Aging King Henry II (Peter O’Toole) has decided to hold a Christmas court at an out-of-the-way castle in order to deal with the question of succession. In attendance, besides peasants and soldiers, will be the queen, Eleanor of Aquitaine (Katharine Hepburn), who he has had imprisoned for the past ten years, and their three sons,
This is one of those movies that has made its mark on modern culture while few people of recent generations have seen it. “Gaslighting” has become a verb, used normally in a political context and often dealing with feminism. Of course the terms current usage defines something quite mild compared to what happens in the
It’s back in the good old days when we still had slaves, because that was great. Scarlett O’Hara (Vivien Leigh) is an obnoxious, mentally-deficient, self-absorbed tourette-sufferer who we should love because she has a hot bod and is a bitch, which equals sexy. In their slave paradise, she’s surrounded by people like Melanie—who’s a Madonna,
Rich and imposing widower, Maxim de Winter (Laurence Olivier) quickly marries a lower class introvert (Joan Fontaine). The Second Mrs. de Winter—that’s the only name she’s given—has problems fitting in at Manderley, his ancient estate, and is constantly doubting herself, afraid that her husband can only love his dead first wife, Rebecca. Mrs. Danvers (Judith
Against the advice of her father, Nigel Bigelow (Michael Caine), Isabel (Nicole Kidman) decides to give up witchcraft and live as a human. At the same time, obnoxious, failing, film actor Jack Wyatt (Will Ferrell) agrees to take the part of Darrin in the TV remake of Bewitched, demanding that an unknown be cast as his
The Bennets go Bollywood (well, faux Bollywood as this movie was produced in the West), with bright colors, singing, and dancing, but it’s a fairly straight rendition of the story from the novel. The advantage of the modern Indian setting is that the important old-style English sensibilities (marriage is vital, status is paramount, etc.) are
Michael Newman (Adam Sandler) is a workaholic who ignores his far-hotter-than-he-could-possibly-get wife, Donna (Kate Beckinsale), and his two kids, in order to please his egotistical boss (David Hasselhoff ). After a tense evening, he is given a universal remote from Morty (Christopher Walken), that allows him to pause and fast-forward through life. I had thought,
Emma (BBC – 1972) Emma (1996) Emma (A&E – 1996) Clueless (1995) Emma Woodhouse, a child of privilege, is so proud of her successful matchmaking of her ex-nanny to respectable Mr. Weston that she sets out to find partners for the other inhabitants of her small town. She adopts Harriet Smith, a girl of lesser
Jimmy (Guy Pearce) is a selfish, egotistical salesman who’s always thinking of a way to make that big sale. Then a car accident finds him with time to kill and a fortune teller nearby. After several of the palm reader’s predictions come true, Jimmy worries that a more dire prophecy could also be accurate: that
The four members of the stodgy, conservative, ultra-religious Franklin family live their lives around what is proper, until a car crash puts Frank (Robertson Dean), Betty (Teresa Willis), and their son Brian (Vince Pavia) into direct contact with Jesus, who removes their sense of shame. Returned to Earth, the three find new meaning in life, but
Confused, single mother Brenda Martin (Julianne Moore) reports that she has been carjacked by a black man, and that her four-year-old son was in the back seat. Police lockdown an all-black housing development and officers from the nearby, mainly-white, town, including Brenda’s aggressive brother (Ron Eldard), over-zealously push the residents for information on the child. Detective Lorenzo