoot the end, allowing for Frankenstein’s survival, and thus, the possibility of a sequel […]
What do you miss most about the good old days of home video?
Cover art is something that stands out – it made that oh so joyous experience of choosing your rental all the more joyous. Choice is the second thing that springs to mind. Sometimes you would arrive home on a Saturday evening and be thoroughly disappointed with a movie that promised so much and delivered so little. But that was part of the fun, particularly when you unearthed the kind of gem that you couldn’t wait to rent again […]
Question: What do you miss most about those halcyon home video days?
Cover art is something that stands out – it made that oh so joyous experience of choosing your rental all the more joyous. Choice is the second thing that springs to mind. Sometimes you would arrive home on a Saturday evening and be thoroughly disappointed with a movie that promised so much and delivered so little. But that was part of the fun, particularly when you unearthed the kind of gem that you couldn’t wait to rent again […]
When John D. Hancock landed in Rome in the summer of 1977, cowed and bruised by his experience in attempting to turn Jaws 2 into a film apart from the Steven Spielberg original, he could hardly have known that one late-September evening, a decade later, Sid Sheinberg would pick up the telephone and announce his intention to revive the Jaws franchise and make a “quality people picture, not a shark picture.” […]
Roy Scheider was not a happy man. He’d just left The Deer Hunter due to creative differences; the standard industry term for quitting or being fired. Unusually, in this instance, the differences were very much of the creative kind.
“It’s completely implausible that anyone would go halfway around the world to save a friend,” he declared. Scheider felt trapped. He’d signed a three-picture contract with Universal and, so far, he’d only made one movie for them. The man wanted out. He wanted to tear up the lousy contract and start anew. But what he most definitely did not want was to make another shark movie […]
Storming the box office charts for March was Mike Nichols’ comedy-drama Biloxi Blues. Adapted from a semi-autobiographical play by Neil Simon, the movie would star Ferris Bueller’s Matthew Broderick as a young army recruit attending boot camp during the Second World War.
Broderick would create the role of Eugene on Broadway, a character with three goals in life: to become a writer, lose his virginity and fall in love. It would also explore bigotry and racial segregation […]
Like him or loath him, the irrepressible Jason Voorhees is one of the most recognisable figures in all of horror.
Panned by critics and parents alike, his brand of seek-and-destroy barbarism has caused quite the stir over the years […]
You’re a child of the 80s and your parents take you for a trip to the veritable cave of wonders that is your local VHS Store. They’re probably in a hurry to get somewhere, and as a result set about influencing your decision, suggesting family-friendly titles such as The Karate Kid, E.T. or The Goonies.
Those movies are all well and good, in fact they’re all brilliant […]
