Movies starring Jessica Lange

I have never been a Raymond Chandler fan nor am I enamored with the pulp detective genre that was oh-so-popular during the early decades of the 20th century. Consequently, my only exposure to Philip Marlowe (Chandler’s most popular character) ha...

Common wisdom contends that Dino De Laurentiis' big-budget remake of Merian C. Cooper's classic 1933 film, King Kong, is a bad movie. And, viewed from a certain perspective, perhaps it is, but it's also a lot of fun. Certainly, this versi...

The Gambler is a solid remake - a film that retraces the path of the original while carving out its own identity. The 2014 iteration isn't as good as its 1974 predecessor but it offers its share of small pleasures, not the least of which is the c...

In Secret, an adaptation of Emile Zola’s Therese Raquin, is an effective period piece thriller that incorporates love, lust, desperation, and madness into a stew thickened by a gothic atmosphere. The film’s shortcomings - the most notable of wh...

The only reason any male could have for seeing The Vow is the hope of getting laid afterwards. The only reason any female could have for seeing The Vow is if she views the plots of Harlequin romance novels as the height of modern storytelling. Thi...

Tootsie works for three reasons: a sharp screenplay, good comic timing, and delightful performances. There's nothing deep or philosophical about the film. It doesn't try to solve the world's problems or uncover some great social truth. It's a ge...

Ultimately, it's of minor import how much of Rob Roy is based upon historical fact and how much has been embellished by the pen of screenwriter Alan Sharp. As a hero of 18th century Scotland, Robert Roy MacGregor is known to have walked through th...

Unlike many of Shakepeare's plays, "Titus Andronicus" has not always been met with universal acclaim. The first of the Bard's tragedies, "Titus Andronicus" is also his bloodiest - filled with gruesome deaths, dismemberments, and other unspeakable ...

When viewing a melodrama like A Thousand Acres, it's easy to label it as a "chick flick" or a "tearjerker." However, such a facile categorization would do the movie a disservice, since it possesses a layer of depth that most films of this sort...

Whatever its flaws, one can certainly not accuse Prozac Nation of avoiding risks. The movie, directed by Erik Skjoldbjaerg (the original Insomnia) and adapted from the book by Elizabeth Wurtzel, doesn't exactly go out on a tightrope, but it frequen...