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Long, long ago, in a time of magic and dragons, there lived a girl named Rapunzel who had the most beautiful radiant hair the world had ever seen. But Rapunzel’s life was far from wonderful. She lived as a servant to Gothel, a jealous, scheming witch who kept her hidden deep in a forbidding forest, guarded by the enormous dragon Hugo and surrounded by an enchanted glass wall. However, in a twist of fate, Rapunzel’s discovery of a magic paintbrush leads her on a journey th… More >>
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Disney’s direct-to-video sequel to their 1995 hit places Pocahontas in harm’s way in London, where she is almost tossed into jail and has some other mishaps. She’s not alone, however: a cute raccoon named Meeko does a nice job as the obligatory funny animal. The songs are about as memorable as those in the first film, but the art and animation maintain far higher standards than most animated sequels dumped onto tape. If you don’t drive yourself nuts thinking about the appall… More >>
Pocahontas II: Journey to a New World
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After a government-spawned “superflu” wipes out more than 90 percent of the earth’s population, the devastated survivors must decide whether to support or resist the advances of a mysterious stranger from way down South (heh-heh) who wishes to claim this new world order for himself. Although the six-hour length makes it nigh-impossible to digest in one sitting, this well-paced adaptation of Stephen King’s apocalyptic magnum opus ranks among the best adaptations of the author… More >>
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More timely now, perhaps, than when it was first released in 1957, Elia Kazan’s overheated political melodrama explores the dangerous manipulative power of pop culture. It exposes the underside of Capra-corn populism, as exemplified in the optimistic fable of grassroots punditry Meet John Doe. In Kazan’s account, scripted by Budd Schulberg, the common-man pontificator (Andy Griffith) is no Gary Cooper-style aw-shucks paragon. Promoted to national fame as a fo… More >>
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When it was released during Hollywood’s golden year of 1939, The Wizard of Oz didn’t start out as the perennial classic it has since become. The film did respectable business, but it wasn’t until its debut on television that this family favorite saw its popularity soar. And while Oz’s TV broadcasts are now controlled by media mogul Ted Turner (who owns the rights), the advent of home video has made this lively musical a mainstay in the staple diet of great American films. Yo… More >>
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Produced for Turner Network Television and originally broadcast in the summer of 1999, The Hunley is a straightforward, engrossing historical drama focusing on a little-known chapter of the Civil War: the introduction of the submarine into American naval warfare off the shore of war-torn Charleston, South Carolina, in 1864. Writer-director John Gray had previously helmed the 1998 TV movie The Day Lincoln Was Shot, and he has a knack for capturing the Civil War era with a hei… More >>
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Missionaries travel to the Brazilian rain forest and make a mess of everything. What else is new? Actually, plenty in this dark but beautifully realized adaptation of Peter Matthiessen’s well-regarded novel, directed by Hector Babenco. Aidan Quinn, Daryl Hannah, Kathy Bates, and John Lithgow play the Americans who travel to the Brazilian interior in an effort to do some good. But their definitions of good vary wildly; Bates and Lithgow are old-fashioned purit… More >>
At Play in the Fields of the Lord
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Although it wasn’t a box-office success when originally released in 1958, Vertigo has since taken its deserved place as Alfred Hitchcock’s greatest, most spellbinding, most deeply personal achievement. In fact, it consistently ranks among the top 10 movies ever made in the once-a-decade Sight & Sound international critics poll, placing at number 4 in the 1992 survey. (Universal Pictures’ spectacularly gorgeous 1996 restoration and rerelease of this 1958 Paramount production … More >>
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In a departure from L.M. Montgomery’s book series, this third TV movie jumps ahead to World War I and puts Anne and her beloved Gilbert smack in the middle of it. Instead of marrying Gilbert after her teaching days–as she does in the books–Anne spends a disillusioning year with him in New York City, and then the couple quickly marries before the good doctor ships out to France. (In the book Rilla of Ingleside, Anne’s sons go to war and her youngest daughter is separa… More >>
Anne of Green Gables – The Continuing Story
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The Music Man was one of the last great movie musicals from any studio, and it proved to be that rarest of events: a Broadway show that was measurably improved by its transition to the screen. Robert Preston made his musical debut–both live and on film–as “Professor” Harold Hill, the upbeat charlatan who promises to teach a small-town boys band by the “think system.” But it’s the part Preston was born to play and the one for which he will always be best remembered. Compose… More >>