Alan Landers Movies
- 1992
- R
In this thriller, an introverted laser-research scientist journeys to Miami to attend a weapons conference and finds himself romantically entangled with a gorgeous model. A confirmed bookworm, the scientist is puzzled and flattered by her interest. He becomes more puzzled when FBI agents contact him and have him steal important documents. Later, another FBI agent appears and tells him that the two previous agents worked for the enemy. Meanwhile a gangster working for a prominent Miami Don, has kidnapped the model and is torturing her because he thinks she may have information about her sister, a mob courier who took off with a fortune in smuggled emeralds. More mayhem ensues as he tries to rescue her and finds himself further entangled with the FBI, the treacherous courier, and the mob. The story is narrated by the kidnapper who tells his complex tale in prison. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi
Woody Allen's romantic comedy of the Me Decade follows the up and down relationship of two mismatched New York neurotics. Jewish comedy writer Alvy Singer (Allen) ponders the modern quest for love and his past romance with tightly-wound WASP singer Annie Hall (Diane Keaton, née Diane Hall). The twice-divorced Alvy knows that it's not easy to find a mate when the options include pretentious New York intellectuals and lifestyle-obsessed Rolling Stone writers, but la-di-dah-ing Annie seems different. Along the rocky road of their coupling, Allen/Alvy weigh in on such topics as endless therapy, movies vs. TV, the absurdity of dating rituals, anti-Semitism, drugs, and, in one of the best set pieces, repressed Midwestern WASP insanity vs. crazy Brooklyn Jewish boisterousness. Annie wants to move to Los Angeles to find that fame that finally does in the relationship -- but not before Alvy gets in a few digs at vacuous, mantra-fixated California. Originally entitled Anhedonia (the inability to enjoy oneself), Annie Hall blended the slapstick and fantasy from such earlier Allen films as Sleeper (1973) and Bananas (1971) with the more autobiographical musings of his stand-up and written comedy, using an array of such movie techniques as talking heads, splitscreens, and subtitles. Within these gleeful formal experiments and sight gags, Allen and co-writer Marshall Brickman skewered 1970s solipsism, reversing the happy marriage of opposites found in classic screwball comedies. Hailed as Allen's most mature and personal film, Annie Hall beat out Star Wars for Best Picture and also won Oscars for Allen as director and writer and for Keaton as Best Actress; audiences enthusiastically responded to Allen's take on contemporary love and turned Keaton's rumpled menswear into a fashion trend. ~ Lucia Bozzola, Rovi
- Starring:
- Woody Allen, Diane Keaton, (more)
- 1973
- R
This convoluted mystery centers upon a seductive private investigator who must look into the background of the potential recipient of an enormous inheritance. Unfortunately, she finds herself more deeply involved in the situation than she wanted to be and trouble soon follows. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi
- 1969
Bucky (Jordan Christopher) is the local psychotic who kidnaps his niece and hides out for days with the dead body of his father's mistress Sally (Eileen Heckart). Bucky hates his mother, seemingly a prerequisite for all mental abnormality of the psycho-sexual variety. He rapes his sister after killing her husband. Suffering from temporary sanity, he feels a fleeting moment of remorse and contemplates suicide in this exploitation drama. ~ Dan Pavlides, Rovi
- Starring:
- Jordan Christopher, Eileen Heckart, (more)
- 1966
Based on a popular Australian novel, this comedy was produced Down Under in 1966. Nino Culotta Walter Chiari is an Italian journalist who is lured by his brother into coming to Australia to work for his paper there. But when Nino arrives in Sidney, he finds out that there is no paper; his brother has taken off with the investors' cash. Left in the lurch was his brother's business partner, Kay Kelly (Clare Dunne). Nino vows to pay off his brother's debt and gets a job as a bricklayer to do so. He also tries to woo Kay, but finds her difficult to win over. Meanwhile, he encounters a series of racist reactions from Aussies, at the thought of an Italian assimilating into Australian culture - one of the film's core themes. ~ Michael Betzold, Rovi
- Starring:
- Walter Chiari, Clare Dunne, (more)
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