Search for Lawrence

Indulge me for a moment as I time travel back to 1980. Historically, it was a signficant year -- the Iran hostage crisis raged, Ronald Reagan won the Presidential election, and the United States boycotted the Moscow Summer Olympics in response...

There's an old saying that states something about leaving the best for last. George Lucas certainly didn't follow that adage when crafting the original Star Wars trilogy. Return of the Jedi, the final installment of the series, is easily the ...

For many years (16 in particular), Return of the Jedi was considered the weakest of the Star Wars films. Then, in 1999, along came The Phantom Menace to displace it in the minds of many. Left unrealized as the prequels began their theatrical tour is ...

For three years, we waited. As bits of news filtered through the Hollywood grapevine into the trade papers and Starlog, we gobbled them up. Still, by early 1980, not much was known about Star Wars 2 (officially retitled The Empire Strikes Back by the...

It wouldn’t be much of a stretch to label Star Wars as one of the biggest cultural influences of the last half-century. The 1977 release of A New Hope had a seismic impact on the film industry and the ripples expanded far and wide. For 36 years...

In 1987, Superman returned to the big screen after a four-year absence. The fanfare was more muted than it had been for any of the previous three entries into the franchise, including the critically lambasted and fan-unfriendly Superman III, which...

Let me be upfront and admit to admiring the artistry and audacity of Maggie Gyllenhaal's overhaul of James Whale's 1935 classic, The Bride of Frankenstein. This film refuses to be ignored, pulsing with a manic, punk-rock energy. Unfortunately, in t...

The Long Walk represents one of Stephen King's rare ventures outside the horror genre. A dystopian thriller, the film adaptation alternates between lengthy, dialogue-driven sequences and sudden bursts of graphic violence. At times, it feels almost...

A Thin Line Between Love and Hate is muddled to the point of tedium. The screenplay is credited to four writers, and its unevenness argues that none of them were on the same wavelength. Subplots start but never finish, characters come and go...

What can I write about Two Weeks Notice that I haven't written about every mediocre romantic comedy to come down Hollywood's pipeline? There's the cotton candy comparison – the movie is sweet (sometimes too sweet) and airy, with so little substa...