The Picture of Dorian Gray (1945/2009)

I’ve always felt that Dorian Gray gets cinematic short-shrift compared to his contemporaries, Dracula, Frankenstein’s monster, and Dr. Jekyll/Mr. Hyde. While everyone else has had brides and sons and run-ins with Abbot and Costello, Dorian has been largely absent from the big screen. In the 60 years that span between the two films I am about to discuss, no significant addendums have been made to Dorian’s tale.

The most remarkable thing about the two films I am about to review is how utterly similar they are, though produced so far apart. Of course, there are the pacing and aesthetic changes that one might expect, and the recent version is able to be more explicit where the original is not. But what is truly remarkable is how both films treated the source material virtually the same, in my opinion, right down to hitting the same marks and making the same mistakes.

Guest Review: Clash(es) of the Titans (1981-2010)

by AndrewPrice

Commentarama Films

The 1981 version of Clash of the Titans really was an inspired movie. Clash 2010 wasn’t. In fact, it stank. And what better way to explain why it stank than to compare the two?

Conan the Barbarian (1982 / 2011)

Let me tell you of the days of high adventure. 

Wow, I almost let the entire month of November slip by without posting a review. (That’s if I can get this posted before midnight.) Clearly I picked the wrong time of year to start this blog. No matter. Let’s get back to it, shall we?

I didn’t know that a remake of Conan the Barbarian had even been done until I saw a display for the DVD in the store. That made me realize that I had never seen the original film, despite it being considered an iconic movie of the ‘80s. So, with a twinge of guilt over my neglected fledgling blog, I did the only sensible thing I could think of: I hit the Redbox® and hoped that the original was available for instant viewing on Netflix®. It was my lucky day.