West Side Story
If anyone doubts the lasting influence of "West Side Story, " look no further than Adam Sandler and Robert DeNiro. In his current slob-a-thon "Anger Management, " Adam and co-star Jack Nicholson perform a duet of "I Feel [...]
Articles by Ed Peters
Metropolis
What do "2001, " "Blade Runner" and "The Matrix" have in common, besides their fantastic milieus? They share a common grandfather. Few silent films shoulder the same reputation as Fritz Lang’s watershed 1927 science fiction [...]
The Daydreamer
Released theatrically in 1966, ’The Daydreamer’ mixes biographical elements of the life of author Hans Christian Andersen with his immortal fairy tales, told through the stop-motion ’Animagic’ animation of Rankin-Bass, the duo responsible for such [...]
Vampire’s Kiss
He’s currently nominated for an Oscar for his work in "Adaptation" and he already won the coveted statuette for "Leaving Las Vegas, " but for me the benchmark Nicolas Cage performance arrived in 1989 with the pitch black comedy [...]
Sunset Boulevard
Billy Wilder’s 1950 masterwork "Sunset Boulevard" seems all the more miraculous given the circumstances and times in which it was made. 1950 was the height of the Communist witch-hunts; anyone named "un-American" whether in front of [...]
The Carry On Collection
For over thirty years, British movie screens lit up regularly to the leering, naughty bits antics of the "Carry On" film series. Between 1958 and 1992, there were thirty-one "Carry On" movies. Each one sported the same formula: spoof a [...]
Spider-Man
Far from the madding crowds who haunted multiplexes endlessly this past summer, "Spider-Man" arrives amid fresh hype on DVD from Columbia Tristar Home Entertainment. Not content with having what will probably be this year’s most successful [...]
Casino Royale
When it comes to the movies, everyone has their guilty pleasures. You know, those movies we’re ashamed to like but have no shame in admitting we like. For whatever reason – psychological baggage, wish fulfillment or just plain self-imposed ignorance [...]