Most Wanted
Email here for additions & corrections.

The Fortune
(Nichols, 1975)
-30-
(Webb, 1959)
Betrayal
(Jones, 1983)
Play It As It Lays
(Perry, 1972)
The Outfit
(Flynn, 1973)
Alex in Wonderland
(Mazursky, 1969)
The Legend of Lylah Clare
(Aldrich, 1968)
In The Cool of the Day
(Stevens, 1963)
That Cold Day in the Park
(Altman, 1969)
The Fox
(Rydell, 1967)
Thumb Trippin'
(Masters, 1972)
Midas Run
(Kjellin, 1969)
At Long Last Love
(Bogdanovich, 1973)
Outcast of the Islands
(Reed, 1951)
Mike's Murder
(Bridges, 1984)
Reader Submissions

1930's-1950's
The Moon's Our Home
(Seiter, 1936)
Sh! The Octopus
(McGann, 1937)
The Mating Season
(Leisen, 1951)
Bad for Each Other
(Rapper, 1953)
The Phenix City Story
(Karlson, 1955)
Run of the Arrow
(Fuller, 1956)
House of Secrets
(Green, 1956)
Macabre
(Castle, 1958)
The Fiend Who Walked the West
(G. Douglas, 1958
Five Gates to Hell
(Clavell, 1959)
1960's
Key Witness
(Karlson, 1960)
Summer and Smoke
(Glenville, 1961)
The Chapman Report
(Cukor,1962)
Bachelor Flat
(Tashlin, 1962) [on Hulu]
The L Shaped Room
(Forbes, 1963)
A Thousand Clowns
(Coe, 1965)
You're a Big Boy Now
(Coppola, 1966)
Dark of the Sun
(Cardiff, 1968)
Skidoo
(Preminger, 1968)
Last Summer
(Perry, 1969)
The Comic
(C. Reiner, 1969)
1970-1974
The Revolutionary
(Williams, 1970)
Diary of a Mad Housewife
(Perry, 1970)
Tropic of Cancer
(Strick, 1970)
I Never Sang for My Father
(Cates, 1970)
Sometimes a Great Notion
(Newman, 1971)
Marriage of a Young Stockbroker
(Turman, 1971)
'Doc'
(Perry, 1971)
The Music Lovers
(Russell, 1971)
Drive, He Said
(Nicholson, 1971)
The Steagle
(Sylbert, 1971)
The Last Movie
(Hopper, 1971)
Made For Each Other
(Bean, 1971)
The Day the Clown Cried
(Lewis, 1972)
Hickey & Boggs
(Culp, 1972)
The Carey Treatment
(Edwards, 1972)
Pete 'n' Tillie
(Ritt, 1972)
Love and Pain and the Whole Damn Thing
(Pakula, 1973)
Man on a Swing
(Perry, 1974)
Open Season
(Collinson, 1974)
The Tamarind Seed
(Edwards, 1974)
Law and Disorder
(Passer, 1974)
Homebodies
(Yust, 1974)
Stardust
(Apted, 1974)
Celine and Julie Go Boating
(Rivette, 1974)
1975-1979
Rafferty and the Gold Dust Twins
(Richards, 1975
At Long Last Love
(Bogdanovich, 1975)
Hearts of the West
(Zieff, 1975)
Welcome to L.A.
(Rudolph, 1976)
W.C. Fields and Me
(Hiller, 1976)
Citizens Band
(Demme, 1977)
Twilight's Last Gleaming
(Aldrich, 1977)
Looking for Mr. Goodbar
(Brooks, 1977)
Movie Movie
(Donen, 1978)
The Medusa Touch
(Gold, 1978)
American Hot Wax
(Mutrux, 1978)
Hot Stuff
(DeLuise, 1979)
Scavenger Hunt
(Schultz , 1979)
Players
(Harvey, 1979)
Rich Kids
(Young, 1979)
Nightwing
(Hiller, 1979)
Screams of a Winter's Night
(Wilson, 1979
When You Comin' Back Red Ryder?
(Katselas, 1979
1980's
The Awakening
(Newell, 1980)
Simon
(Brickman, 1980)
God's Angry Man
(Herzog, 1980)
Twice Upon a Time
(Korty & Swenson, 1983)
Trouble in Mind
(Rudolph, 1985)
When the Wind Blows
(Murikami, 1986)
Housekeeping
(Forsyth, 1987)
The Glass Menagerie
(Newman, 1987)
Patty Hearst
(Schrader, 1988)
Running on Empty
(Lumet, 1988)
Drowning by Numbers
(Greenaway, 1988)
Haunted Summer
(Passer, 1988)
The Decline of Western Civilization Part II: The Metal Years
(Spheeris, 1988)
1990's
Men Don't Leave
(Brickman, 1990)
Old Times
(Curtis, 1991)
Prospero's Books
(Greenaway, 1991)
City of Hope
(Sayles, 1991)
The Baby of Macon
(Greenaway, 1993)
King of the Hill
(Soderbergh, 1993)
Dadetown
(Hexter, 1995)
SubUrbia
(Linklater, 1997)

Upcoming

July 30

Cats & Dogs: The Revenge of Kitty Galore

Charlie St. Cloud

The Concert

Dinner for Shmucks

The Dry Land

The Extra Man

Get Low

Helen

Hugh Hefner: Playboy, Activist and Rebel

Smash His Camera

What's the Matter with Kansas?

Who Killed Nancy

Humanoid

This E.T. "exclusive footage of Nine" spot was posted on 9.18, and I don't see what the big deal is. It's just another whirling smorgasbord of glamour cuts and black-and-white rehearsal footage. (I would be earnestly salivating right now if the entire film had been shot in monochrome.) Since I never watch E.T. the standout element is the Stepford Showbiz News delivery style of co-host Mark Steines. His plastic-complacent manner is a self-directed parody. Don't copy-reading styles ever evolve?

Listen sometime to the way TV announcers sounded in the 1950s, '60s and '70s. It seems astonishing that copy-reading delivery this phony and artificial was actually the norm at one time. But all cultures gradually evolve, and with this the manner and verbal comnmunication techniques of TV performers. Except Mark Steines sounds exactly the way E.T. robot-announcers sounded in the late '70s. Everything has changed -- Jimmy Carter was president 30 years ago -- but E.T. is frozen in amber.

What & Why<< previous | next >>Sharp Exception

Posted by Jeffrey Wells on September 23, 2009 at 5:55 AM

comment #1

Ryansi51 Author Profile Page says ...

Mary Hart's even worse.

Posted by Ryansi51 Author Profile Page at September 23, 2009 7:04 AM

comment #2

Gogocrank Author Profile Page says ...

I tried watching "That's Entertainment!" the other day, and man, the hosting/narration from Sinatra, Liz Taylor et al. was insufferable. Completely awkward, stilted and unnatural. Especially Sinatra, who seemed bored off his butt.

Posted by Gogocrank Author Profile Page at September 23, 2009 7:37 AM

comment #3

GKLondon Author Profile Page says ...

This guy makes me want to punch children. Not necessarily his, any will do. He's a buzz saw down my spine. This is what passes for a TV show about movies, and it makes me sick to my stomach. Someone needs to put together a full on, hour a week (or 2 hours a month?) show made for people who care about movies and would never think about ending a segment trying to impress the viewers with an Oscar statistic. The kind of people who give a shit about that stuff should just stick to watching The View or whatever it's called.

Wait, I make documentaries....

And what's up with having not heard word one from Day-Lewis in any of the promotional stuff so far. Am I wrong? Has he spoken? What's the voice like? Fellini instead of John Houston?

Posted by GKLondon Author Profile Page at September 23, 2009 7:47 AM

comment #4

markj Author Profile Page says ...

"It looks like another amazing Rob Marshall movie!"

Um, what was the other amazing Rob Marshall movie?

Posted by markj Author Profile Page at September 23, 2009 8:44 AM

comment #5

C is for cookie Author Profile Page says ...

And nary a mention of Federico Fellini anywhere in that puff piece (I guess they can't market Rob Marshall as a "visionary" if they mention he's just remaking the work of another, better director). Do I sound like an old fogey if I mention that Fergie is not even remotely effective as a substitute for Eddra Gale? Well, if I do I don't care. The Saraghina dance is one of my favorite scenes in the original.

Posted by C is for cookie Author Profile Page at September 23, 2009 9:10 AM

comment #6

Travis Crabtree Author Profile Page says ...

Wait..... Fergie gained weight for the film AND she plays a prostitute? OSCAR!
(she wouldn't by chance be playing an over-weight prostitute who's also retarded, would she?)

Posted by Travis Crabtree Author Profile Page at September 23, 2009 11:09 AM

comment #7

bmcintire Author Profile Page says ...

That style of patter has been seasoned and aged to an absolute brine over the past few decades - and it is HAMMERED into these people. Steines is probably the least offensive of all the ET-types (Christ, look what they did to poor Leonard Maltin). I'd have to say I find the delivery of most local-news anchors/reporters to be twice as egregious and based nowhere in actual conversational tones.

But shows like this and Inside Edition have devolved with the culture to become less about enterainment news and more a bald-faced competition to drop the names and images of celebrities. Garbage like TMZ is only making it worse. It was pablum to begin with, now it's simply poisonous.

Posted by bmcintire Author Profile Page at September 23, 2009 12:08 PM

comment #8

fortunesfool73.wordpress.com Author Profile Page says ...

Remember when you actually had to be able to dance to be in a Musical? With the amount of edits they use these days they could make me look like Fred Astaire. The hours of choreography they put into these film (Moulin Rouge springs to mind) and you never see it onscreen for more than a second. I could get quite annoyed if I thought about it.

Posted by fortunesfool73.wordpress.com Author Profile Page at September 24, 2009 6:15 AM

Post a comment