 | Being John Malkovich
Buy new: $9.49 / Used from: $4.19 (A) Brilliant, off-the-wall comedy from Kaufman and Jonze.
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 | Gamera - Attack of Legion
Buy used from: $24.90 (B-) A bit slow and plotty, even more so than these things often are, but still good fun overall and quite entertaining when it really gets going.
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 | On the Waterfront (Special Edition)
Buy new: $18.99 / Used from: $8.33 (B+) It's hard for someone born 30 years after this is released to understand the innovations in it, but it's still a well-done, very well-acted drama.
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 | Horror of Dracula
Buy new: $9.49 / Used from: $3.57 (C+) Fairly lively a reasonably entertaining Gothic Hammer offering, though it's ultimately nothing special.
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 | Village of the Damned/Children of the Damned
Buy new: $13.49 / Used from: $6.98 (B+) (Just for "Village...") It could use a bit more actual narrative, but the ideas here are good enough to carry it anyway, and the film holds up a lot better than almost all pre- Night of the LIving Dead horror that I've seen.
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 | The Curse of Frankenstein
Buy new: $11.49 / Used from: $3.68 (B-) Good lead performance from Cushing. Nothin' fantastic, but it's fun.
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 | One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (Two-Disc Special Edition)
Buy new: $24.49 / Used from: $4.18 (A) It can't quite match the brilliant novel, but it's still a classic. Has the definitive Nicholson performance.
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 | Human Nature
Buy used from: $6.68 (B) Probably the weakest Kaufman script, but it's still quite good and has all his trademarks.
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 | Diabolique (Criterion Collection Spine #35)
Buy new: $19.99 / Used from: $12.32 (A-) The end is pretty predictable now, but this is still one of the most ominous, tense thrillers I've seen from the 50's.
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 | Hammer Horror Series (Brides of Dracula / Curse of the Werewolf / Phantom of the Opera (1962) / Paranoiac / Kiss of the Vampire / Nightmare / Night Creatures / Evil of Frankenstein)
Buy new: $24.99 / Used from: $18.32 (B- for Brides... and Curse..., haven't seen the others.) More typical Hammer Horror. Nothing to special, just sharp, well-made and well-acted gothics. They're a bit slow, but still worth a watch.
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 | Dementia 13
Buy new: $5.98 / Used from: $2.44 (B) In many ways this is a typical 60's B-Horror film, but it's also genuinely eerie and has some real suspense at times. Some may think this is only remebered cause FF Coppola did it, but no, it's actually good.
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 | Confessions of a Dangerous Mind
Buy new: $9.99 / Used from: $1.30 (B+) Another great, wild script from Kaufman and Clooney's direction is remarkably sophisticated for a first timer. Great performance from Rockwell too, though it's all just a little too drawn out.
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 | The Devil Rides Out
Buy used from: $16.89 (B+) Perhaps more dated than some other Hammer films, but it's got a stronger, tighter script that combines with the typically good production values to raise it above the other horror films I've seen from the studio.
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 | The Masque of the Red Death / The Premature Burial
Buy new: $13.49 / Used from: $6.67 (B+ for "Masque", B- for "Burial") More solid 60's horror. A bit meandering, but it's got a great mood and visuals, and is more bleak and affecting than most stuff from the era. It's even a bit arty, pretty surprising since it comes from Roger Corman. "Burial" is much the same, but weaker on pretty much all fronts.
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 | A Scanner Darkly
Buy new: $16.49 / Used from: $1.00 (B) Extremely faithful to the book, so it's got neat ideas and some cool individual scenes with out much real narrative thrust. That's enough, though, and it looks pretty cool too.
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 | The Legend of the Seven Golden Vampires/The Seven Brothers meet Dracula
Buy used from: $19.92 (B-) The famed Hammer Horror/Shaw Brothers co-production. It's got high production values for what is essentially a kung-fu movie, but the action itself is fairly meh. Quite a bit of novelty value, though, since it's the only gothic horror/martial arts film I've heard of. Also, Cushing is fun as Van Helsing, as usual.
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 | Jet Li's Fearless (Unrated Widescreen Edition)
Buy new: $14.98 / Used from: $0.75 (B+) Yeah, it's pretty plotty for a martial arts film, but the plot is far more interesting than you'd usually find in this kinda film, and the action is all cool.
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 | A Christmas Story (Two-Disc Special Edition)
Buy used from: $8.39 (B) Totally episodic, of course, but it's consistently amusing and endearing.
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 | The Naked Gun - From the Files of Police Squad!
Buy new: $9.98 / Used from: $0.91 (B+) I've seen this movie a helluva lot of times, and it's always funny. A stupid movie, but the people who made it are smart, anyway, and know what they're doing. Also, Nielsen's does his standard routine here as well as he's done it anywhere.
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 | I Bury the Living
Buy new: $7.98 / Used from: $0.69 (B) Dated, though it holds up better than most of its contemporaries, but still fairly creepy and with a cool premise. Too bad about the weak cop-out ending.
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 | Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead
Buy new: $12.99 / Used from: $8.65 (B) It's ultimately a fair bit longer than it ought to be, but this is still a clever, entertaining film.
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 | The Revenge of Frankenstein
Buy new: $13.49 / Used from: $4.99 (B-) Pretty much the same as the first one, and most of the other Hammer pics I've watched. Fun, worth a watch, but nothing much more than that.
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 | The Mummy
Buy new: $5.79 / Used from: $3.98 (B-) Slightly above average for Hammer stuff except for the dreadfully overlong flashback in the middle. Still entertaining enough, though.
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 | The Fearless Vampire Killers, or Pardon Me but Your Teeth Are in My Neck
Buy new: $5.79 / Used from: $5.76 (C-) The most extraordinary looking gothic I've seen from the era is a lame, witless spoof with maybe 1/10 the brains of "Dracula: Dead and Loving It". (A compliment to neither film, I assure you.) What a waste, especially since Polanksi has talent for serious horror. That's it. Final total for the year: 368 different movies.
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Listmania!
