Steven North Movies

Differentiating this TV-movie version of Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol from the hundreds of other adaptations of the same Yuletide classic is its tongue-in-cheek ambience and a bundle of memorable tunes by perennial Disney composer Alan Menken and former Schoolhouse Rock lyricist Lynn Ahrens. Inspired by a stage musical which used to be presented annually at New York's Madison Square Garden, this Christmas Carol stars Kelsey Grammer as tight-fisted Ebenezer Scrooge, who sees the errors of his ways just in time to oversee the "best Christmas ever" for his long-suffering clerk Bob Cratchit (Edward Gower) and "God Bless Us Everyone" Tiny Tim (Jacob Moriarty). On this occasion, the spirits materializing for Scrooge's benefit include Jason Alexander as a neurotic Jacob Marley, Jesse L. Martin as a laid-back Ghost of Christmas Present, Jane Krakowski as a sexy Ghost of Christmas Past, and Geraldine Chaplin as a spooky Ghost of Christmas Future (in Wizard of Oz tradition, three of these four actors also appear as "real" people in Scrooge's everyday life). Highlights include the song "Link by Link," wherein the ghostly Marley and a chorus of wraiths perform a lively ball-and-chain dance number, and the outsized Christmas celebration in the home of Scrooge's first boss, Mr. Fezziwig (Brian Bedford), which features among other things a "pole dance" by the Ghost of Christmas Past! Filmed on-location in Budapest (which sort of looks like Dickensian London if you squint real hard), A Christmas Carol: The Musical won an Emmy award for musical director Michael Kosarin -- and, alas, tanked in the ratings when first telecast by NBC on November 28, 2004. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

A group of would-be hipsters looking for a good time find more trouble than they expected in this edgy comedy. It's a typical night at the Dog Bar, a club in the Brixton section of London: Helen (Orlessa Edwards), a career-obsessed young businesswoman, is trying to relax; Mitch (Mark Letheren) and Jake (Stuart Laing) are looking for women who'd like company for the evening; Freddy (Wil Johnson), an up-and-coming songwriter, is observing the goings-on; and Kat (Amelia Curtis) is waiting tables in an effort to live down her heritage as the daughter of wealthy parents. By the end of the night, Helen has lost her briefcase and the irreplaceable computer disc inside, Mitch has been dosed with LSD, and Jake rubs a drug-dealing gangster the wrong way. South West Nine was the first feature from writer and director Richard Parry. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

The brutal war between the Serbs and Croats which broke out as soon as Yugoslavia was freed from Communist rule is the subject of this harrowing drama. In the story, a Serbian man and a Croatian woman are being married. Though this was once a commonplace occurrence, today the post-wedding celebrations are interrupted by violent demonstrations of conflict between the two groups. The woman's husband goes off to serve in the Serbian army, never to be seen again, and she is brutally dealt with by Serbian soldiers, while the beautiful multiethnic region of Vukovar is similarly ravaged by the ongoing war. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi

To fully appreciate Boy in Blue, it's helpful to know a little bit about the sport of "sculling"-or competitive rowing. Nicolas Cage stars as the real-life Ned Hanlan, who at the turn of the century was Canada's foremost sculling champ. A wild, uncontrollable youth, Hanlan is "adopted" by a gambler named Bill (David Naughton), who promotes the boy on the sculling circuit for his own monetary gain. Ruthlessly businessman Knox (Christopher Plummer) assumes control of Hanlan's career, but when Ned discovers just how ruthless Knox can be, he casts his lot with the first honest man he's met, inventor-speculator Walter (Sean Sullivan). Hanlan's professional success is capped by his marriage to Margaret (Cynthia Dale), Knox's previously unattainable niece. The by-the-numbers Boy in Blue was given an R rating due to a few disposable sex scenes, thereby cutting its potential audience (hero-worshipping youths) in half. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Shanks is not so much a movie as an hallucinatory experience. World-renowned mime Marcel Marceau plays a dual role as a mute puppeteer and an eccentric inventor. The inventor dies, passing along his secrets for reviving corpses to the puppeteer. With the help of an enigmatic little girl, Marceau activates several dead bodies and goes on a robbery spree. Costarring with Marceau are fellow mime artists Tsilla Chelton and Phillipe Clay. Shanks had cult potential, but was released with a surprisingly lackluster ad campaign--all the more surprising in that the film was directed by that master huckster William Castle (whose last film this was). ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Set in a small Wisconsin town (even though it was actually filmed in Canada), this is the story of a young man living in the 60s. He has his own rock band, of course, and is against the war, of course. Despite some good performances, notably by Alex Nicol, the remainder of the movie is somewhat hackneyed and cliched...standard teenage angst, rebel without a cause...trying to deal with the chaotic social situation of the sixties. ~ Tana Hobart, Rovi