Interviews

Brian De Palma invites you to witness a seduction... a mystery... a murder. It's Body Double - a spine-tingling look at voyeurism and sexuality from the modern master of suspense. Jake Scully (Wasson), an unemployed actor, is asked to house-sit at a luxurious hillside apartment. As a bonus, the home offers Jake a telescopic peek into the bedroom of Gloria Revelle (Shelton), who performs an arousing striptease. When Jake discovers another man is also spying on Gloria, he begins an obsessive surveillance of her.

After the release of Jake Blues (John Belushi) from prison, he and brother Elwood (Dan Aykroyd) go to visit the orphanage where they were raised by nuns. They learn that the church stopped its support and will sell the place unless the tax on the property is paid within 11 days. The brothers decide to raise the money by putting their blues band back together and staging a big gig. They may be on a "mission from God" but they're making enemies everywhere they go.

Mel Brooks scored his first commercial hit with this raucous Western spoof starring the late Cleavon Little as the newly hired (and conspicuously black) sheriff of Rock Ridge. Sheriff Bart teams up with deputy Jim (Gene Wilder) to foil the railroad-building scheme of the nefarious Hedley Lamarr (Harvey Korman). The simple plot is just an excuse for a steady stream of gags, many of them unabashedly tasteless, that Brooks and his wacky cast pull off with side-splitting success.

Nothing equals The Birds for sheer terror when Alfred Hitchcock unleashes his foul friends in one of his most shocking and memorable masterpieces. As beautiful blonde Melanie Daniels (Tippi Hedren) rolls into Bodega Bay in pursuit of eligible bachelor Mitch Brenner (Rod Taylor), she is inexplicably attacked by a seagull. Suddenly thousands of birds are flocking into town, preying on schoolchildren and residents in a terrifying series of attacks.

The 1988 sequel to one of the most successful movies of all time finds Eddie Murphy reprising his role as Detroit police detective Axel Foley, and once again playing a fish out of water as he tries to solve a series of heists in Beverly Hills that may be connected to the attempted murder of his friend, a Beverly Hills police captain (Ronny Cox). Constructed in a much flashier and faster-paced visual style than the first film, the song still remains the same as Foley tries to keep his job in Detroit while solving crimes for the Beverly Hills cops.

While its sequels were formulaic and safe, the first Beverly Hills Cop set out to explore some uncharted territory, and succeeded. A blend of violent action picture and sharp comedy, the film has an excellent director, Martin Brest (Scent of a Woman), who finds some original perspectives on stock scenes (highway chases, police rousts) and hits a gleeful note with Murphy while skewering L.A. culture. Good support from Judge Reinhold and John Ashton as local cops not used to doing things the Detroit way (Murphy's character hails from the Motor City).

Could you spend $30 million dollars in 30 days and have nothing to show for it? Montgomery Brewster (Richard Prior) is a down-and-out baseball player who discovers that he's the only living relative of an eccentric multi-millionaire. Monty stands to inherit $300 million, but only if he can spend $30 million in a single month without acquiring any assets. If he fails, it's back to zero again. But he can't tell his best friend, catcher Spike Nolan (John Candy), or the accountant keeping track of his expense, Angela Drake (Lonette McKee), the truth… and everything he tries seems to backfire!

Winner of the Sundance Film Festival's Audience Award, writer-director Paul Greengrass' "magnetic and impassioned"* drama is a "staggering re-creation"** of the events of Sunday, January 30th, 1972 when British troops clashed with unarmed protestors in Derry, Northern Ireland. With breathtaking verisimilitude, Bloody Sunday posits an immediate, you-are-there re-creation of Ireland's most controversial contemporary tragedy.

Ever want to be someone else? Now you can - as long as it's Being John Malkovich! Craig, a struggling puppeteer, accidentally discovers a portal leading into the brain of John Malkovich. For 15 minutes, he experiences the ultimate head trip-HE is being John Malkovich! Then he's dumped onto the New Jersey turnpike!

Audiences and critics alike are raving about this larger-than-life rock 'n' roll favorite that Roger Ebert calls "one of the best movies of the year!" The guys of Stillwater have the sound, they have the look, and Rolling Stone magazine wants their story. For young reporter William Miller, it's the opportunity of a lifetime as he hits the road with his favorite band and discovers the price of fame, the value of family and the limits of friendship.