|
64%
|
Cosmopolis (2012)
|
"Cronenberg's cold, exacting precision and emotionally removed observation may not grab all viewers, but under those perfect surfaces is a raw horror trying to claw out of the denial."
|
Sean Axmaker
|
|
——
|
The Mad Magician (1954)
|
"Overly complicated and under-developed, this stock horror has its moments of invention..."
|
Sean Axmaker
|
|
——
|
The Locket (1946)
|
"... prime film noir from 1946, a dark romance that stirs darkness into melodrama with the story of a kleptomaniac (Laraine Day) on her wedding day..."
|
Sean Axmaker
|
|
——
|
Let Us Live ()
|
"What Brahm brings to the film is a terror born of official indifference... and he turns the race to stop the execution into a battle with bureaucracy. "
|
Sean Axmaker
|
|
88%
|
The Man Who Knew Too Much (2003)
|
"Hitchcock's tone is odd, with clever set pieces and tightly-constructed and edited sequences interspersed with awkward scenes of emotional restraint ("Steady, old girl, steady") and disconnected characters."
|
Sean Axmaker
|
|
100%
|
Wake in Fright (2012)
|
"The raw, sweaty 1971 film is not a pretty portrayal of life in the outback, where men are crude, hard-drinking mates with no ambition beyond rough-house fun..."
|
Sean Axmaker
|
|
91%
|
The Duellists (1977)
|
"... one of the most strikingly pictorial movies ever made."
|
Richard T. Jameson
|
|
89%
|
White Zombie (1932)
|
"The divinely satanic-looking Bela Lugosi sinks his teeth into his best role since Dracula, a languorous hypnotist and voodoo master who dominates the film with his assured bearing and cruel control."
|
Sean Axmaker
|
|
60%
|
Lifeforce (1985)
|
"Lifeforce is a pretty curious specimen in its own right. Its sci-fi/horror concept is epic in scale and metaphysical reach, but the casting is catchpenny..."
|
Richard T. Jameson
|
|
80%
|
Cocoon (1985)
|
"... much of the beauty of Cocoon... has to do with its deft, loving observation of the things of this Earth. "
|
Richard T. Jameson
|
|
94%
|
The Thief of Bagdad (1924)
|
"... one of the grandest and most glorious spectacles of the silent era."
|
Sean Axmaker
|
|
96%
|
Argo (2012)
|
"... a terrific piece of filmmaking."
|
Sean Axmaker
|
|
——
|
Zombie Lake (1980)
|
"The make-up wouldn't pass muster at a pre-school Halloween party, the performances are embarrassingly amateur, and dubbing is so bad it's painful."
|
Sean Axmaker
|
|
——
|
L'Abîme des morts vivants (The Treasure of the Living Dead)(Oasis of the Zombies) (1981)
|
"... he distracted, sloppy camerawork, perfunctory scripting, flat dubbing, and ratty make-up make this one for the Franco-philes, and for those who find camp value in clumsy, shamelessly brazen exploitation."
|
Sean Axmaker
|
|
100%
|
Sansho the Bailiff (1954)
|
"Mizoguchi is the poet laureate of Japanese cinema, gracefully exploring the battered but resilient souls in the cruel worlds of Japan's feudal past and present. "
|
Sean Axmaker
|
|
90%
|
Holy Motors (2012)
|
"From its enigmatic opening scenes, which sends the viewers into a mysterious voyage a la Alice through the looking glass that ends up in a movie theater, Holy Motors is a celebration of the magic, imagination, and primal power of the movies."
|
Sean Axmaker
|
|
100%
|
Ministry of Fear (1944)
|
"This is not Lang's best film of the era, or even his most interesting portrait of paranoia and malevolent forces, but it is a lively thriller with unexpected turns."
|
Sean Axmaker
|
|
99%
|
This Is Not a Film (2012)
|
"There's a tremendous power under the simple-looking surface."
|
Sean Axmaker
|
|
93%
|
Zero Dark Thirty (2013)
|
"The direction by Kathryn Bigelow, who won Oscars for Best Film and Best Director in her previous film "The Hurt Locker," is fierce and focused..."
|
Sean Axmaker
|
|
78%
|
Twins of Evil ()
|
"... earns its place in the Hammer canon of cult horrors."
|
Sean Axmaker
|
|
——
|
Last Flight ()
|
"Where most of the memorable artifacts of pre-code cinema liked to flaunt its defiance of social decorum, The Last Flight makes an effort to shake up and unsettle the viewer, and it succeesds."
|
Sean Axmaker
|
|
——
|
The Great Scout & Cathouse Thursday (Wildcat) (1976)
|
"As American-International Pictures' first "class" production, the film does not bode well. Any one of AIP's beach party flicks was funnier..."
|
Richard T. Jameson
|
|
50%
|
Midway (1976)
|
"To make an uninvolving movie out of one of the most decisive battles of the Second World War may seem a dubious challenge, but there's no denying Universal their full credit in meeting it."
|
Richard T. Jameson
|
|
94%
|
Il Vangelo Secondo Matteo (The Gospel According to St. Matthew) (1964)
|
"With the barest minimum of footage given to establishing shots or transitions, Pasolini spends the next 90 minutes or so studying miracles and parables and Passion events..."
|
Greg Way
|
|
91%
|
Corman's World: Exploits Of A Hollywood Rebel (2011)
|
"[I]f it doesn't offer anything new to our understanding of Corman, as filmmaker, producer, or person, it nicely encapsulates his legacy..."
|
Sean Axmaker
|
|
85%
|
The Omen (1976)
|
"What partly recommends and partly handicaps The Omen... is its old-fashioned quality."
|
Kathleen Murphy
|
|
53%
|
The Crazies (1973)
|
"... the most curious thing about The Crazies is its utter inability to be scary."
|
Robert C. Cumbow
|
|
——
|
The Big Night (1951)
|
"Neither juvenile delinquent drama or a wild youth thriller, this is a portrait in rage and shame and disappointment in fathers and father figures."
|
Sean Axmaker
|
|
——
|
Screaming Mimi (1958)
|
"... a real cult item in the film noir filmography, weird and lurid and kitschy, but fascinating all the same."
|
Sean Axmaker
|
|
50%
|
Mother, Jugs & Speed (2004)
|
"If you don't go expecting a lot, you might find the film makes for a half-evening's worth of laidback diversion."
|
Richard T. Jameson
|
|
68%
|
Robin and Marian (1976)
|
"It's a triumph of direction, pure and simple."
|
Robert C. Cumbow
|
|
——
|
Shoot (1976)
|
"[Harvey] Hart, for all his egregious handheld-camera zeroings-in and cutaways to available-light overhead shots, has nothing really to tell us about this environment or the people who live there."
|
Richard T. Jameson
|
|
83%
|
The Missouri Breaks (1976)
|
"More than a fair share of iridescent, long-shadowed mornings and ghostly blue, otherworldly evenings mark the twilight of an era in The Missouri Breaks, Arthur Penn's end-of-the-West Western."
|
Rick Hermann
|
|
——
|
Hit! (1993)
|
"... a conventional version of the mainstream crime caper with a rare African-American lead, which is the film's only memorable accomplishment."
|
Sean Axmaker
|
|
——
|
The Buccaneer (1938)
|
"Cecil B. DeMille plays fast and loose with his history, as usual, but he also has more fun with the story than in many of his big historical spectacles..."
|
Sean Axmaker
|
|
——
|
Girl on a Motorcycle (1968) (1968)
|
"It's less Summer of Love than Season of Lust and any sense of liberation is limited to her sexual horizons ..."
|
Sean Axmaker
|
|
100%
|
Procès de Jeanne d'Arc (Trial of Joan of Arc) (1962)
|
"As much as I love Bresson's works, I'm rarely caught up in the sweep of his drama. The drama comes for me only at the conclusion - and then lingers for days after. "
|
Sean Axmaker
|
|
78%
|
I Shot Jesse James (1949)
|
"... a tension between the heroic and the infamous, between a myth of the West and the psychology of a tragically flawed protagonist."
|
Rick Hermann
|
|
89%
|
Napoléon (1929)
|
"... a cinematic experience like no other."
|
Sean Axmaker
|
|
100%
|
J'Accuse! (I Accuse) (1919)
|
"The cinematic sophistication and visual expressiveness of this 1919 release is astonishing."
|
Sean Axmaker
|
|
——
|
Thirteen Women (1932)
|
"It's hysterical and bigoted and just plain ruthless, almost unbelievable, and perversely fun for all that."
|
Sean Axmaker
|
|
——
|
Taxi! (1932)
|
"How can you refuse a film that embraces non-violent arbitration and still gives a pass to Cagney taking revenge?"
|
Sean Axmaker
|
|
68%
|
Logan's Run (1976)
|
"... I found myself reflecting that sf writers can get away with a lot on the printed page that moviemakers just can't."
|
Richard T. Jameson
|
|
——
|
That's Entertainment 2 (1976)
|
"... the new compilation lacks focus of any kind beyond a general let's-look-at-more-of-that-old-stuff."
|
Richard T. Jameson
|
|
——
|
Won Ton Ton: The Dog Who Saved Hollywood (1976)
|
"... as lowbrow as a dachshund and as funny as a dead rat."
|
Richard T. Jameson
|
|
——
|
Salute the Artist ()
|
"There's a biographical rightness to Marcello Mastroianni's characterization, in Salut, l'artiste, of a job actor..."
|
Richard T. Jameson
|
|
——
|
Vincent, Francois, Paul and the Others ()
|
"... an abundance of nicely observed moments in the lives of characters who are not at all remarkable played by actors who number among the extraordinary."
|
Richard T. Jameson
|
|
——
|
Dreileben -- One Minute Of Darkness (Dreileben - Eine Minute Dunkel) ()
|
"This third section, like the first, is shot in razor-sharp hi-def, and needs it."
|
Richard T. Jameson
|
|
——
|
Dreileben -- Don't Follow Me Around (Dreileben - Komm Mir Nicht Nach) ()
|
"Each scene, interaction, or apparent digression is worth watching, yet the eschewal of anything resembling a conventional narrative agenda grows more insistent as the movie proceeds."
|
Richard T. Jameson
|
|
——
|
Dreileben - Beats Being Dead (Dreileben - Etwas Besseres Als Den Tod) ()
|
"... to define the incompleteness of "truth," to underscore the impossibility of "seeing" everything, even about ourselves."
|
Richard T. Jameson
|
78%
47%
100%
85%
45%
40%
