Tickle Me Review Guitar-playing rodeo rider, working at a dude ranch for women, attracts all of them except the instructor, until he aids her in finding buried gold in a ghost town. | |
| Live a Little, Love a Little Review Talk about cultural curios. That's exactly how Tickle Me was regarded when it was released in 1965, the same year as the Beatles' Help! There was a musical revolution going on, but you wouldn't have known it from this would-be comedy, in which the King plays a rodeo champion forced to take a job on a combination dude ranch/fat farm. Naturally, all of the women tumble at his feet; even when he's pitching hay, he's liable to burst into hip-swiveling song. What little plot there is deals with his romance with the ranch's exercise instructor (Jocelyn Lane), who happens to hold the key to a fortune in gold hidden in a nearby ghost town. Nary a recognizable Elvis hit is to be heard in the score, and as for his acting, well, Elvis looks as though he happened to be wandering past the set and was pressed into service at the last minute. --Marshall Fine | |
| Elvis 75th Anniversary DVD Collection (17 Films including Elvis on Tour / Jailhouse Rock / Viva Las Vegas / It Happened at the World's Fair and This Is Elvis) Review Scientists drug and capture the creature, who becomes enamored with the head scientist's female assistant (Julie Adams). The lonely creature, "a living amphibious missing link," escapes and kidnaps the object of his affection. Chief scientist (Richard Carlson) then launches a crusade to rescue his assistant ans cast the ominous creature back to the depths from where he came. Well-acted and directed, and with Bud Westmore's brilliantly designed monster, Creature From The Black Lagoon remains an enduring tribute to the imaginative genius of its Hollywood creators. | |
| Kissin' Cousins Review Jack Arnold's horror classic The Creature from the Black Lagoon spawned not one but two iconic images: the web-footed humanoid gill-man with a hankering for women and the leggy, luscious Julia Adams, the object of his desire, swimming the lagoon in a luminous white bathing suit. Not since King Kong has the "beauty and the beast" theme been portrayed in such sexually charged (though chaste) terms. Arnold turns an effectively B-movie plot--a small expedition up a remote Amazon river captures a prehistoric amphibian man, who escapes to wreak havoc on the team and kidnap his bathing beauty--into a moody, stylish, low-budget feature. The jungle exteriors turn from exotic to treacherous when the creature blocks their passage and strands them in the wilds. Much of the film is shot underwater, where the murky dark is animated by shimmering shards of sunlight, creating images both lovely and alien (the studio-built sets of the creature's underground lair are far less naturalistic, but serve their purpose). As with most of Arnold's '50s genre films, he's saddled with a less than magnetic leading man (in this case the colorless but stalwart Richard Carlson) and a conventional script, but he overcomes such limitations by creating a vivid and sympathetic monster (helped immeasurably by a marvelous suit of scales and fins) and establishing a mood thick with atmosphere. The film was originally shot in 3-D. --Sean Axmaker | |
| Wild in the Country (Widescreen Edition) Review A culinary legend provides a frustrated office worker with a new recipe for life in Julie & Julia, the true stories of how Julia Child's (Meryl Streep) life and cookbook inspired fledgling writer Julie Powell (Amy Adams) to whip up 524 recipes in 365 days and introduce a new generation to the magic of French cooking. Stanley Tucci (The Devil Wears Prada) co-stars in director Nora Ephron's delicious comedy about joy, obsession and butter. Bon appétit! | |
| Change of Habit Review A culinary legend provides a frustrated office worker with a new recipe for life in Julie & Julia, the true stories of how Julia Child's (Meryl Streep) life and cookbook inspired fledgling writer Julie Powell (Amy Adams) to whip up 524 recipes in 365 days and introduce a new generation to the magic of French cooking. Stanley Tucci (The Devil Wears Prada) co-stars in director Nora Ephron's delicious comedy about joy, obssesion and butter. Bon app‚tit! | |
| Julie & Julia Review Guitar-playing rodeo rider, working at a dude ranch for women, attracts all of them except the instructor, until he aids her in finding buried gold in a ghost town. | |
| Eat Pray Love Review Talk about cultural curios. That's exactly how Tickle Me was regarded when it was released in 1965, the same year as the Beatles' Help! There was a musical revolution going on, but you wouldn't have known it from this would-be comedy, in which the King plays a rodeo champion forced to take a job on a combination dude ranch/fat farm. Naturally, all of the women tumble at his feet; even when he's pitching hay, he's liable to burst into hip-swiveling song. What little plot there is deals with his romance with the ranch's exercise instructor (Jocelyn Lane), who happens to hold the key to a fortune in gold hidden in a nearby ghost town. Nary a recognizable Elvis hit is to be heard in the score, and as for his acting, well, Elvis looks as though he happened to be wandering past the set and was pressed into service at the last minute. --Marshall Fine | |
| The Devil Wears Prada Review Scientists drug and capture the creature, who becomes enamored with the head scientist's female assistant (Julie Adams). The lonely creature, "a living amphibious missing link," escapes and kidnaps the object of his affection. Chief scientist (Richard Carlson) then launches a crusade to rescue his assistant ans cast the ominous creature back to the depths from where he came. Well-acted and directed, and with Bud Westmore's brilliantly designed monster, Creature From The Black Lagoon remains an enduring tribute to the imaginative genius of its Hollywood creators. | |
| The Holiday Review Jack Arnold's horror classic The Creature from the Black Lagoon spawned not one but two iconic images: the web-footed humanoid gill-man with a hankering for women and the leggy, luscious Julia Adams, the object of his desire, swimming the lagoon in a luminous white bathing suit. Not since King Kong has the "beauty and the beast" theme been portrayed in such sexually charged (though chaste) terms. Arnold turns an effectively B-movie plot--a small expedition up a remote Amazon river captures a prehistoric amphibian man, who escapes to wreak havoc on the team and kidnap his bathing beauty--into a moody, stylish, low-budget feature. The jungle exteriors turn from exotic to treacherous when the creature blocks their passage and strands them in the wilds. Much of the film is shot underwater, where the murky dark is animated by shimmering shards of sunlight, creating images both lovely and alien (the studio-built sets of the creature's underground lair are far less naturalistic, but serve their purpose). As with most of Arnold's '50s genre films, he's saddled with a less than magnetic leading man (in this case the colorless but stalwart Richard Carlson) and a conventional script, but he overcomes such limitations by creating a vivid and sympathetic monster (helped immeasurably by a marvelous suit of scales and fins) and establishing a mood thick with atmosphere. The film was originally shot in 3-D. --Sean Axmaker | |
| It's Complicated Review A culinary legend provides a frustrated office worker with a new recipe for life in Julie & Julia, the true stories of how Julia Child's (Meryl Streep) life and cookbook inspired fledgling writer Julie Powell (Amy Adams) to whip up 524 recipes in 365 days and introduce a new generation to the magic of French cooking. Stanley Tucci (The Devil Wears Prada) co-stars in director Nora Ephron's delicious comedy about joy, obsession and butter. Bon appétit! | |
| Under the Tuscan Sun Review A culinary legend provides a frustrated office worker with a new recipe for life in Julie & Julia, the true stories of how Julia Child's (Meryl Streep) life and cookbook inspired fledgling writer Julie Powell (Amy Adams) to whip up 524 recipes in 365 days and introduce a new generation to the magic of French cooking. Stanley Tucci (The Devil Wears Prada) co-stars in director Nora Ephron's delicious comedy about joy, obssesion and butter. Bon app‚tit! | |