In 1963 Robert Wise helmed an adaptation of Shirley Jackson’s The Haunting of Hill House, which was a wonderfully executed psychological thriller with subtle horror aspects, flash forward to 1999 when Jan de Bont, the director of Twister, helmed a new take on the novel, one that didn’t bother with pesky little things like subtlety.
Author: Mike Brooks
Film grad who spends most his time trying to catch up on his "To Watch" pile of movies.
Doc Savage: The Man of Bronze (1975) – Review
From the jungle adventures of Tarzan to the dark city streets of The Shadow, heroes from the pages of pulp fiction have provided plenty of fuel for Hollywood, though with varying degrees of success, and today we will be looking at one of the least successful of these attempts, one Warner Brothers had hoped would…
Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow (2004) – Review
The 1930s and 1940s produced many fun serials, bringing us such entertaining offerings as Flash Gordon to Captain Marvel to the screen, but while the serial format died off long ago director Kerry Conran took that pulp feel and added in a dash of Hayu Miyazaki, not to mention a whole lot of inspiration from…
The Phantom (1996) – Review
The 1990s saw many a studio scrambling to snatch up comic book properties, hoping to launch a franchise to rival the one Warner Brothers had with their Batman movies, and in 1996 Paramount Pictures would take their shot at the superhero genre with an adaptation of Lee Falk’s comic strip hero The Phantom. Would they…
The Rocketeer (1991) – Review
In 1982 comic book writer/artist Dave Stevens created “The Rocketeer” a character that was a brilliant homage to the Saturday matinee serial heroes from the 1930s through the 1950s. It’s popularity among comic book fans led to Disney and director Joe Johnston doing their best to bring that comic book hero to the big screen,…