MovieFanFare joins Forgotten Films’ 1984-Blog-a-thon fun with this appreciation of the crazy Cannon Film Group release about a telephone repairwoman who loves aerobics and gets possessed by the spirit of a dead ninja.
Read more →Movie Reviews
Read our takes on films of all kinds, from silent pictures and classics from Hollywood’s Golden Age to modern favorites. Comedy, Drama, Action, Horror/Sci-Fi, Musical, Western movies and more are reviewed.
Massacre (1934): Native American drama, Warner Bros.-style
Guest writer Todd Liebenow looks at the 1934 Warner Bros. drama Massacre, one of Hollywood’s first films to depict contemporary Native Americans life…but still featuring a white actor (Richard Barthelmess) in makeup as the Sioux protagonist.
Read more →Boyhood (2014) Movie Review
Writer/director Richard Linklater makes the experience of growing up especially authentic in “Boyhood,” in which we are able to observe the main character growing up–literally–right before our eyes.
Read more →Rock Hudson Has an Identity Crisis in Seconds
An middle-aged banker is offered a chance at a new identity and new life by a mysterious company in director John Frankenheimer’s Seconds. Guest writer Kim Wilson offers her take on the innovative 1966 sci-fi thriller starring Rock Hudson and John Randolph.
Read more →Jack Webb Goes to Press in -30-
TV cop Jack Webb traded in his police badge for a press pass, playing the hard-edged managing editor of a Los Angeles newspaper, in -30-. Guest writer Raquel Stecher reports on the taut 1959 drama, which Webb also directed.
Read more →Raffles (1925): It’s on the House…Peters
He may not be well-known today, but gentleman thief A.J. Raffles was an early 1900s literary hit and a mainstay of silent cinema. Guest writer Fritzi Kramer steals the show with her review of the 1925 drama Raffles, with House Peters in the title role.
Read more →Crossing “The Border” Today
Director Tony Richardson’s 1982 film “The Border,” which stars Jack Nicholson in one of his most underrated performances, has a lot to offer to anyone looking for a mature drama about the crisis that has once more taken command of our public discourse.
Read more →June Haver and Gordon MacRae Look for the Silver Lining
June Haver played popular ’20s Broadway star Marilyn Miller in the 1949 Warner Bros. musical Look for the Silver Lining. Guest writer Jessica Pickens reviews the biopic and how it compare to Miller’s trouble-filled real life.
Read more →Playmates (1941): The Undiscovered Country
So, what are John Barrymore’s only screen performance of Hamlet’s “To Be or Not to Be” soliloquy–and Barrymore himself–doing in a musical comedy with bandleader Kay Kyser? Guest writer Mike Reid reviews The Great Profile’s final film, 1941’s Playmates.
Read more →The Major and the Minor: Billy Wilder Kids Around
Directorial debuts are rarely better–or funnier–than writer-turned-helmer Billy Wilder’s The Major and the Minor. Guest blogger Aurora reviews this 1942 comedy in which Ginger Rogers poses as a 12-year-old girl, only to fall for military school teacher Ray Milland.
Read more →