Author:   Ken Hanke

Showing 1408-1428 of 5225 results
Starring: Farley Granger, Robert Walker, Ruth Roman, Leo G. Carroll, Patricia Hitchcock

Strangers on a Train

Reviewed by Ken Hanke on

In Brief: One of Alfred Hitchcock's most convoluted and perverse thrillers, Strangers on a Train — with its dark humor, unusual plot and technical panache — has held up better than many of the director's bigger and more famous films. What it lacks in big stars, it more than makes up for by being every…
Starring: Boris Karloff, Cedric Hardwicke, Ernest Thesiger, Dorothy Hyson, Anthony Bushell, Ralph Richardson

The Ghoul

Reviewed by Ken Hanke on

In Brief: Long considered to be a lost film, The Ghoul is back in circulation and not merely the curio you might expect a 1933 British picture to be. It's a full-fledged classic of the horror genre from its richest era. Set in the creepiest old, dark house imaginable, filled with a first-rate cast and…
Starring: Taylor Nichols, Chris Eigeman, Tushka Bergen, Mira Sorvino

Barcelona

Reviewed by Ken Hanke on

In Brief: Whit Stillman's sophomore effort finds two Americans — an uptight businessman and his troublesome cousin — having their innate sense of entitlement tested in Barcelona. Similar in tone but more focused than his earlier film, Barcelona is dryly funny and thought-provoking entertainment.
Starring: Ethan Hawke, Lena Headey, Max Burkholder, Adelaide Kane, Edwin Hodge

The Purge

Reviewed by Ken Hanke on

The Story: In the near future, all crime — including murder — is legal for 12 hours one night of the year. The Lowdown: An intriguing — if screwy and not clearly thought-out — premise can't sustain this movie, which basically turns into every home-invasion thriller you've ever seen. It's better than some, worse than…
Starring: Peter Lorre, Otto Wernicke, Theodor Loos, Ellen Widmann

M

Reviewed by Ken Hanke on

In Brief: Fritz Lang's first talkie, M, not only introduced the great filmmaker to sound, but introduced the world to the remarkable Peter Lorre. For both, the film is rightly famous, but there's more to admire in this exceptional work than just its historic significance. Both the film's story — involving the police and the…

Cranky Hanke’s Weekly Reeler June 12-18: This Is Man of Steel Before Midnight

Posted on by Ken Hanke

Man of Steel opens this week. It will be at nearly every theater that could get it and on as many screens as possible—both 2D and 3D. That is all an awful lot of people probably need to know. For those with a penchant for guys with large and sinewy muscles in tights, this is probably what summer is all about this year—at least where movies are concerned. It isn’t all that’s opening, however. There’s another mainstream release and one of the most anticipated art titles of the season.

Starring: Malcolm McDowell, David Wood, Richard Warwick, Christine Noonan

If….

Reviewed by Ken Hanke on

In Brief: Lindsay Anderson's landmark film If.... shook up world cinema, made a star of fairly obscure TV actor Malcolm McDowell and set Anderson on the road to creating his famous trilogy (If...., O Lucky Man!, Britannia Hospital). That's a pretty impressive accomplishment, but his tale of the resentment at an English boys school —…
Starring: Rutger Hauer, Michael York, Charlotte Rampling

The Mill and the Cross

Reviewed by Ken Hanke on

In Brief: Almost impossible to critique as a film, The Mill and the Cross is a true cinematic oddity. It's a strikingly visual, but dramatically lacking, recreation of Pieter Bruegel's 1564 painting The Procession to Calvary, illustrating the elements, some of the models and the political allegory behind the art. As drama, it rarely works…
Starring: Jocelin Donahue, Tom Noonan, Mary Woronov, Greta Gerwig, AJ Bowen

The House of the Devil

Reviewed by Ken Hanke on

In Brief: One of the more interesting of current horror movie directors, Ti West made his breakthrough (at least in horror circles) with this surprisingly effective 2009 attempt to create a 1980s-style scare flick. In this case, it's all about a college girl who takes a babysitting job at an isolated house — a job…
Starring: Chris O'Dowd, Deborah Mailman, Jessica Mauboy, Shari Sebbens, Miranda Tapsell

The Sapphires

Reviewed by Ken Hanke on

The Story: Fact-based story of an Aborigine all-girl singing group that toured as entertainers in Vietnam. The Lowdown: Despite its "true story" underpinnings, the film is largely a standard show-biz story that succeeds beautifully as entertainment — enhanced by a dynamite soundtrack and winning performances.
Starring: Riz Ahmed, Kate Hudson, Liev Schreiber, Kiefer Sutherland, Om Puri

The Reluctant Fundamentalist

Reviewed by Ken Hanke on

The Story: A tale told in flashback about the transformation of an America-loving Pakistani into a radical — possibly terrorist — professor. The Lowdown: Complex cultural examination of a young Pakistani — brilliantly played by Riz Ahmed — tied to a thriller/suspense frame. It doesn't all work, but it's still compelling.
Starring: Julianne Moore, Steve Coogan, Alexander Skarsgård, Joanna Vanderham, Onata Aprile

What Maisie Knew

Reviewed by Ken Hanke on

The Story: A little girl becomes the object of a bitter custody battle between her divorcing parents. The Lowdown: Solid modernized version of the Henry James novel, What Maisie Knew is undeniably well made and acted, but it's a hard film to like.
Starring: Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., Joan Blondell, Guy Kibbee, Alan Hale

Union Depot

Reviewed by Ken Hanke on

In Brief: Character and incident-packed film about the goings-on at a large train station in a slice-of-life fashion — though most train stations probably (even in 1932) don't have feds on the lookout for a counterfeiting ring or a girl being stalked by a degenerate sex-fiend on a regular basis. Those two aspects dovetail and…

Cranky Hanke’s Weekly Reeler June 5-11: Reluctant Sapphire Maisie Purge

Posted on by Ken Hanke

It seems unlikely that we can hope for anything like the pretty spectacular disaster of After Earth this weekend — in large part because the mainstream offerings are less ambitious. Let’s face it, no one really wants the second week of their big shiny release going up against next week’s Superman re-boot. Still, there are two mainstream titles this week — and three art titles.

Starring: Greta Gerwig, Mickey Sumner, Michael Esper, Adam Driver, Charlotte D'Amboise

Frances Ha

Reviewed by Ken Hanke on

The Story: The life and times of a 27-year-old dancer as she navigates an uncharted course through New York, life and relationships. The Lowdown: A sparkling, sweet, sad, funny film that might restore your faith in indie film — all built around a winning performance from Greta Gerwig (who also co-wrote the film).
Starring: Basil Rathbone, Broderick Crawford, Hugh Herbert, Bela Lugosi, Anne Gwynne

The Black Cat

Reviewed by Ken Hanke on

In Brief: No, it's not the 1934 classic, nor does it have anything to do with Edgar Allan Poe (though it claims otherwise). The 1941 film called The Black Cat is an old dark-house comedy thriller that's a very obvious attempt by Universal to cash in on Paramount's Bob Hope comedy thrillers. OK, so Broderick…
Starring: (Voices) Colin Farrell, Amanda Seyfried, Josh Hutcherson, Christoph Waltz, Beyoncé Knowles

Epic

Reviewed by Ken Hanke on

The Story: A shrunken teenage girl joins in to save a woodland society of tiny people — and assorted creatures — from destruction. The Lowdown: Nice to look at and skillfully executed with good voice acting, but overall average in the story department.
Starring: Kerry Fox, Alexia Keogh, Karen Fergusson, Iris Churn, Kevin J. Wilson

An Angel at My Table

Reviewed by Ken Hanke on

In Brief: A long, fairly leisurely paced biographical drama is drawn from the autobiography of New Zealand writer Janet Frame — a woman whose withdrawn shyness caused her to be misdiagnosed with schizophrenia and confined in a mental hospital. Told in three parts, the film examines her story with the kind of insight and humanity…
Starring: Bette Davis, Pat O'Brien, Lewis Stone, Allen Jenkins, Hugh Herbert, Glenda Farrell, Ruth Donnelly

Bureau of Missing Persons

Reviewed by Ken Hanke on

In Brief: An overlooked gem from the pre-code era, Bureau of Missing Persons (1933) is a rich "ripped from the headlines" melodrama that's played mostly for comedy by a cast that only Warner Bros. could assemble (while borrowing Lewis Stone from MGM). Pat O'Brien is his usual machine-gun talking self as a Bureau detective who…
Starring: Vin Diesel, Paul Walker, Dwayne Johnson, Jordana Brewster, Michelle Rodriguez, Luke Evans

Fast & Furious 6

Reviewed by Ken Hanke on

The Story: Vin Diesel and company get brought in to catch a criminal mastermind and rescue the surprisingly resurrected Michelle Rodriguez. The Lowdown: Lots of mayhem, lots of bulked-up stars, lots of fast cars, lots of fiery explosions — and barely a brain cell in sight.