Posts by Richard Kaufman

The show of Grease was great. The movie was a bowdlerized version of a raunchy show, crapped up by shoe-horning OIivia Newton John into a role in which she didn't belong. Grease is actually due for a great remake.

"And really the only thing that sinks "Lost Horizon" is the musical numbers - maybe an edited version without the songs would have been more successful" Unfortunately that's not possible because there's a lot of information in the...

That sold me. Just put in my order. I have a vague recollection from the laser disc (one of those wretched Fox $70 releases) that a number (or all?) of Pat Boone's songs were cut prior to the film's release and some were put back for...

I would say that "appalling" is indeed apt for much of Lost Horizon. What's interesting is how all these appalling aspects (bizarre casting, poor dialogue, inappropriate music, static direction, tape stuck to John Gielgud's eyes) come...

Albert Finney would have been a great choice for the male lead. His acting is the equal or better (most would agree better) of Peter Finch, and Finney can indeed sing. It's not like Columbia didn't have choices in casting Finch and Ullman.

I have really given season 3 the benefit of the doubt, but I just can't get past how uniformly awful it is. Aside from the poor transfers (the weak and murky black in the opening of every episode is terrible), the drab 1970s Universal...

Argh! I was really looking forward to a beautiful new transfer. Thanks, RAH, for your thoughts.

I have the UK disc of Movie Movie (great flick, terrible disc), and The Medusa Touch (a guilty Burton pleasure, and a decent disc). Where has The Fortune been released? Is this the Mike Nichols car crash with Nicholson, Beatty, and...

It's exciting to hear that Tales that Witness Madness is coming. I've worn out my old VHS copy. Ditto for Man on a Swing--I remember it well from seeing it at the Trylon Theater on Queens Blvd. when I was a teen, with Cliff Robertson...

Today, the money-hungry corporate jackasses running everything don't give a crap about the consumer. I saw Altered States the day it opened--people were screaming in the theater because it was so crazy. Chayevsky was pissed off...