1980s Fantasy Film Festival #10: “Brazil” (1985)
[Note: The following review contains SPOILERS for Time Bandits.] And now, we begin the next sequence of our 1980s Fantasy Film Festival All 1980s Fantasy Film Festival Posts Next Friday: The Adventures of Baron Munchausen (1988) Full Upcoming...
1980s Fantasy Film Festival #9: “Time Bandits” (1981)
[Note: The following review contains SPOILERS for Time Bandits.] And now, we begin the next sequence of our 1980s Fantasy Film Festival by rewatching the classic thematic trilogy of fantasy films directed by the mindshatteringly ingenious Terry Gilliam, beginning with the first, Time Bandits (with Brazil and The Adventures of Baron Munchausen over the next two weeks). Previously known as the American from Monty Python, Gilliam is one...
1980s Fantasy Film Festival #8: “Young Sherlock Holmes” (1985)
This week, the “Legends and Mythology” portion of our 1980s Fantasy Film Festival concludes with Chris Columbus’ Young Sherlock Holmes, a film that may not fit perfectly into the festival, given that almost all of its most fantastical elements actually occur as the result of drug-induced hallucinations. However, it features some nifty steampunk gadgetry, along with some deliberately heightened elements such as an...
1980s Fantasy Film Festival #7: “Erik the Viking” (1989)
And now as the “Legends and Mythology” sequence of our 1980s Fantasy Film Festival continues, we come to Erik the Viking, a film I really wanted to love for numerous reasons. For one, it has become something of a cult classic since its initial, critically maligned release in 1989, and if there’s anything I tend to love, it’s a misunderstood cult classic that a dedicated albeit small group of loving fans cherish...
1980s Fantasy Film Festival #6: “Excalibur” (1981)
John Boorman’s Excalibur, the second “Legends and Mythology” entry in our 1980s Fantasy Film Festival, is easily the most ambitious film in this series to date, its goal having been to adapt Thomas Malory’s classic book of King Arthur, Le Morte D’Arthur–the first major work to compile all of the pieces of the Arthurian Legend up to that point, 1485, into one place–into one film. Malory’s...