Foster on Film

While this is an earlier rendition then the two discussed above, I saw no reason to cover it before the others.  I didn’t see it first, and that should count for something.  Besides, as it is dry and slow, much of the pleasure in watching comes from comparing it to the others. It is another

The 1995 adaptation, considered to be the definitive one by…well, just about everyone, isn’t a film at all, but a miniseries.  Clocking in at just over five hours, it has the time to present the intricacies of the society and relationships, similarly to how it was done in the book.  All main characters are fully

If you’ve seen Clueless, and know that it is an adaptation of Austen’s Emma, then you’ll know what the filmmakers had in mind when Elizabeth and Darcy (that’s Will Darcy) are transplanted to a Utah college town.  Mom and Dad Bennet are gone, and Elizabeth’s four sisters are now her roommates.  Darcy is a partner

I wonder if I would have reacted differently to the 2005 Pride and Prejudice if I hadn’t seen the miniseries first.  I’m used to books being chopped up and compressed when they are turned into movies, and it doesn’t bother me (they are different media, so the stories need to be told differently).  I am

Fenge (Gabriel Byrne) usurps the throne of Jutland by killing his brother, King Hardvanael, and marrying his widow (Helen Mirren).  Hardvanael’s son, Amled (Christian Bale), feigns insanity, but Fenge doubts his condition and sends him to a friendly duke (Brian Cox) in England to be murdered.  Instead, the prince becomes a hero, marries an English girl

Having made a deal with a demon, the owner of a toy company plans to have millions of possessed toys wake up on Christmas morning and slaughter children.  Only a doll repairman (Corey Feldman), his daughter, and four living puppets can stop her. Quick Review: So, Corey Feldman plays the aging intellectual father of a

Teen witch Marnie “Cromwell” Piper (Sara Paxton) heads off to college in Halloweentown, where evil forces plan to use her to enslave the friendly monsters.  But first, Marnie must deal with bitchy college girls and other things that reach new heights of banality. The fourth outing in the Halloweentown franchise (Halloweentown, Halloweentown II: Kalabar’s Revenge,

In a fictionalized 1930s London, Richard (Ian McKellen) murders his brother (Nigel Hawthorne), his nephews, known enemies, and supposed friends to gain the crown, but finds it hard to keep. I have no philosophical objection to transplanting Shakespeare to more-or-less modern eras.  The problem is that most of the time, if it doesn’t detract from

Road to Singapore (1940) Road to Zanzibar (1941) Road to Morocco (1942) Road to Utopia (1945) Road to Rio (1947) Road to Bali (1952) The Road to Hong Kong (1962) The ultimate comic buddy team, Bob Hope and Bing Crosby were stars in their own right (yeah, if you are reading film reviews, you already

Duke and Chester (Bing Crosby, Bob Hope) find themselves in snow-covered Alaska, disguised as killers and innocently carrying a stolen treasure map.  The real owner of the map, Skagway Sal (Dorothy Lamour), attempts to seduce the map from them.  The local gangster, Ace Larson (Douglass Dumbrille), and the killers, Sperry and McGurk, also want the

The children of warring families fall in love and secretly marry.  Do you really need to be told the plot of Romeo and Juliet? The play Romeo and Juliet is about two very young lovers who don’t understand the world, and a large number of older people who are out of touch with the young

Romeo (Patrick Ryecart) and Juliet (Rebecca Saire), the children of warring families, fall in love and secretly marry.  When Tybalt (Alan Rickman), a cousin of Juliet, is killed by Romeo after he slays Romeo’s friend, Mercutio (Anthony Andrews), the…  Well, you know what happens. This stage-like presentation was the first version of Romeo and Juliet