This Week’s Movies

~ Lincoln Spector

Comedy Shorts, Niles Essanay Silent Film Museum, Saturday, 7:30. The Silent Film Museum screens four short comedies by the best: Chaplin, Keaton, Lloyd, and Laurel & Hardy. I can’t speak for the others, but the Keaton selection, “The Goat,” is one of his best.

Body Heat, Castro, Friday, 8:00. It’s been many years since I’ve seen this neo-noir–basically an R-rated version of Double Indemnity. I remember Kathleen Turner as a very sexy femme fatale getting everything she wants out of a hapless William Hurt. I liked it then, and I’d probably still like it now. On a double bill with Mike’s Murder, which I’ve never seen, as the first show in the Castro’s tribute to composer John Barry.

The Band’s Visit, Red Vic, Friday and Saturday. Kurt Vonnegut called unusual travel suggestions “dancing lessons from God.” A small Egyptian police orchestra does quite a rumba when they accidentally arrive in the wrong Israeli town in this gentle, apolitical Arabs-meet-Jews comedy. Read my full review.

Bad 1979 sci-fi, Castro, Saturday. Moonraker and The Black Hole make one odd double-bill. If memory serves (I saw them both in first run), they’re both bad, but entertainingly so. Moonraker is the James Bond series at its very worst, with a Roadrunner cartoonishness and the charisma-impaired Roger Moore in the lead. The Black Hole is Disney’s attempt to jump on the Star Wars bandwagon (come to think of it, Moonraker was the James Bond franchise’s attempt to do the same thing), and was also the studio’s first PG-rated film–their stuff had always been G before that. We’re talking about a cute robot with painted eyes. But the title is appropriate, in that that’s where the investor’s money went. Another part of the John Barry tribute.

Vertigo, Rafael, Sunday, 7:00. What? I’m not recommending Vertigo? Everyone else thinks it’s a masterpiece, but it tops my short list of the Most Overrated Films of All Time. Vertigo isn’t like any other Hitchcock movie; it’s slow, uninvolving, and self-consciously arty. Part of the Rafael’s James Stewart 100th Birthday Celebration.

Unknown's avatar

Published by Lincoln Spector

Lincoln Spector writes about cinema, technology, and cinema technology. From 1986 through 2008, he wrote Gigglebytes, the first technology-oriented humor column. From 1977 through 2016, he wrote PC World's Answer Line column and blog.

One thought on “This Week’s Movies”

  1. Don’t let its badness trick you, The Black Hole is not fun to watch in a so-bad-it’s-good way. It is just boring. Like they decided to rip-off 2001 too, but without the talent it’s just plodding.

    Yeeeuch.

Comments are closed.