Christopher Saunders

LATEST ARTICLES ( 659 )

• Othello (1995)

  

  The early Nineties saw Shakespeare films of all shapes: straightforward (Franco Zeffirelli's Hamlet), experimental (Richard Loncraine's '30s-set Richard III),... Read more

  Posted on 13 December 2014 ENTERTAINMENT, MOVIES

• Macbeth (1971)

  

  Roman Polanski made Macbeth (1971) in an extremely dark place. Depressed and guilt-ridden from Sharon Tate's murder, he channels his despair into William... Read more

  Posted on 11 December 2014 ENTERTAINMENT, MOVIES

• Breakheart Pass

  

  Alistair MacLean exports his high adventure tropes to the Old West in Breakheart Pass (1973). More whodunnit than Western, it's an enjoyable mix of action and... Read more

  Posted on 09 December 2014 ENTERTAINMENT, MOVIES

• An Affair to Remember

  

  There's no more quintessential Hollywood melodrama than An Affair to Remember (1957), alternately beloved as endearingly earnest or derided as gloppy garbage. Read more

  Posted on 06 December 2014 ENTERTAINMENT, MOVIES

• Queen Margot

  

  Critics like calling Queen Margot (1994) France's answer to The Godfather. But Patrice Chereau's epic is more a Gallic precursor to Shekhar Kapur's Elizabeth,... Read more

  Posted on 02 December 2014 ENTERTAINMENT, MOVIES

• The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part I

  

  I was disappointed with last year's The Hunger Games: Catching Fire. Commendably ambitious, it nonetheless felt like a padded-out interstitial chapter. Read more

  Posted on 24 November 2014 ENTERTAINMENT, MOVIES

• RIP Mike Nichols

  

  Today brings sad news that legendary director Mike Nichols passed away at age 83.Born to German-Jewish parents, Nichols' family fled Germany in 1939 and... Read more

  Posted on 21 November 2014 ENTERTAINMENT, MOVIES

• The Fugitive (1947)

  

  proved an expensive setback for John Ford. This highbrow religious allegory befuddled audiences used to his Westerns; critics still debate if it's an... Read more

  Posted on 19 November 2014 ENTERTAINMENT, MOVIES

• The Last Hurrah

  

  Some John Ford films get lost in the shuffle, and The Last Hurrah (1958) seems unfairly overlooked. A poignant if somewhat misguided political drama, it's... Read more

  Posted on 16 November 2014 ENTERTAINMENT, MOVIES

• Interstellar, Or Why I'm Sick of Christopher Nolan

  

  For all Christopher Nolan's shortcomings, his fatal flaw is a deficit of humanity. The Dark Knight trilogy's most believable character is a psychotic clown. Read more

  Posted on 16 November 2014 ENTERTAINMENT, MOVIES

• The Lighthorsemen

  

  Simon Wincer's The Lighthorsemen (1987) is a rousing Aussie epic. There's none of Gallipoli's antiwar angst or Breaker Morant's burning injustice: it's a... Read more

  Posted on 14 November 2014 ENTERTAINMENT, MOVIES

• Happy Veterans' Day

  

  , or Armistice Day to my non-American readers. A very solemn holiday and one I take seriously, considering the number of veterans in my immediate family. Read more

  Posted on 12 November 2014 ENTERTAINMENT, MOVIES

• Forty Guns

  

  The Fifties saw myriad female-centric Westerns, usually off-the-wall pictures like Johnny Guitar (1954). Samuel Fuller's Forty Guns (1957) holds up better... Read more

  Posted on 09 November 2014 ENTERTAINMENT, MOVIES

• The Bridges at Toko-Ri

  

  (1955) is a typical old school war movie. Director Mark Robson competently balances action and melodrama, in a movie remarkable mainly for its ending. Read more

  Posted on 09 November 2014 ENTERTAINMENT, MOVIES

• Touch of Evil

  

  (1958) is the sort of oddball movie that delights cineastes while alienating everyone else. Orson Welles' film noir is a patchwork of brilliant direction,... Read more

  Posted on 08 November 2014 ENTERTAINMENT, MOVIES

• Groggy's Birthday and More Fritz Lang

  

  Groggy turned 26 today and celebrated with a new Moviepilot article synthesizing some recent writings/viewings: Fritz Lang's Anti-Nazi Films. Besides the... Read more

  Posted on 02 November 2014 ENTERTAINMENT, MOVIES

• Cloak and Dagger

  

  Usually ranked among Fritz Lang's worst movies, Cloak and Dagger (1946) is highly entertaining. Critics lament the film's studio-imposed censorship: it's still... Read more

  Posted on 30 October 2014 ENTERTAINMENT, MOVIES

• Ministry of Fear

  

  (1944) is Fritz Lang's best anti-Nazi film. More streamlined than Man Hunt and less scalding than Hangmen Also Die!, it benefits from emphasizing thriller... Read more

  Posted on 29 October 2014 ENTERTAINMENT, MOVIES

• The Birds

  

  Alfred Hitchcock enjoyed crafting art films within established genres. Psycho (1960) is a warped character study disguised as a B Movie. Read more

  Posted on 27 October 2014 ENTERTAINMENT, MOVIES

• Carrie (2013)

  

  Stephen King's Carrie inspired one successful film, so why not a remake? That's probably the only thought anyone put into tonight's monumental mediocrity. Read more

  Posted on 25 October 2014 ENTERTAINMENT, MOVIES