Christopher Saunders

LATEST ARTICLES ( 659 )

• Groggy on Moviepilot: The Charge of the Light Brigade, Redux

  

  Groggy, if you look before you, you'll see neither audience nor page views. The usefulness of such an article eludes me!Groggy revisits an old favorite, yet... Read more

  Posted on 24 October 2014 ENTERTAINMENT, MOVIES

• Carrie (1976)

  

  Brian De Palma scored his breakthrough with Carrie (1976), a flashy adaptation of Stephen King's novel. This supernatural study of adolescent angst makes a... Read more

  Posted on 23 October 2014 ENTERTAINMENT, MOVIES

• If...

  

  Lindsay Anderson started as a critic, co-founded the Free Cinema Movement and debuted with This Sporting Life (1963). That film's Expressionist touches soon... Read more

  Posted on 20 October 2014 ENTERTAINMENT, MOVIES

• Theatre of Blood

  

  (1973) is a unique Shakespearean slasher movie. Vincent Price considered this his favorite role, infusing his classical stage training into a typically... Read more

  Posted on 18 October 2014 ENTERTAINMENT, MOVIES

• Opera

  

  Horror fans consider Opera (1987) one of Dario Argento's masterworks, yet it showcases his worst tendencies. While providing a surfeit of stylish slayings,... Read more

  Posted on 16 October 2014 ENTERTAINMENT, MOVIES

• Shadow of the Vampire

  

  An uneven black comedy, E. Elias Merhige's Shadow of the Vampire (2000) depicts the filming of Nosferatu as a battle of wills between artist and monster. Read more

  Posted on 14 October 2014 ENTERTAINMENT, MOVIES

• The Elephant Man

  

  After his mind-screw Eraserhead (1976), David Lynch tackled a more commercial project. The Elephant Man (1980) is a compassionate monster movie starring a human. Read more

  Posted on 13 October 2014 ENTERTAINMENT, MOVIES

• Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978)

  

  shows that remakes work best by deviating from the source material. Philip Kaufman respects Don Siegel's original (and Jack Finney's novel) while putting a... Read more

  Posted on 12 October 2014 ENTERTAINMENT, MOVIES

• The Lindbergh Kidnapping Case

  

  The '70s were a boom time for TV crime dramas: Helter Skelter, The Legend of Lizzie Borden and The Marcus-Nelson Murders hold up well decades later. Buzz... Read more

  Posted on 11 October 2014 ENTERTAINMENT, MOVIES

• Gone Girl

  

  David Fincher enjoys plot twists more than M. Night Shymalan. At first glance, Gone Girl (2014) seems a return to the days of The Game and Fight Club, an... Read more

  Posted on 05 October 2014 ENTERTAINMENT, MOVIES

• Groggy On Moviepilot: Revisiting Victim

  

  I'd been preparing a Moviepilot article on Basil Dearden's Victim (1961) for over a month, and finally published it tonight. I've written about this movie befor... Read more

  Posted on 03 October 2014 ENTERTAINMENT, MOVIES

• The Browning Version (1994)

  

  Terence Rattigan's The Browning Version has inspired several films, but the 1951 version with Michael Redgrave remains the classic. Mike Figgis's 1994 remake... Read more

  Posted on 28 September 2014 ENTERTAINMENT, MOVIES

• The Winslow Boy (1999)

  

  David Mamet breaks from profane verbal sparring for a genteel Terence Rattigan adaptation. The Winslow Boy (1999) is one of Rattigan's perennials, already... Read more

  Posted on 26 September 2014 ENTERTAINMENT, MOVIES

• Dr. Mabuse, the Gambler

  

  At last we review Fritz Lang's Dr. Mabuse, the Gambler (1922). Four-and-a-half hours long, leisurely paced and heavily stylized, it's tough going for those not... Read more

  Posted on 25 September 2014 ENTERTAINMENT, MOVIES

• The Blue Max

  

  (1966) updates the dogfight epic for the cynical '60s. Playing off familiar themes of ambition and class warfare, it's undoubtedly better as spectacle than... Read more

  Posted on 24 September 2014 ENTERTAINMENT, MOVIES

• Revisiting The Empire of Crime

  

  "When humanity grows bored by the banality of blockbusters... when snobbery has become the supreme law, then the time will have come for the Empire of... Read more

  Posted on 23 September 2014 ENTERTAINMENT, MOVIES

• Odd Man Out

  

  "Close the door when I'm gone, and forget me."Carol Reed's first masterpiece is Odd Man Out (1947). It's just as stylish as The Third Man but even more... Read more

  Posted on 22 September 2014 ENTERTAINMENT, MOVIES

• Rear Window

  

  Alfred Hitchcock's Rear Window (1954) is the rare movie that appeals to everyone. Auteurists love it for showcasing Hitchcock's thematic preoccupations. Film... Read more

  Posted on 21 September 2014 ENTERTAINMENT, MOVIES

• Inside Man

  

  (2006) is as safe and commercial a film as Spike Lee ever made. It's a conventional heist film, with some last act revelations that aren't entirely convincing. Read more

  Posted on 19 September 2014 ENTERTAINMENT, MOVIES

• The Trials of Oscar Wilde

  

  Ken Hughes' The Trials of Oscar Wilde was one of two 1960 films addressing the playwright's conviction for "gross indecency," released amidst fierce debate... Read more

  Posted on 17 September 2014 ENTERTAINMENT, MOVIES