The Shootist is an uneven, elegiac tribute to a great career. The script leaves a lot to be desired, but is compensated for by some fine performances (especially Wayne's), Bruce Surtees' poignant cinematography, and Don Siegel's carefully paced direction.

Although not so clever or original as its predecessor, Futureworld is effective.

For a De Palma film, Obsession has much more suspense than violence, even if much of the premise and motivations are shamelessly culled from Hitchcock's Vertigo, as is composer Bernard Herrmann. The lack of originality, however, doesn't make Obsession any less effective, and the film has been generally overlooked in the spotty De Palma canon.

Beautifully photographed in locations from Bavaria to London to the English countryside, and including some excellent special effects from Les Bowie, TO THE DEVIL A DAUGHTER deteriorates a bit in its relatively ludicrous ending. The film does, however, boast some truly frightening images of black magic rituals, a gruesome birth scene, and a very immodest Kinski.

It's a one-joke film that's stretched well beyond its welcome.

A sensitive, thought-provoking story involving a man forced to look at himself as youth gives way to middle age. Elliott is outstanding as the title character, an old-timer in the profession at age 30.

Predictable but pleasant fluff.

Far from Bartel's best exploitation work but worth a look for low-budget cult fanatics.

Cronenberg's brand of body horror isn't to everyone's taste, but to call him a reactionary anti-sensualist who metes out grotesque punishment for sins of the flesh -- as detractors have -- is to miss the point.

A must-see for Beatles buffs and anyone interested in how the '60s looked as they were happening (rather than in slick, retrospective recreations); others might want to take a pass.

A cautiously optimistic epic, deeply rooted in American history. Bolstered by Surtees's magnificent cinematography, Fielding's fine score and an excellent supporting cast highlighted by the scene-stealing dry wit of Chief Dan George, Josey Wales affirms life and community with bracing conviction.

Technically, The Tenant is superb, with stunning camerawork by Sven Nykvist, an eerie score by Philippe Sarde, and thoroughly convincing performances from the entire cast. (Review of original release)

This silly and bloody, but at times very effective, horror film takes The Exorcist one step further by concentrating, not on possession by the Devil, but on the Antichrist himself.

Paul Newman gives one of his best comic performances in Robert Altman's underrated BUFFALO BILL AND THE INDIANS, OR SITTING BULL'S HISTORY LESSON, an irreverent western satire that portrays American history as pure showbiz sham and "nothing more than disrespect for the dead," as Sitting Bull claims.

Hit-and-miss.

This spoof of the great fictional-film detectives offers consistently funny scenes sparked by Falk, Niven, Sellers, and Guinness.

Despite a crowded cast of famous actors, this WW II adventure falls flat because of its claustrophobic sets, cliche dialog, and hackneyed story.

Performances are weak all around, and Gordon hits his nadir in his cinematic vision of irregularly sized creatures.

A series of heavily telegraphed, desperately played and incredibly unfunny sight gags, Silent Movie is truly a maddeningly insulting salute to the golden age of film comedy.

Argento here presents a stylish and compelling film that boasts remarkable visuals and an inventive use of sound effects and music.

The cast gives believable and realistic performances, with script and direction contributing a sleekness, although the underlying messages receive undue emphasis.

The whole thing, script, acting, and especially Penn's heavy-handed direction, is bizarre. Yet there's a perverse joy in watching Brando and Nicholson try to compete with each other in mugging, switching accents, and mannerisms that could only be found elsewhere in institutions like the Bellevue Insane Asylum.

Film Ventures International (FVI) specialized in turning out cheap imitations of big blockbusters. When The Exorcist came out, FVI followed it with Beyond the Door; while Jaws was a number one money-grosser, FVI came out with this film, replacing the shark with a 15-foot bear.

This picture never moves past dull, sitcom humor.

Basically, the feeling one gets is that there was so much musical material left from THAT'S ENTERTAINMENT! that they just threw the rest into PART II, and then decided to expand on it with comedy and drama in order to be able to show The Marx Brothers, Greta Garbo, and others.

Filled with interesting characters and strong performances, Stay Hungry not only makes its point about class prejudice, but presents a detailed portrait of southern country club culture and the bodybuilding milieu that would be so deftly captured in Schwarzenegger's next film, the fine documentary Pumping Iron.

The film features a host of fine character portrayals and a compelling climax that compensates for its length.

The performances are first-rate (finally free of the casting constraints, Hitchcock displayed--in 1972's Frenzy as well--a deliciously offbeat taste in performers) and the screenplay by Ernest Lehman (North By Northwest) is a witty model of construction. The humor is more obvious and subversive than any of Hitchcock's films since The Trouble With Harry.

Although the film could have been preachy, Ritchie handles the story and theme with deftness.

An enjoyable but mindless hour and a half of car wrecks that span several states.

Face to Face is an extremely intense experience from start to finish, due in large part to Ullmann's performance as she powerfully expresses a range of emotions seldom seen in American films.

Mean little film that pretends to say something about rape but panders to the cheap exploitation values of bad thriller films.

Taken as a whole, Robin and Marian is a spotty picture that's sometimes satirical, a trifle pretentious, occasionally exciting.

Cassavetes' films can be annoying and enigmatic, but they are usually creative and interesting. Not so with this one.

An undeniably brilliant, nightmarish portrait of one man's personal hell.

Dog Day Afternoon benefits immeasurably from a cast and crew doing some of the finest work of their careers. One of the finest films of the 1970s.

Hustle is one of the few examples of true modern film noir. But director and screenwriter cannot resolve their different approaches. The script's humanistic, if depressing, angle gets battered by Aldrich's approach. An interesting mixed bag.

Lesser Peckinpah, but fascinating nonetheless.

With an actor only slightly more expressive than Ryan O'Neal in the lead, this sombre costume epic might have reached the level of tragedy; as it is, the film is langorous to a fault, but so visually delightful and keenly observed that its excesses demand forgiveness.

A delightful and memorable film.

Jarring and electrifying drama.

Adapted from an award-winning novella by science-fiction writer Harlan Ellison, A Boy And His Dog has won a cult following of its own for its offbeat, sardonic look into the future.

Unfortunately, the script leaves something to be desired--namely, dramatic impetus. Yet Hard Times is still an enjoyable film, and the depression-era settings are painstakingly captured.

Perhaps the movie's value, or lack of it, lies not in the input of the Beales, the Maysles, et al., but in the degree of seriousness audiences bring to the theater. Some viewers will be shocked, some will be touched, but, unfortunately, the spectators this sad story is most likely to attract, amuse, and vindicate are the sort whose obsession with the upper crust, especially its blue-blooded stratum, is fed by envy and spite--each an unhealthy attribute on its own, but poisonous in combination with the other.

One of the most inventive and invigorating nonfiction features ever made.

The film itself is a lot of fun--but the audience-participation phenomenon has turned it into a one-of-a-kind cinematic experience.

A thrilling pseudo-expose on the corrupt inner workings of covert organizations.

Woody Allen's hilarious satire of classic Russian literature, might properly be described as Tolstoy meets the Marx Bros., as he and Diane Keaton get caught up in an uproariously funny plot to assassinate Napoleon in 1812.

The special effects are unrealistic, as are the dialog and performances. However, despite everything, the picture still makes for great fun.

An affectionate adaptation of Raymond Chandler's novel that beautifully evokes the seamy side of 1940s Los Angeles via superb production design and the same period atmosphere cinematographer Alonzo previously evoked for Chinatown.

A slick, stylish sequel to Harper (1966), this private-eye film has Newman reprising the role of Ross MacDonald's cool gumshoe, Lew Harper.

A rather pleasant period comedy that made quite a sum of money for the studio in its economically weak post-Walt period. A delightful cast of character actors helps the childish story, with Conway and Knotts beginning what would become a somewhat famous, but very simple-minded, film comedy duo.

Uniformly dull and predictable, save for the sight of Borgnine turning into a goat-headed demon--not much of a stretch, perhaps--and Travolta (in a small role) melting along with the rest of the cast.

Fairly effective action-horror film.

It has heart and warmth in the American Graffiti vein, with everything carried out top-notch in a sociological study of black youths.

The performances of Caan and Richardson are excellent, and the rollerball sequences are fast-paced and interesting.

It offers some excellent performances, crisp direction, and overall professionalism of the entire cast and crew. What keeps it from being a great western (like FORT APACHE or HIGH NOON) is that the audience is seldom involved in the lives of the riders other than in a peripheral sense.

From the outrageously frightening opening--in which a beautiful young woman skinny-dipping in the moonlight is devoured by the unseen shark--to the claustrophobic climax aboard Quint's fishing boat, Spielberg has us in his grip and rarely lets go.

Sprawling over two and one-half hours and never flagging, it successfully introduces and exposes 24 different characters, brilliantly critiquing the country music industry as a microcosm of American society.

Not surprisingly, Bresson's stripped-to-the-bone adaptation eschews the traditionally heroic, spectacular, fabulous, and exaltedly romantic aspects of the legendary saga in order to lay bare the confusion and pain within the human soul.

A few scary moments, but that's about it. Technical credits are good, actors are fair, direction is mediocre, but the public squashed Bug.

The Wind And The Lion is certainly jingoistic to a fault, and its portrayal of the various factions is little above the cartoon level, but thanks to marvelous performances by Keith and Connery, the film works as a maker of myths.

Unmotivated, often plodding, and singularly without humor, this film could have been terrific.

Unlike his brilliant work in directing westerns, Eastwood falls victim to stodgy pacing and ludicrous acting. The Eiger Sanction does, however, contain some brilliant, breathtaking mountaineering sequences in which Eastwood did his own stunt work.

The picture comes to life only when Sellers is onscreen, and the rest of the time it's just vamping.

Surprisingly good follow-up to the original tough crime drama.

A catalogue of slapstick errors, THE FORTUNE works well through the fine performances of the leads and the superb timing of director Nichols.

The original script, written by TV veteran Belson, supplies plenty of laughs, but the picture has so many characters we never get to truly know any of them, and the result, while often hilarious, is ultimately skin-deep, just as the beauty contestants are.

Day Of The Locust exudes authenticity, from the costuming to the cars, from the exotic clothes to the marcelled hair styles.

Superior drive-in exploitation fare.

A classic among lovers of truly bad movies.

A zany, hysterically funny, and sometimes brilliant if sometimes sophomoric send-up of every medieval movie ever made.

Supervixens is primarily for Meyer cultists, and even they may be put off by the film's length and excessive violence

Basically a formula film with all the usual car chases, knock-downs, booby traps, etc. If you like John Wayne, you'll love Brannigan. If you just think he is...well, only all right, you'll be better off reading a book. This is not one of the Duke's best.

Richards and Eisenmann are a pair of orphaned children with psychic powers who suffer from amnesia and cannot remember where they came from.

Ken Russell applies his rococo outpourings to Pete Townshend's rock opera and botches not only the visuals but the fine score.

This excellent contemporary noir features some of the best work of both director Arthur Penn and actor Gene Hackman.

Beatty mercilessly lampoons his own offscreen image in a bumptious comedy of manners that turns persuasively sombre at the end.

A handsomely mounted aviation adventure from the director, screenwriter and one of the stars of the hugely successful BUTCH CASSIDY AND THE SUNDANCE KID, this film deals with that colorful era of the early 1920s when barnstorming--performing aerial feats before rural crowds--was so popular.

The direction is routine action filmmaking with no originality. The film, therefore, is both exciting and flat all at once.

Ira Levin is an eclectic writer who has done comedy-drama (Sleuth), adventure (The Boys from Brazil), thrillers (Rosemary's Baby), and science fiction such as The Stepford Wives. But Goldman's screenplay and Forbes's ponderous direction slow his exciting novel to a laborious pace.

The famed Medfield campus is the site for another romp courtesy of Walt Disney and producer Bill Anderson. The film, which pokes fun at the hype put out by cereal companies, has some of the students discovering a formula to give humans super strength.

Screenwriters Maibaum and Mankiewicz attempted to downplay the gadgetry this time around, but their attempts at adding more humor hinder plot development. The film's pace lags until the climactic finale.

Although strictly standard fare, the material is elevated somewhat through Clark's skillful handling of such plot devices as obscene phone calls from the killer to the girls via the upstairs phone and a nicely handled twist ending, which provides a genuine shock.

This slick remake of the ebullient original falls short of being the film it could have been, despite the presence of master filmmaker Wilder and his engaging costars.

Everything a disaster movie should be, a combination of soap opera and the spectacle of destruction.

Brooks's most accomplished work, combining his well-known brand of comedy with stylish direction and a uniformly excellent cast.

Cinematographer Willis superbly captures the turn-of-the-century period, applying a seriographic tint to flashback scenes for a softer, richer look than the sharp image of the ongoing contemporary story.

Incoherent horror film about a woman, Hill, searching for her father, a surrealist painter in a small California coastal town that has become overrun with flesh-eating zombies. Katz and Huyck, who enjoyed great success as the writers of George Lucas' AMERICAN GRAFFITI, stooped to ripping off George Romero's low-budget masterpiece NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD.

[An] effective but uneven work, which chronicles a woman's search for self.

Harsh, funny, grim, and, like all Bob Fosse's films, primarily concerned with the intersection of life and showbiz.

Elegant and stylish in the best Agatha Christie tradition--a thoroughly entertaining if poky whodunit.

Tough-minded, moving study of a working-class housewife's mental breakdown, enhanced by superb performances from Rowlands, in the title role, and Falk as her husband.

Awful disaster movie that combined the worst elements of soap opera with special effects (bad matte paintings and the ridiculous Sensurround)--featuring an all-star cast that should have stayed home and waited for a real earthquake.

A better rock'n'roll parody than The Rocky Horror Picture Show, and one of director Brian De Palma's more original efforts, Phantom of the Paradise combines elements of The Phantom of the Opera and the Faust legend into a fairly entertaining, but only sporadically successful, horror-musical comedy.

This film, with a whole new cast of miscasts, is even more mindless than its predecessor.

Much of the film is shot from a dog's-eye view, and this technique works perfectly. The human actors are okay but not as cool as the canine star, a veteran of TV's Petticoat Junction series.

An ancestor of director Wenders's 1984 film Paris, Texas.