Archive for 1981

Eye of the Needle

WWII German superspy, the Needle, who gravitates towards murder using his trusty switchblade, discovers vital evidence about the Allies D-Day invasion. He makes for the Scotish coast to escape on a U-Boat when his small boat is shipwrecked before being picked up and the Needle is washed ashore. He is saved by a man destined to never enter the war and his wife and child. The Needle quickly falls in love with the woman and both must decide between their love or country.

This remake of the 1946 movie of the same name accounts an affair between a seedy drifter and a seductive wife of a roadside cafe owner. This begins a chain of events that culminates in murder. Based on a novel by James M. Cain.

American Pop

“American Pop” is the animated story of a very talented and troubled family starting with 19th century Russia and moving through several generations of musicians. The film covers American music from the pre-jazz age through soul, ’50s rock, drug-laden psychadelia, and punk, finally ending with the onset of new wave in the early 1980s.

A Midsummer Night’s Dream


The French Lieutenant’s Woman

A film is being made of a story, set in 19th century England, about Charles, a biologist who’s engaged to be married, but who falls in love with outcast Sarah, whose melancholy makes her leave him after a short, but passionate affair. Anna and Mike, who play the characters of Sarah and Charles, go, during the shooting of the film, through a relationship that runs parallel to that of their characters.

Neighbors

One man’s quiet suburban life takes a sickening lurch for the worse when a young couple move into the deserted house next door. From the word go it is obvious these are not the quiet professional types who *should* be living in such a nice street. As more and more unbelievable events unfold, our hero starts to question his own sanity… and those of his family.

My Dinner with Andre

Wallace Shawn and Andre Gregory, apparently playing themselves, share their lives over the course of an evening meal at a restaurant. Gregory, a theater director from New York, is the more talkative of the pair. He relates to Shawn his tales of dropping out, traveling around the world, and experiencing the variety of ways people live, such as a monk who could balance his entire weight on his fingertips. Shawn listens avidly, but questions the value of Gregory’s seeming abandonment of the pragmatic aspects of life.

An astronaut brings home a glowing green orb for his daughter. However, the orb kills him and corners the girl for its purposes. Claiming to the embodiment of all evil, the malevolent sphere, known as the Loc-Nar, terrorizes the little girl by showing a series of bizarre and fantastic tales it has influenced. The first is “Harry Canyon,” a cynical taxi driver in a squalid futuristic New York who finds himself involved with a damsel in distress who is relentlessly pursued by murderous thugs who desire the Loc-Nar her archaeologist father found. The second is “Den” which chronicles the adventures of a nerdish boy who is thrown into the fantasy world of Neverwhere, where he is transformed into a studly naked muscle-man, desired by beautiful women, who must get involved in a conflict revolving around possession of the Loc-Nar. The third is “Captain Sternn” where the title character is a handsome but irredeemable scoundrel who stands accused in a trial that Loc-Nar throws into chaos. The fourth is “B-17″, where a World War II bomber plane limps home after a bombing run, only to have the Loc-Nar ram into it and revive the dead crew members as murderous zombies. The next is “So Beautiful, So Dangerous” where a buxom secretary at the Pentagon is abducted by stoned alien wastrels and a oversexed robot. The final story is “Taarna”, where the Loc-Nar has to come to a future Earth and changes a peaceful people into a horde of murderous barbarians who rampage with genocidal zeal. Only the last Tarackian, a silent swords-woman known as Taarna, can avenge the victims and stop the Loc-Nar.

Horrible

Priest comes to small town to help get rid of a monster whose blood coagulates very fast. This creates problems as the monster is very hard to kill and then decides to go on a killing spree of its own.

Final Exam

In a small college in North Carolina, only a select few students are left to take mid terms. But, when a killer strikes, it could be everyone’s final exam.