Marc Sigoloff

One of Samuel L. Jackson’s directors told the screenwriter that he couldn’t kill Jackson’s character. His contention? Jackson is the most trusted man in America, and audiences would not accept his death. It’s true: Jackson does project an image of stature and integrity found in few actors. In a way he is a contemporary Gary […]

How could a film starring one of the biggest box-office draws in the world slip by without a trace? In between his Pirates of the Caribbean blockbusters, Johnny Depp starred in a true oddity titled The Libertine (2004), which received a negligible release in late 2005 and earlier this year. The public would never embrace […]

Classic novels were once a primary source of material in Hollywood back in its more original days. The moguls had a penchant for raiding everyone from Brontë (Wuthering Heights) to Tolstoy (Anna Karenina) because they were an easy sell to the public. Eventually the public stopped buying, and disinterest may be attributable to a series […]

No occupation has commanded more attention in movies and television than the police officer, but there has been a wide chasm between the two mediums. The Golden Age of cop movies, in the 1970s, aimed for stark realism (The French Connection, Serpico), while its smaller rival was dominated by cutesy fantasy (Police Woman, Starsky and […]

His obsessive fans have labeled him the new Hitchcock; his detractors vilify him as a hack who relies too heavily on tired old twist endings. M. Night Shyamalan, whose latest film is Lady in the Water, inspires extreme reactions on both sides, but neither side’s thinking is necessarily logical. The Hitchcock comparison is preposterous. Nothing […]

Overnight sensations often experience quick burnout, whereas those who build their careers over long periods enjoy sustained success. Matt Dillon definitely falls into the latter category, despite his start in the former. The title of his debut film, Over the Edge (1979) — in which he plays a troubled teen living in an oppressive desert […]

Is it possible to breathe new life into a story as overused as Superman? Apparently the makers of Superman Returns couldn’t answer that question, either. The problems lie in the shallow source material. Superman is the most basic and ultimately the blandest of all comic-book heroes. Even his nickname is ridiculously generic. Batman relates to […]

Click continues Adam Sandler’s reign as the king of movie comedy, a position he inherited from Jim Carrey. Being the contemporary Jerry Lewis does have its drawbacks. As long as he sticks to the accepted Sandler formula, box-office gold is a virtual guarantee. Watch out if he tries something more substantial, though. The response from […]

Paul Newman recently announced that he would star in one more movie before ending his extraordinary career. What a relief! No screen legend should end his career as a cartoon voice. He’s upped the ante of expectations by wanting Robert Redford to co-star. The greatest pairing in movie history made only two films, Butch Cassidy […]

I listened to Garrison Keillor’s radio show once, many years ago, and I found it dull. The miracle of Robert Altman’s new film, a fictional depiction of the program’s final broadcast, is that neither appreciation nor knowledge of the show is necessary to enjoy the film. What goes on backstage is often more intriguing. Altman’s […]

Breaking up is easy to do if you try hard enough. Just make a clean break and be done with it. Gary (Vince Vaughn) and Brooke (Jennifer Aniston), the sparring couple in The Break-Up, can’t seem to take that logical step. Instead we see two emotional basket cases causing themselves unnecessary grief by trying to […]