Sunday Afternoon with Criterion: The Grey Gardens Edition
I: Intro II: Grey Gardens III: What’s New? Intro Welcome to Sunday Afternoon with Criterion, a series of posts on JohnLikesMovies.com covering everything Criterion—the company’s newest releases, just-announced projects, reviews, lists, links, and more. It’s been a while since my last post in this series, but the deluge of doc screeners I’ve been going through […]
An Appreciation: A View to a Kill
This is the first in a new monthly series of posts called “An Appreciation” in which I’ll profile films both good and bad and try to get at my personal connection to them. This particular post was done in conjunction with the site 007hertzrumble.com. You can read more posts like it by clicking here, and […]
Sunday Afternoon with Criterion: The 39 Steps Edition
I: Intro II: My Hitch Criterion Wish List III: The 39 Steps IV: What’s New? V: Links Intro Welcome to Sunday Afternoon with Criterion, a series of fortnightly posts on JohnLikesMovies.com covering everything Criterion—the company’s newest releases, just-announced projects, reviews, lists, links, and more. This past week, we celebrated what would have been Alfred Hitchcock’s […]
Sunday Afternoon with Criterion: Lord of the Flies Edition
I: Intro II: Desert Island Criterion Movies III: Lord of the Flies IV: What’s New? V: Links Intro Welcome to Sunday Afternoon with Criterion, a series of fortnightly posts on JohnLikesMovies.com covering everything Criterion—the company’s newest releases, just-announced projects, reviews, lists, links, and more. I caught up with Peter Brook’s Lord of the Flies earlier […]
Sunday Afternoon with Criterion: Things to Come Edition
I: Intro II: Remaking the Collection III: Things to Come IV: What’s New? V: Links Intro Welcome to Sunday Afternoon with Criterion, a series of weekly posts on JohnLikesMovies.com covering everything Criterion—the company’s newest releases, just-announced projects, reviews, lists, links, and more. Perhaps it’s the summer, or maybe something else entirely, but remakes are on […]
Superman IV: The Quest for Peace Review
RATING: (0.5 STARS) It isn’t hard to see where Superman IV: The Quest for Peace goes wrong. Its awfulness hides in plain sight and renders the film as a whole nearly unwatchable. It’s a little like the sun—stare for too long, and you’ll feel physical pain. But then you start to feel a little bad […]
Superman III Review
RATING: (1.5 STARS) With the off-screen problems connected to Superman II out of the way, there was no reason Superman III couldn’t have been another thrilling adventure. Sure, Gene Hackman was out, furious at producers Alexander and Ilya Salkind over what happened with Superman director Richard Donner. But the Salkinds lured comedian Richard Pryor into […]
Superman II Review
RATING: (3 STARS) The behind-the-scenes story of Superman II is the stuff of legend, but one shouldn’t assume a project with such a messy history is itself a mess. On the contrary, Superman II (at least the theatrical version credited to director Richard Lester) is a slightly tighter, more suspenseful, and more entertaining film than […]
Superman Review
RATING: (3 STARS) Richard Donner’s Superman is very much a product of the Star Wars school of blockbuster filmmaking—big, ambitious themes masked in a familiar, satisfying story with sometimes spotty (by today’s standard), sometimes dazzling (by any standard) special effects that hide narrative deficiencies at every turn. The ink was hardly dry on the school’s […]
Full Metal Jacket Review
RATING: (3.5 STARS) In the immediate aftermath of the Vietnam War, Hollywood produced a series of spectacular anti-war films—The Deer Hunter, Coming Home, Apocalypse Now. Time, it seems, doesn’t heal all wounds as, almost a decade later, Oliver Stone’s Oscar-winning Platoon kicked off a second wave of Vietnam pictures. The world’s greatest director, Stanley Kubrick, […]
The Shining Review
RATING: (3 STARS) Stanley Kubrick’s cinematic interpretation of Stephen King’s The Shining is … interesting. Technically, he’s on surer footing than perhaps ever before (I’d argue 2001 is a bigger achievement, but in terms of scope, The Shining does more with less). Thematically, some really challenging things are going down. But Kubrick’s ability to tell […]
Barry Lyndon Review
RATING: (4 STARS) One would think a three-hour British period drama would be something to endure, rather than enjoy, but Barry Lyndon is damn near a flawless film. Not only that, it’s also endlessly watchable. It’s as well-paced and plotted as any film I can recollect, and director Stanley Kubrick‘s sense of time and place […]
A Clockwork Orange Review
RATING: (4 STARS) It’s hard to watch a film set in the future, especially a dystopian one, and not compare it to A Clockwork Orange, the brutal 1971 movie directed by Stanley Kubrick. That’s because it’s a stunningly directed film, and the world captured by Kubrick is among the most frightening in movie history. It’s […]
A Night to Remember Review
RATING: (4 STARS) When Titanic was released in 1997, it was hailed as the ultimate “four-quadrant” movie. It was a rare beast that managed to appeal to young men, young women, and adults, both male and female. From the star-crossed lovers that were Jack and Rose to the epic and spectacular sinking of the ship, […]
Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb Review
RATING: (4 STARS) Comedy doesn’t get much darker than Dr. Strangelove, which is Stanley Kubrick‘s grand “F— you” to the chaos that was the Cold War arms race. Loaded with timeless characters, jokes, and images, the film is equal parts hilarious and frightening. Classic performances abound, the film is perhaps best remembered for Peter Sellers‘ […]
