With Halloween fast approaching, I'm actively on the lookout for both creepy and campy Halloween entertainment. The Phantom Creeps, starring Bela Lugosi as scientist Dr. Alex Zorka is definitely in the latter category, with the usual over-the-top creep show we expect from one of the godfathers of spookiness. As Adam Finley once said, the doctor's fiendish goal was to destroy the world using bad special effects. If MST3k was a favorite, you saw more than one of these episodes already; if not, you can create your own back channel. Public Domain Torrents seems to be the best place to find downloads of all the old episodes, although the image quality could be slightly better. Keep in mind you need a BitTorrent client, like uTorrent in order to download the actual movie files.
Here are links to a handful of episodes from The Phantom Creeps series:
Even Borg need to dance should be the tagline of this silly video from Seattle Mind Camp 2.0. 
If you prefer getting your tech news and information via video, Gear Live's 
A great deal of deserved attention focused on the devastation brought on by Hurricane Katrina around the Gulf Coast in 2005. It wasn't the only major storm of the year and New Orleans is one of many parts of the country destroyed by hurricane winds and flooding. The Florida Keys were hit by Hurricane Wilma during October 2005 completely submerging some of the islands in ocean water for several hours. Longtime reader of this site, Paul Hansen, was on hand during Hurricane Wilma, standing by as a paramedic on the islands and documenting what he expected to be a much less severe storm. Paul was in for a surprise as Hurricane Wilma ultimately hit Category 5 levels trapping his family in their home. Throughout the gathering storm and during the worst of the weather, Paul recorded video footage of winds, rain, ocean swells and the general wreckage of everything around his home. The resulting footage was later used for the local community college to receive disaster relief funding. More recently, Paul released a DVD of his footage combined with images shot by two other Florida Keys videographers. The DVD both documents the events as they transpire and provides something of a behind-the-scenes look at what it's like to survive a hurricane in a way Anderson Cooper simply can't begin to imagine.
I found out about the U.S. release of Breaking News by way of an advertisement that ran on the site. Apparently the distribution company, Palm Pictures, found the right demographic in me because I'm on record fairly regularly saying all my favorite movies are coming out of China and Korea at the moment. Breaking News is probably one of the better films from Hong Kong director, Johnny To, who has a long list of movie credits that range from exceptional to fairly lackluster. The movie is a traditional crime action flick with the cops in hot pursuit of some thieves. Nothing out of the ordinary at first, but there's a slick twist commenting on the nature of mainstream media and propaganda used to alter the perception of things with both the police and criminals using this to their fullest advantage. Rather than being concerned with resolving a number of criminal events efficiently and safely, the lead cop (played by Canto-pop music star 
I'm not a Joss Whedon fan. At least not the drooling fanboy type that waits with baited anticipation for the next script to erupt from Whedon's golden pen. I liked Firefly, Serenity was killer, Toy Story remains a favorite in the children's realm and I even dug Titan A.E., but I never latched on to Buffy or Angel with the passion that puts fan site 
Possibly one of the stranger movies I've seen, this film breaks down human behavior and examines what make hairless apes tick, in a rather unique fashion. Tim Robbins plays a behavioral psychologist, Nathan, bent on teaching mice table manners, in an effort to deal with repressed issues related to his upbringing. Patricia Arquette plays nature writer, Lila, a talented mind with a unique body hair disorder, who falls for Nathan after being setup by Lila's electrolysis specialist. Things are dandy until they discover Puff (played by Rhys Ifans), a man raised in the woods as an ape. Nathan wants to study Puff, and teach him to be civilized, which leads to all manner of absurdity. Written by Charlie Kaufman, who also penned the brilliant Being John Malkovich, Human Nature examines what it means to be civilized in a wry comedic light. The DVD offers little in the way of special features, but the movie is definitely worth renting and may take more than one viewing to really grab all the nuances.
OldBoy is a movie best explained as a Korean telling of a Greek tragedy. Director Chan-wook Park is a masterful storyteller, leading us on an adventure not easily forgotten. Oh Dae-su spends a night on the town with a friend and wakes up locked in a room with no windows. The next 15 years find the television as his only companion. Daily meals sent through a slot in the door sustain his health. He watches on television the news of his wife's murder and the presumption of his involvement in the crime since he cannot be located. To occupy his mind, he plots his escape through a hole dug in the wall and consumes all available television programming between fits of exercise. When he finally escapes, he wants to discover who did this to him and why. It's at the point of escape where Min-sik Choi, the actor playing Oh Dae-su, turns out a marvelously manic performance that carries the rest of the movie. The why part of the question gradually reveals itself to be one of the more disturbing movie plot lines I've ever seen. While the movie is most definitely violent and somewhat graphic in nature, most of the really unnerving stuff takes place off screen in your mind, employing the forgotten art of suggesting violence rather than graphically depicting it. There's no happy ending to the story, although everyone gets what they want as the story draws to a conclusion.
Only Vladamir Nabokov could spin a tale that would make the world of competitive chess actually seem exciting. It's not that I don't have great respect for anyone truly gifted at playing chess, it's just that watching it is right up there with watching golf on my list of boring ways to spend an afternoon. John Turturro, as Russian chess master Alexander Luzhin, is brilliant, capturing the all-consuming passion of Luzhin's obsession with chess. Emily Watson, as Luzhin love interest Natalia, plays well against Turturro, creating a chemistry that leaves you believing the two are actually involved. When Luzhin first sees Natalia on an Italian island, during a tournament to determine the world champion of chess, the two fall instantly in love, despite Natalia's mother's wishes for her to marry a man of society. Part story of love, part story of madness, Luzhin's life turns into something of a mental chess match when his old mentor returns to try and thwart his chance at victory. The DVD contains commentary by director Marleen Gorris and a pathetically short "making of" that should have been labeled an extended trailer. The movie is brilliant, not to mention being one of the better book adaptations I've seen, and warrants multiple viewings. If you like good cinema, you'll appreciate adding this title to your collection.
The theatrical release of Hollywood's polished version of the Z-boys story may have better effects than real life and a more attractive cast of characters, but I'm still partial to this documentary. I'm too young to have experienced any of the skateboarding revolution first hand, so I can't speak for the accuracy of this documentary's portrayal of the Santa Monica Z-boys and their influence on skating as it has evolved today, at the same time I'm certain this is closer to the truth than the current 
I originally reviewed Corner of Your Eye back in 2003 after visiting with the director at a cafe in San Francisco. I noticed Phlying Phrog Philmz is currently working on a second production, so this seemed like a great time to revive the write up. Corner of Your Eye is a utterly bizarre story about a love triangle resulting in the infection of three friends with a disturbing mental virus. Imagination and reality blur as the three succumb to their infection, sharing dreams and experiences beyond the state of conscious thought and reliving moments of their lives trapped in a seemingly unending cycle. Shared dreams make for some particularly surreal moments in the film, building the psychosis of each character to unnerving levels before bringing you back to the implication of reality. Repeated musical themes throughout the movie punctuate the madness of the characters as they descend further from reality and into their own confused existence. I recommend seeing Corner of Your Eye at least twice, as the plot is occasionally difficult to follow, changing things up and leaving you wondering exactly where the story is headed. This is an outstanding first effort and leaves me eager to see what's in store from Striking 13, the next production from Corner of Your Eye writer, director, and producer Jesse Spencer.
This movie goes out to all the kids with Coke-bottle glasses, to all you lonely kids who were the last picked in gym classes. Napoleon Dynamite wasn't clued-in enough to realize the 2 Skinnee J's were singing about guys like him and the director was clever enough to set the movie in a way that makes it simultaneously dated and current. You aren't really sure when the movie takes place, but you're positive it isn't right now. Napoleon is the dufus oblivious to how socially inept he really is while simultaneously harboring more cool than his shallow peers will ever be able to grasp. The movie plays out like a day-in-the-life experience of teenage love, life, and dissatisfaction, with a sub-plot of Napoleon's brother Kip and Uncle Rico trying get-rich-quick schemes on the local town's people, which is both a blessing and a curse for Napoleon. After befriending a Pedro, a new kid at school, Napoleon and the local Glamour Shots girl help Pedro in his bid for class president against the hottest girl in school. While there are moments in the movie where you may find yourself feeling sorry for Napoleon, there are other moments when the script is down right brilliant giving an almost reality show feel to the events on screen. This is the best Hollywood movie I've seen in a long time, even though it's pretending to be an indie flick. The deleted scenes were cut with good reason, but there are still a few clever moments to make the DVD more than just another way to distribute the movie.
If you missed this movie in the theater, you owe it to yourself to rent or buy it. This visually appealing story of a nameless Chinese warrior who defeats some of the greatest assassins in the land in an effort to protect the ruler from certain death is one of Jet Li's finest performances. Qin, the ruler, invites the warrior to his palace after hearing of the great conquests, subsequently relaying his own interpretation of events leading up to the death of each assassin. The story is retold through a series of flashbacks portrayed differently by both the hero and the ruler. Gorgeous visualization comes into play as each flashback is drenched in a specific color to articulate the shifting mood of the story. The DVD version of the movie offers a conversation with Quentin Tarantino (who brought the film to the United States) and Jet Li, which is one of the more interesting special features on the disk. The movie is offered in Mandarin, with English and French dubbed tracks. Cinematic quality is on par with both 
The third season of HBO’s Curb Your Enthusiasm continues to chronicle the petulant behavior of Larry David, formerly of Seinfeld fame. While the show is fictional, Larry plays himself and probably not far from the cuff. Cheryl Hines performs superbly as his wife, and makes a great foil for his absurd and irascible antics. The show is profane and yet terribly amusing, filled with a cast of characters that are only slightly less cynical and selfish than Larry himself. Each episode finds Larry in a compromising situation, usually of his own making, and often ends with Larry swallowing his pride, or making the situation worse. Jeff Garlin, who plays Larry’s agent, and comedian Richard Lewis are excellent compatriots, and often provide negative reinforcement for Larry’s poor decisions. The episodes are the best part of this DVD set, which also includes a “Stop and Chat” feature and favorite scenes from the cast and crew. [Mathew Brady]
Director Hiroyuki Nakano blends four overlapping stories into a well crafted romantic comedy entangling the lives of two young lovers and the people who touch their world. Masatoshi Nagase plays Keisuke, a struggling actor trying to find a big break beyond his current bit parts in bad Samurai send ups. He thinks he's found his big break when an actress hand picks him to be the hero for her latest movie. Meanwhile, Eri Momosaki (played by Akiko Monou), Keisuke's ex-girlfriend, has stopped speaking after their breakup in silent protest of what she knows in her heart is a mistake. Both Eri and Keisuke individually encounter what seems to be something better than what they had together, Keisuke with the actress and Eri with a tree-hugging lecturer from the U.S. Many overlapping subplots piece their lives together in a crisscrossed mesh of interpersonal relationships. Like many of Hollywood's finest comedic romances, Stereo Future is a search for meaning and love in a world where it's easy to forget you already have them. The movie is Japanese, with English subtitles.
An ugly future creates a world continually at war, gradually poisoning the world. Attempting to find a cure for his wife's terminal illness and restore the world damaged by war, a scientist accidentally creates a mutant race of people by re-growing human tissue into complete bodies. As the war reaches the city, the military turns on the mutant race, attempting to exterminate them in a display of military might recalling the Third Reich. The scientist's son is killed in the war and is brought back to life by a grieving father. Unable to control his body, the son is fitted with a special suit of armor originally designed to enhance soldiers on the battlefield. Surviving mutants intend to exact their revenge on the people who drove them to isolation, unleashing an army of robots on the populace. Now reborn as Casshern, an invincible hero of legendary prowess, the son attempts to redeem his war atrocities by saving the world from the mutant megalomaniacs. This movie is a disturbing look at the darker side of humanity, told through complex sci-fi military imagery created almost entirely with computer backgrounds and a green screen. The sound is sparse at times but the imagery is emotionally charged in a way that transcends culture to paint a dramatic picture of humanity at its most fragile. Like the recent U.S. release, Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow, Casshern represents movie making future, combining live action performances against a background of virtual sets. As a directorial debut for Kazuaki Kiriya, Casshern represents the possibility of amazing things to come. This is a must have for sci-fi fanatics, even if you aren't normally inclined to watch subtitled movies.
Tarantino fans should be thrilled to find the 10th anniversary edition of Reservoir Dogs available on DVD. It contains his debut, in all its glory, along with an outstanding collection of extras for fans wondering where the heck Tarantino has been hiding for the last few years. Five different covers, each featuring a different character, make this a collector's dream. Each of the covers comes complete with quotes from the respective star. The super sounds are glorified in one brilliant featurette, complete with a Gerry Rafferty interview. A cool documentary on creating action figures makes this a must have, whether you like the film or not. Most of the cast gets interviewed, along with an outstanding history of film noir. Those familiar with the "ear scene" will appreciate two new camera angles, thrown in for good measure. Oddly enough, you can get a four-pack of the Mr Orange, Mr Blond, Mr White, and Mr Pink covers, but if you want Mr Brown (Tarantino himself), you'll have to purchase it separately.
Magnificent! Gorgeous! Tragic. That may look like one of the cheesy quotes from the front of a DVD clamshell, but those three words accurately sum up House of Flying Daggers. Like his previous work as director of Hero, Yimou Zhang uses lush colors to paint the backdrop for elaborate staging and complex syncopation of actors' movements to create what might be best described as a martial arts ballet. Stunning sequences, both dramatic and violent play over a beautiful soundtrack. Takeshi Kaneshiro (of 
In the U.S., we've got as many guns per household as we do televisions; misplacing a firearm is about as eventful as losing one's keys. In China, where it is illegal for regular citizens to own weapons and ammunition is rationed to the police force, a missing gun is a much bigger deal. When local policeman of the year Ma Shan wakes up to discover his gun is gone, a frantic search ensues to recover the gun before it falls into the wrong hands. Things are further complicated when Ma Shan's childhood love turns up dead shortly after a disagreement with his wife. Wen Jiang does an outstanding job with the Ma Shan character, growing progressively frantic as he backtracks through the previous day's events, interviewing friends and relatives in an attempt to remember exactly when the gun disappeared. Writer/Director Chuan Lu adeptly builds the story, weaving a complex tale that wrestles with pride, sense of duty, love, and honor on the way to a ending that seems obvious once it's reached but wasn't predictable at the outset. Subtitles are well done and easy to follow. The Missing Gun is available at most rental outlets, but I recommend adding it to your personal DVD collection as one of the best Chinese dramas currently available.
Post apocalyptic time travel to save the world from itself, ala Terminator, finds Milly (Anne Suzuki), the heroine, stepping back in time to prevent the future destruction of Earth at the hands of alien invaders. A conflicted anti-hero (Takeshi Kaneshiro) gets caught in the middle of Milly's search in his own quest to stop a ruthless crime boss from capturing poor children for their organs. Pre-dating Sky Captain by several years, it's possible to suggest that movies writers borrowed from Returner in selecting Tibet as the final stand for the world's survivors on the verge of human annihilation. Lighting throughout much of the movie has an almost Bladerunner-like darkness too it, lending a cyberpunk feel to the story. The mission, help the alien get back to his comrades before they seek vengeance for his death, with a dose of E.T. and Close Encounters thrown in to make sure all the Hollywood sci-fi classics get captured in one colossal blockbuster. The maniacal brilliance of Goro Kishitani's portrayal of the evil crime boss paints one of the best villains I've seen in a movie in ages. In connecting the movie dots, I've ultimately revealed little about the plot, which follows classic sci-fi formula as the heroic duo overcomes obstacles and follows detective leads to track down the alien and its missing space cruiser. The requisite internal struggle for both characters plays directly into final outcome. The film switches between English, Japanese, and Mandarin; making subtitles a must for anyone not tri-lingual. A dubbed version is available, but I highly recommend using the original language track and reading the parts you don't understand. If you're a fan of sci-fi action this is definitely a movie worth seeing.
Fast food has never meant healthy food. We order processed meat, processed cheese, and processed potatoes, served up with sugar in a liquid form to wash it down. Filmmaker Morgan Spurlock decides to test the results of a fast food diet by eating three meals a day at McDonald's for thirty days. The rules: eat everything on the menu at least once and only super size the meal if asked by the cashier. The results are profound in their enormity, even to the three doctors and nutritionist who analyze Spurlock's progress. More than just a food log tracking the eating habits of a man on a Mickey D's binge, Super Size Me looks at the processed convenience foods industry, examining the ways food marketers find to infiltrate the minds of children, building a pattern of lifelong bad eating habits. Like many advocates attempting to drive an important point home, Morgan Spurlock takes fast food to an extreme, demonstrating the potential for a diet filled with excess sugar and unhealthy fats. If you ever need motivation to kick your current eating habits and get back in shape this movie should be part of your permanent video collection. Whenever you start to fall off the wagon, pop in Super Size Me and the sodas, fries, and sugar-laden products will be off the menu replaced by a diet free from hydrogenated oils and refined sugars. The DVD extras go beyond the material in the movie to further drive home several key points about the unhealthy nature of fast food.
If Homer had been Korean, he might have written a story like Musa instead of The Odessey. Musa is, to my Western-socialized mind at least, a Greek tragedy played out as a group of Korean delegates find themselves banished to the deserts of China after attempting a diplomatic meeting with Ming rulers in 1375 China. The surviving members of the Korean envoy journey for home with little hope, only to have their plans derailed on a mission to rescue a Ming princess from her Yuan captors and deliver her to safety. The plot is admittedly underdeveloped, which is apparently in part due to a serious hack job to the movie done between the theatrical release and the later DVD release. Visually, this is one of the most gorgeous movies on any screen in recent memory. Shots are framed with outstanding precision and the lighting is superb. Fight scenes are a bit to real for the stomach at times, with some over-the-top battle imagery that appears a little too real, but if you can get past the gruesome nature of the battles, they are staged with precision that spoils the CGI rendered effects of Hollywood epics like The Lord of the Rings. Crouching Tiger and Hero both tell a more cohesive story, but Musa, starring Zhang Ziyi of Crouching Tiger fame, should be at the top of the watch list for any fan of Chinese cinema. My only real gripe about the DVD being that many of the subtitles moved way to fast to both watch the film and catch the dialog.
Without my morning coffee my world always seems a little off. Coffee and Cigarettes examines the culture surrounding two of the world's unifying vices, through a series of short conversations across the tables of several diners. The segments were shot over several years, collecting odd conversations of an eclectic group of Hollywood names like Roberto Begigni, Steven Wright, Bill Murray, Steve Buscemi, Cate Blanchett, Alfred Molina, Steve Coogan, Jack and Meg White, Iggy Pop, Tom Waits, and a closing sequence to die for with Taylor Mead and Bill Rice. These sometimes clever, mostly awkward encounters tie the central theme of coffee and cigarettes into a brilliant series of encounters set in carefully patterned settings with repeated themes. Director Jim Jarmusch, who released the first installment back in 1986, doesn't necessarily get the perfect story with every scene, but the mood is absolute. Aside from limited screenings throughout the United States, DVD is the only way to see this movie. An extra featuring Taylor Mead is almost worth the price of the DVD by itself and the soundtrack deserves further examination.
A combination of the high ragweed pollen count in Iowa and a flashback interview with Roger Corman on NPR coupled with poetically perfect product positioning in Best Buy resulted in the Roger Corman/Maury Dexter double feature, The Wild Angels and Hell's Belles, making its way into my DVD collection over the weekend. Easy Rider fans should definitely consider The Wild Angels a must include piece of counterculture movie history, with Peter Fonda starring as the president of a Hells Angels chapter bent on a life of self-destructive hedonism. Inspired by stories from the Venice Beach Hells Angels who played some of the bikers, this movie predates the more famous Easy Rider with the gritty story playing out like a Greek tragedy for Fonda's character, as his world crumbles around him even as he tries to do the right thing. The soundtrack features some amazing 1960's fuzzed-out guitar tracks that set the tone for an edgy ride across Southern California. The Wild Angels even managed to be the only American showing at the 1966 Venice Film Festival. Hell's Belles, despite the movie poster tagline, "The Bikes were Fast! She was Faster!" is a classic western with motorcycles standing in for the horses. After a cowboy (played by Jeremy Slate) wins a new bike in a motocross it's subsequently stolen from him and the adventure begins. The acting was remarkably better than I expected and overall I found the story in Hell's Belles to be a much quicker pace than The Wild Angels, even if the story is more formulaic. Sadly, this DVD double feature doesn't warrant a director commentary or any of the other features we've come to expect from more recent releases. This combo is currently exclusively available in stores at Best Buy.
Raising some disturbing questions about the future of technology, Minority Report takes us to the not-too-distant future, where crimes may be predicted before they happen. Based on a sci-fi detective novel by 
Other than seeing reruns on cable and listening to Bob and Doug on their Great White North album, I missed SCTV completely. The few episodes I've seen are pure gold and this collection of nine 90 minute episodes is the mother lode. All episodes are drawn from the original season with Bob and Doug McKenzie, Yellowbelly, Lola Heatherton, and Johnny LaRue, as portrayed by the likes of John Candy, Eugene Levy, Rick Moranis, and Catherine O'Hara. Unlike SNL, which tends to deliver humor from below the belt line, the gang from Second City comes across as the North American answer to Monty Python. Commentary by Joe Flaherty and Eugene Levy provides perspective. Four new documentaries, including a memorial to John Candy, are a completely unnecessary bonus to send this collection over the top as the DVD boxed set to acquire in 2004 (the close runner up being Volume 2, due in September). If you know a fan of comedy, this is the perfect birthday gift to complete their DVD collection (mine's coming up on the 29th, thanks for asking).
The second half of the Bride's revenge finds its way to store shelves on Tuesday. Personally, I want a version that allows me to watch the entire saga uninterrupted from start to finish, but I can live with the few seconds required to switch DVDs. Tarantino continues his homage to the ghosts of movie directors past with a more character driven story reminiscent of Reservoir Dogs-era dialog. Volume 2 pays vague homage to the Akira Kurosawa style of Samurai-western storytelling, relying less on the exaggerated bloodshed of Kill Bill Vol. 1. The end is somewhat predictable, yet still relieving, tying up loose ends and paving the way for a possible third installment with a twist. A deleted scene and film premiere footage featuring Robert Rodriguez's band, Chingon, are two additional motivators for owning this DVD.
I hope the trend toward filling in plot gaps between movies with anime continues. Anamatrix gets deserved credit for lining up many of the best animators in the business to create a series of compelling shorts. Dark Fury picks up the trend, bridging the gap between Pitch Black and The Chronicles of Riddick. Peter Chung, best known as the animator responsible for Aeon Flux, delivers his fluid techo-violent style, giving Riddick the same looming presence found in Vin Diesel's live-action version. Characters, including Riddick, are voiced by the movie stars, keeping the entire production artistically consistent. The story is a creepy encounter with a psychotic intergalactic bounty hunter collecting killers as art. At 35 minutes, the animated story is complete, but I still want more. Extras on the DVD include behind the scenes material and some sneak peaks at Chronicles stuff.
"At the dawn of the millenium the nation collapsed. At 15% unemployment, 10 million were out of work. 800,000 students boycotted school. The adults lost confidence, and fearing the youth, eventually passed the Millennium Educational Reform Act."
A certain segment of Stephen King's work seems dedicated to exploring the inner workings of the writer's mind. While I find this fascinating on some level, the resulting screenplays never quite work as well as his story. Secret Window is one of these writer tales, examining the life of a writer (played by Johnny Depp) sequestered in his small town summer cottage to escape the impending collapse of his marriage following the discovery of his wife's infidelity. To make matters worse, a stranger shows up on the writer's doorstep making accusations of plagiarism. While the isolated writer theme quite obviously smacks of The Shining, it doesn't play out with the same creepiness. Depp delivers his usual outstanding ownership of the character he portrays, but the story falls down in the end, slipping into predictability at exactly the time it provides a compelling surprise. The DVD extras include an acceptable collection of featurettes, but nothing that screams 'buy me'.
The television trailers for Paycheck bored me to the point I didn't even bother to watch it until I ran out of other new releases at the video store. At the time of the theatrical release, I had no idea the movie was based on yet another Philip K. Dick short story. The setup for the story is great. A hotshot computer engineer works for companies and then gets his memory erased, so he can work for competitors without fear of infringing on any competitive practices. Something went seemingly wrong in his latest job when he wakes from having his memory zapped to discover he signed away rights to millions of shares of Fortune 500 company stock. An envelope mailed to his attorney provides the only clues to discover why. John Woo directs, creating a level of action not typically associated with psychological sci-fi material. Science fiction junkies should definitely give the story a chance, despite mixed reviews from most mainstream movie critics. The DVD is lackluster at best, providing now standard Dolby 5.1 Surround and little else to get excited about. The featurettes don't really show us anything we haven't seen before. I haven't actually read the story as written by PKD, but I'm envisioning the original to be a whole lot less John Woo.
Where has the Hollywood of the 1970's gone? You know, the Hollywood that used dialogue and plot to sell tickets, instead of explosions and alien creatures. Billy Wilder directed many of my favorite movies from cinema past, including Double Indemnity, Sabrina, the Apartment, and Some Like it Hot. The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes was done late in Wilder's career, offering a less-than-serious look at Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's famed sleuth. Robert Stephens as Holmes and Colin Blakely's portrayal of Watson are quite possibly the best cinematic recreation of the detective duo, despite this being an unofficial account. The story has all the beauty of a film noir, with Wilder's touch guiding the story to almost perfection as Holmes assists Madame Valladon in the search for her husband.
This movie is about the best adaptation of a 
