Opening in Northern California, Halloween III: Season of the Witch begins with a chase. A man carrying a mask is being chased by suited men in a car. He manages to escape, barely, and in the hospital says “They are […]
Continue reading »Category: Reviews by Psychdoc77
Reviews by Mike Marcangelo, guest contributor
Halloween II (1981) ✰ ✰ ½
Made three years after the original but set on the exact same night (October 31, 1978), Halloween II is as direct a sequel as a film can be. Michael Myers, shot but not dead, is on the loose again and […]
Continue reading »Halloween (1978) ✰ ✰ ✰ ✰
John Carpenter wrote and directed Halloween in 1978, kicking off the American slasher film era that was to last ten years. The film’s central character, Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis), is a virginal babysitter whose friends are murdered by a […]
Continue reading »Before I Hang (1940) ✰ ✰
Boris Karloff played a number of mad scientists over the years. Before I Hang is a typical example. At the outset, Karloff’s physician is sentenced to murder for killing a patient in what sounds like euthanasia. In prison, he is […]
Continue reading »Moneyball (2011) ✰ ✰ ✰
Bennett Miller’s adaptation of Michael Lewis’ best-selling book Moneyball stars Brad Pitt as Billy Beane, the general manager of the Oakland Athletics in 2001 and 2002. Beane’s team loses in the playoffs to the New York Yankees and he is […]
Continue reading »The Snake Pit (1948) ✰ ✰ ½
The Snake Pit is one of the best-known cinematic portrayals of a psychiatric ward. Based on a novel written by former patient Mary Jane Ward, The Snake Pit charts the hospital course of Virginia Cunningham, (Olivia de Havilland), and the […]
Continue reading »Under the Volcano (1984) ✰ ✰ ✰ ✰
Albert Finney stars as British diplomat Geoffrey Firmin in John Huston’s adaptation of Malcolm Lowry’s novel Under the Volcano. Firmin has a problem with alcohol and his wife has left him in Mexico prior to World War II. His is […]
Continue reading »Downhill Racer (1969) ✰ ✰ ✰ ½
Michael Ritchie’s first feature film, Downhill Racer, stars Robert Redford as an American downhill skier emerging on the international scene. He joins the team when a member is injured and immediately begins to perform well. Other members of the team […]
Continue reading »Midnight in Paris (2011) ✰ ✰ ✰
A screenwriter (Owen Wilson) is in Paris with his fiancé (Rachel McAdams) and her parents. He realizes he loves the city and starts thinking about living there and being a novelist. He begins to travel back in time to the […]
Continue reading »The Last Hurrah (1958) ✰ ✰ ✰ ½
John Ford’s contemporary political film follows the last campaign of a big city mayor, Frank Skeffington (Spencer Tracy, masterful), as he battles a younger candidate favored by the blue bloods. Skeffington is of Irish descent and represents a style of […]
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