Larry Oliver Film Reviews

Film history is full of sequels that no one asked for: Critters 2, Critters 3 , Critters 4 . By no one, I mean no audience member. Generally, sequels are payback time for the producers. They can get them greenlit because the original made a mint - only this time, they’ll get a better cut. They can also get actors who wouldn’t otherwise snag a leading role to star in them. ‘This will showcase what I can do,’ says a would-be heart throb, ‘right before I get killed by the monster.’ When I watch horror films made twenty years ago, I am surprised to see who is in them. Michelle Williams and Joseph Gordon-Levitt starred together in Halloween: H20 Twenty Years Later - that’s the cast of an Oscar nominated movie. Sequels trade on name recognition but that usually means the name of the serial killer or fast-multiplying threat. No one wants to see Joseph Gordon-Levitt in Halloween: H20 – they want to see Michael Myers. The Craft: Legacy is one of those sequels that I didn’t see coming. It d...

  In American cinema, the transition from comedy actress to director is a familiar one. Penny Marshall graduated from starring in the hit TV series, Laverne and Shirley , to directing a string of box office hits in the 1980s and 1990s: Jumping Jack Flash , Big, Awakenings and A League of Their Own , the latter about a women’s baseball team. Two box office failures ( Renaissance Man , The Preacher’s Wife ) and one drama later ( Riding in Cars With Boys) and Marshall has not directed a feature film for the big screen since 2001, although she’s done some work in TV. Next year (2018), she’ll be making a comeback with the documentary Rodman about basketball star turned actor turned best buddy of North Korea Head of State Kim Jong-Un, Dennis Rodman. Apparently, Rodman didn’t want to tell his story to anyone else, so I guess Marshall will be the first to hear all about what it is like to work with Jean-Claude Van Damme on Double Team . Betty Thomas made a similar transition, from starri...