Batman: The Jack Nicholson Show

Michael Keaton. Photo: Warner Tim Burton, a former Disney animator and director of a wild horror comedy called Beetlejuice (1988), suddenly found himself helming a major blockbuster. He carried a…

Shaun of the Dead 

As zombies invade London, a ne’er-do-well (Simon Pegg) takes charge of a group of survivors who are headed for a pub they assume is a safe haven. This well-made spoof…

Spirited Away: Never Forget Your Name

Photo: Ghibli After making Princess Mononoke (1997), director Hayao Miyazaki, one of Japan’s most celebrated artists, looked forward to retiring after a prosperous career. But a guy who’s only pushing…

Batman Begins: A Very Dark Knight

Christian Bale. Photo: Warner As it turned out, the definitive adaptation of “Batman” was not made in 1989. The Tim Burton movie showed a Caped Crusader quite different from the…

Resident Evil

A virus has been released inside The Hive, a secret underground facility, turning the lab workers into zombies; a military task force is deployed to take care of the problem.…

Shakespeare in Love: Bringing the Bard to Life

Gwyneth Paltrow. Photo: Miramax Let’s say William Shakespeare knew how to time travel. Let’s say he came to 1998, went to the movies and saw John Madden’s film Shakespeare in…

War of the Worlds 

When tripods taller than buildings suddenly burst out from under the ground and start blasting everything and everyone to pieces, Ray Ferrier (Tom Cruise) grabs his kids and runs for…

Alien: The Deadly Stowaway

Sigourney Weaver. Photo: 20th Century Fox The most famous sequence of this horrifying classic takes place about thirty minutes into the story. Everyone is relaxing after a somewhat gut-wrenching experience.…