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The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian (PG)
by Jim Emerson, editorThe "Chronicles of Narnia" movies take place in several worlds simultaneously. The magical fantasy land of the title is grounded in ancient Greco-Roman mythology, ruled by sorcery and superstition, and populated by centaurs, minotaurs, fauns, gryphons, talking mammals, tree spirits and such. The Pevensie kids are homo sapiens children of WW II England, though they spend most of their screen-time (and alternate lives) in Narnia, where they are royalty. C.S. Lewis wrote the novels in the post-war United Kingdom, between 1949 and 1954. And the pictures themselves are the products of a globalized 21st-century economy dominated by multinational conglomerates like the Walt Disney Company. All of these influences can be felt in the first two "Narnia" films, " The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe" (2005) and the latest, "Prince Caspian" (2008).
Q. It has been observed many times that when Hollywood runs out of ideas, it remakes an older film. I was stunned to read that Nicolas Cage was going to star in a remake of the "Bad Lieutenant." It seems like only yesterday that I saw the original; 1992 doesn't seem that long ago to me and I'm curious if you know what the shortest time between the release of a film and it's remake is.
Johnny Guitar (1954)
By Roger EbertNicholas Ray's "Johnny Guitar" (1954) is surely one of the most blatant psychosexual melodramas ever to disguise itself in that most commodious of genres, the Western. Consider: No money was lavished on the production. The action centers on a two-story saloon "outside town," but we never even see "town," except for a bank facade and interior set. So sparse are the settings that although the central character (Joan Crawford) plays the tavern owner and goes through a spectacular costume charge, we never see her boudoir -- she only appears on a balcony above the main floor, having presumably emerged from the sacred inner temple.
by Roger Ebert (1976)"What happened was, I was reading about Buster Keaton," Gene Wilder said. "About how he did all his own stunts. Like the time he had to stand in exactly the right place for the two-ton building to fall on him and he was right where the window was. So then we were making 'Silver Streak' and there we were doing our own stunts." That was really you hanging out of the runaway train?
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By Roger Ebert
David Mamet's recent "Redbelt" is an example of a kind of movie that needs a name. It's not precisely a thriller, or a suspense picture, or a police procedural, and although it occupies the territory of film noir, it's not a noir. I propose this kind of film be named a Twister, because it's made from plot twists, and in a way the twists are the real subject.
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