Tag: 1980s
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‘Cobra’ is a Visual Tour-de-Force and Not a Lot Else
With its sound off, ‘Cobra’ is an exceptional entrée into the action genre.
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‘Special Effects’ is a Plasticky Hitchcock Homage
‘Special Effects’ brims with good ideas, but a surplus of good but iffily executed ideas do not a good movie make.
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The Startling, Subversive Voyeurism of ‘Variety’
‘Variety,’ so wound up and tormented without a singular release, haunts.
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A Star is Not Born in ‘Smithereens’
On Susan Seidelman’s devastating 1982 comedy.
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Smile Now, Cry Later
On Maurice Pialat’s ‘Loulou’ and ‘Police.’
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The Blissful Myopia of ‘Atlantic City’
Despite the overwhelming presences of failure and missed opportunity — like no matter how hard you try, you cannot effectively, cleanly, run away from your past — it still feels, to me, like an optimistic movie.
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That Most Important Thing
On ‘Cane River’ and ‘Shirley.’
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Presumed Guilty
On ‘Suspect,’ ‘Reversal of Fortune,’ and ‘Guilty as Sin.’
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‘Working Girl’ Has a Bad Aftertaste
With its sitcom-esque inflections, it becomes a cockeyed horror movie.
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‘The Running Man’ is a Silly Media Satire
‘The Running Man’ is too shortsighted for its own good.
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‘Commando’ is a Fun Star Vehicle for Arnold Schwarzenegger
This is paint-by-numbers action at its best: it knows what its viewers expect of it and delivers.
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‘Personal Best’ Takes the Sports Movie to New Heights
‘Personal Best’ accomplishes many things and well, but among the most impressive of its achievements is that is also functions, almost off-handedly, as a paean to the undersung and the could-have-beens.
