Musical
Hard to Hold (1984)
The song remains the same. Once again, like Two of a Kind, another movie in which the creativity stops with the casting. Once the producers got Rick Springfield on board, they figured that any adventure that they put him through would be sufficient, even if it was tired and dated by 1955 and stars were […]
Yentl (1983)
When Yentl was over, I caught myself smiling. I got caught up in the story and even teared up at one point while Barbra Streisand was singing. I had doubted this movie. What is this? Yet another story about a woman pretending to be a man? I thought of Victor Victoria of which I was […]
Pink Floyd: The Wall (1982)
Pink Floyd The Wall is a long-form rock opera that, for 95 minutes, wallows in nightmarish images of decay and degradation through striking images, animation and music video-style set pieces that are so engaging in their post-apocalyptic vision that at one point I became concerned for the future of mankind. Needless to say, this is […]
The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas (1982)
There is a song early in The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas that I think illustrates the basic problem with this movie. It says of the title bawdy house: “There’s Nothin’ Dirty Goin’ On.” You can’t help but agree. Given that title, one might expect something along the lines of a dirty joke book, some […]
Grease 2 (1982)
All through Grease 2, I kept thinking back to different movie. Not the earlier movie from 1978, but rather George Lucas’ American Graffiti. Both take place roughly around the same time – Lucas’ film in 1962 and this film in 1961. What Graffiti understood all-too-well was that the world was changing in the early 60s, […]
Annie (1982)
Annie is an all-out, full-blooded, hugely produced extravaganza with all of the familiar pieces in place. There’s Annie. There’s Daddy Warbucks. There’s the mean old Miss Hannigan. There’s Sandy. There’s Punjab. There’s all of Annie’s friends from the orphanage. The movie is full of big, brassy musical numbers, lots of comedy, lots of energy. This […]
Forbidden Zone (1980)
I have a colleague who regards Forbidden Zone as a twisted masterpiece. Having now seen the movie myself, I can’t say that I agree. I don’t know through what prism he was seeing this film, so I’ll just chalk it up to ‘let’s agree to disagree’. He has a specific taste. Bless his heart, I […]
Movie Movie (1978)
At a moment when the movies were changing fast in the wake of the auteur era and certainly in the wake of the success of Star Wars, it must have been a great temptation to want to rewind the clock. The reliability of Hollywood’s Golden Age is always a temptation for movie producers mainly because […]