<<BACK | NEXT >>

Blazing Saddles (1974) -->Out of all of Mel Brooks parody films, Blazing Saddles is his greatest. Space (with Spaceballs), Horror (with Young Frankenstein), and History (with History of the World Part 1 do not compare to what he did with Blazing Saddles and the Western. The movie stars Cleavon Little as black sheriff Bart and Gene Wilder as his sidekick the Waco Kid. Bart wins over the town of Rock Ridge, who wish at first to lynch him because of his colour, and saves it from the clutches of the evil land hungry Hedley Lamarr (Harvey Korman). Lamar wants to appropriate the land by any means to profit from the railroad passing through the town. Blazing Saddles is a classic comedy and worth adding to your DVD library.


Full Spectrum Staff

Billy Elliot (2000) --> The British have been kicking the ass out of the comedy genre leaving the American in their dust ever since The Full Monty was released in 1997. With Calendar Girls, Waking Ned Devine and the two gangster movies by Guy Ritchie as a few examples, the British are proving the Americans don't have a monopoly on humour.

This one tells of a boy, Billy Elliot, who decides to take up ballet instead of boxing much to his family's chagrin. The backdrop and the sub plots add to this film's greatness as through it all the family is being torn apart by all the stresses of working class life. Stephen Daldry directed this gem and Lee Hall wrote the screenplay.


Scott D. Brown

All About Eve (1950) --> A tour de force by 42 year old Bette Davis. After falling out of the spotlight through some bad movie choices, Davis kills in her role as Margo Channing. A movie that gives new meaning to the words art imitating life All About Eve tells of an aging theatre star who is slowly being pushed away from the spotlight by an up and coming understudy. The "fasten your seatbelts" scene is one of the most famous lines in movie history.

Writer and Director Joseph L. Mankiewicz makes his greatest film with this one and the dialogue between characters is both bitingly satirical and infectiously funny (especially from critic Addison DeWitt played by George Sanders who many know as the voice of Shere Khan in Disney's The Jungle Book).

Davis missed out on her third Oscar as Anne Baxter was nominated as a Best Leading Actress in direct competition with Davis (instead Best Supporting Actress for her role as Eve Harrington in the movie). With a split in the votes Judy Holliday came up through the middle and won for her role as Billie Dawn in Born Yesterday. Even so the film won six Oscars including two for Mankiewicz (director and screenplay writer).


Scott D. Brown

Jui kuen II [The Legend of Drunken Master] --> Jui kuen II is directed by a legend in Chinese cinema, Chia-Liang Liu who was out of the spotlight for quite sometime until the success of this film. Chan and Liu make a great team sharing a similar idea that humour instead of blood can be just as enjoyable to an audience watching a martial arts film.

Chan plays Wong Fei-hung, a young master who's exuberance for justice gets him caught up in a fight between smugglers who wish to export China's cultural treasures and the police who are trying to stop them. There is lots of great martial arts action that you have come to expect from all Jackie Chan movies.


Full Spectrum Staff

• First
• 70
• 69
• 68
• 67
• 66
• 65
• 64
• 63
• 62
• 61
• Last

Complete List of Short Movie Reviews