Excalibur (1981)

Action/Adventure Rated R

British director John Boorman approached the Arthurian legends with reverence and awe and came away with the passionate and mystical Excalibur. Boorman at one time wanted to film J.R.R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings trilogy, and Excalibur occasionally shimmers with the same grandeur that director Peter Jackson accomplished in his adaptations. Both movies tap into

Mission: Impossible III (2006)

Action/Adventure Rated PG-13

Director J.J. Abrams tries to bring some emotional resonance to the franchise, which up until now had all the soulfulness of a microscopic tracking device. This time we find Tom Cruise’s Ethan Hunt engaged and out of the field, at least until the shenanigans of a super-villain (Philip Seymour Hoffman) force him back to action.

Captain Blood (1935)

Action/Adventure Rated NR

To get you ready for this weekend’s Errol Flynn festival at the Music Box, here’s another review of one of the swashbuckler’s best…

Bamboozled (2000)

Comedy Rated R

Another cinematic grenade from Spike Lee, this time aimed at those who perpetuate African-American stereotypes in the entertainment industry. Damon Wayans stars as a television producer who creates a modern-day minstrel show hoping to get fired. Instead, America goes into a craze for blackface. Outrageous? Yes, but it’s also a searing indictment of today’s misogynistic

City Lights (1931)

Comedy Rated NR

City Lights, in which Charlie Chaplin’s Little Tramp pursues a blind girl (Virginia Cherrill) who sells flowers on the sidewalk, doesn’t have the thematic coherence of Modern Times, but there are touches of Chaplin’s sensibility nonetheless. His disdain for labor is evident, especially when the Tramp takes a job cleaning up after horses in the

Dancer in the Dark (2000)

Musical Rated R

Valuable alone for the furor caused among movie lovers after winning the Palme d’Or at the 2000 Cannes Film Festival – some saw it as revolutionary cinema, others as manipulative pap – Danish director Lars von Trier’s invigorating curiosity transplants the grand emotions of musical theater into our voyeuristic digital age. Pop star Bjork is

Black Stallion, The (1979)

Family Rated G

“An almost primeval evocation of childhood fears and desires…”

Breaking the Waves (1996)

Drama Rated R

Lars von Trier’s international breakthrough mixes – maybe even equates – religion and sex, yet the movie is far less exploitative than it sounds. When a mentally unstable young woman (a vulnerable yet brave Emily Watson) breaks away from her rigid Christian community to marry a strapping oil rigger (Stellan Skarsgard), she finds a life

A Bucket of Blood (1959)

Horror Rated NR

“…knows it’s ridiculous, so it makes that ridiculousness part of the fun.”

Bullitt (1968)

Drama Rated PG

Bullitt earned its reputation for Steve McQueen’s lengthy car chase through the hills of San Francisco, and the sequence does have a gritty, low-tech authenticity. Yet there’s more to the movie than squealing wheels. A crime picture embroiled in the detail work of law enforcement, the film stars McQueen as the definitive workaholic cop. His