The Day the Earth stood Still: strong and relevant theme and message still important to modern audiences
Robert Wise, “The Day the Earth stood Still” (1951) Yesterday a meteor and its debris struck an area in the Urals in Russia and the planet…
Hollywood Films
Matrix Revolutions: beneath pyrotechnics and stylistic posturing, a really very ordinary film stuck in a Hollywood matrix
Andy and Larry Wachowski, “Matrix Revolutions” (2003) Beneath layers of computer-generated pyrotechnics, film noir homage and stylistic posing, the story is fairly basic: it’s a celebration…
Zero Dark Thirty: a journey into a heart of darkness … in its “heroine”
Kathryn Bigelow, “Zero Dark Thirty” (2012) This film purports to document the hunt for World Public Enemy No 1, the Saudi national Osama bin Laden, and…
The Wild, Wild West (Season 2, Episode 20: Night of the Vicious Valentine): fantasy, eccentricity and camp comedy in an original plot
Irving Moore, “The Wild, Wild West (Season 2, Episode 20: Night of the Vicious Valentine)” (1966) This episode is notable for winning the series its only…
Hitchcock: offering banal fluff about Hitch’s marriage, ignoring complexities behind the making of “Psycho”
Sacha Gervasi, “Hitchcock” (2012) Fifty years after Alfred Hitchcock released his film “Psycho”, both director and movie alike remain subjects of fascination for many people throughout…
The Wild, Wild West (Season 2, Episode 13: Night of the Skulls): an entertaining plot with surprises and running gags
Alan Crosland Jr, “The Wild, Wild West (Season 2, Episode 13: Night of the Skulls)” (1966) A really surprising episode this turns out to be, with…
The Wild, Wild West (Season 1, Episode 1: The Night of the Inferno): a cautious start to a classic TV series
Richard C Sarafian, “The Wild, Wild West (Season 1, Episode 1: The Night of the Inferno)” (1965) With the Civil War over and the period of…
The Wild, Wild West (Season 2, Episode 17: Night of the Feathered Fury): well balanced between serious drama and tongue-in-cheek fantasy
Robert Sparr, “The Wild, Wild West (Season 2, Episode 17: Night of the Feathered Fury)” (1967) In this episode, the two US government agents Jim West…
The Wild, Wild West (Season 3, Episode 2: Night of the Firebrand): insubstantial plot wastes a good cast and some good ideas
Michael Caffey, “The Wild, Wild West (Season 3, Episode 2: Night of the Firebrand)” (1967) In this episode, government agents Jim West (Robert Conrad) and Artemus…
The Wild Wild West (Season 4, Episode 4: The Night of the Sedgewick Curse): clever and intelligent combination of horror and science fiction
Marvin Chomsky, “The Wild Wild West (Season 4, Episode 4: The Night of the Sedgewick Curse)” (1968) I don’t recall this series from my childhood yet…