They Shot the Piano Player (2024)
Spanish director Fernando Truaba is one of those [...]
Archive for August, 1979
Rock ‘n’ Roll High School (1979)
Okay, so here’s a true confession. While I was watching Rock ‘n’ Roll High School, by brain kept resisting it. Something in the higher echelons of my better sense of taste kept telling me that this was not a movie that I should not enjoy. And yet, I couldn’t resist its energy. It’s dumb, stupid […]
The Concorde . . . Airport ’79 (1979)
I have not had the time nor the energy to actually sit through all four Airport movies because, you know, I just have things to do. Yet, I have seen the first and the last entry in this series and I can confidently assume that I’m not missing anything with the two points in between. […]
Rich Kids (1979)
Rich Kids is a movie that rises and then falls on its lighthearted approach to a tough subject. At its best, it is a tender and observant character study about the relationships between misunderstanding parents and their misunderstood offspring, in this case kids who are just starting to wade into the tripwire pools of adolescence. […]
The Seduction of Joe Tynan (1979)
I have a feeling that if he hadn’t followed his father into acting, then Alan Alda could have pretty much succeeded just as well at anything else. I could easily see him a politician, a humorist, a novelist, a college professor, a psychologist or maybe one of those guys who dabbles in all of the […]
Life of Brian (1979)
If we could simply put down the sword of propriety when it comes to the Bible, it is possible to have a good laugh without becoming obscene. That’s what the guys of the Monty Python group have done with Life of Brian, a film that does not attack anyone’s religious faith but asks logical questions left […]
Prophecy (1979)
The disposable creature feature Prophecy was released in the United States within just a few weeks of Ridley Scott’s Alien, and I smile as I compare the two because the former is a moving joke and the other is a classic. They tell a similar story, more or less, about a group of people attacked […]
Americathon (1979)
What a colossal chunk of nothing is Americathon! What a waste of time and talent and energy has been put in service of this collection of abysmal nothingness. And worse, it’s not a terrible idea. I suppose that the basic idea was rather tasty: a political satire set in the future world of 1998 in which […]
Hot Stuff (1979)
I have a great love of Dom DeLuise. He’s the kind of guy that seems like he could keep you laughing at a meeting or a party where he was constantly cutting up. You could see that in the smaller bits that he played in Mel Brooks’ comedies like Blazing Saddles and Silent Movie. And […]
