Rene Dupont Movies

Oscar-nominated Randall Wallace (Braveheart) made his directorial debut with this adaptation of the 1848 classic by Alexandre Dumas (1802-70), featuring Leonardo DiCaprio in a dual role. Years have passed since the Three Musketeers, Aramis (Jeremy Irons), Athos (John Malkovich), and Porthos (Gerard Depardieu) fought together with their friend D'Artagnan (Gabriel Byrne). The arrogant, tyrannical King Louis XIV (Leonardo DiCaprio) desires the beautiful Christine (Judith Godreche), so he orders her suitor Raoul (Peter Sarsgaard), the son of Athos, off to face death at the front. He also sends Aramis to kill the leader of a Jesuit rebellion. Louis is unaware that his loyal protector and informant, D'Artagnan, is the secret lover of his mother, Queen Anne (Anne Parillaud). Louis' younger twin brother, Philippe (also DiCaprio) is the man in the iron mask, imprisoned for the past six years. Arthos and Porthos plan to free Philippe, abduct Louis and replace him by putting Philippe on the throne. French location scenes include the Chateau de Fontainbleau. Previous adaptations: Allan Dwan's The Iron Mask (1929) with Douglas Fairbanks, the 1939 James Whale version with Louis Hayward, Patricia Medina in Lady in the Iron Mask (1952), Henri Decoin's Le Masque de Fer (1962), Mike Newell's 1976 TV movie with Richard Chamberlain, and Ken Annakin's The Fifth Musketeer (1978, aka Behind the Iron Mask) with Beau Bridges, Lloyd Bridges, Sylvia Kristel, Ursula Andress, Cornel Wilde, Jose Ferrer, Rex Harrison, and Olivia de Havilland. A second film titled The Man in the Iron Mask was released in 1998, a low-budget effort from director William Richert. ~ Bhob Stewart, All Movie Guide

An arrogant Detroit cop (Jay Leno) must work with his efficient Japanese counterpart (Pat Morita) to corner an evil ganglord. ~ John Bush, All Movie Guide

Director Bob Clark, whose previous cinematic endeavors ran the gamut from Porky's to A Christmas Story, called the shots on From the Hip. Fresh out of law school, Robin Weathers (Judd Nelson) is hired by a law firm not known for its ethics. Weathers' first client is a man who, up to trial time, was perfectly willing to cop a plea. Instead, the novice lawyer sharkishly secures a "not guilty" verdict--not to mention a public reputation as a live wire. His jealous older colleagues decide to get even with Weathers by assigning him a case that cannot possibly be won. Thus it is that Weathers is assigned to defend insufferable murder suspect Douglas Benoit (John Hurt), who refuses to cooperate with his attorney even though he's facing a death sentence. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Nine years after the Yuletide slasher flick Black Christmas, Porky's director Bob Clark once again took on the holiday genre, switching from gasps to laughs with A Christmas Story. Adapted from a memoir by humorist Jean Shepherd (who narrates), the film centers on Ralphie Parker (Peter Billingsley), a young boy living in 1940s Indiana, desperately yearning for a Red Rider BB gun for Christmas. Despite protests from his mother (Melinda Dillon) that he'll shoot his eye out, Ralphie persists, unsuccessfully trying to enlist the assistance of both his teacher and Santa Claus. All the while, Ralphie finds himself dealing with the constant taunts of a pair of bullies and trying to not get in the middle of a feud between his mother and father (Darren McGavin) regarding a sexy lamp. ~ Matthew Tobey, All Movie Guide

The murders by the infamous British criminal, Jack the Ripper, catch the attention of Sherlock Holmes (Christopher Plummer), but he does not receive the expected call from Scotland Yard because he is being purposefully excluded from the investigation. Instead, Robert Lees (Donald Sutherland), a psychic who volunteered information to the police about the murders, provides the Great Detective with the necessary incitement to action. As the murders proceed, it becomes clear to all concerned that it is more important to stop them than to announce their solution, and Holmes enters the fray with the help of his trusty aide, Dr. Watson (James Mason). The former mistress of a "prominent personage," Annie Crook (Genevieve Bujold), provides crucial information leading to a final confrontation on London's docks. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

In the third and last in the original Shaft (1971) series of action-packed "blaxploitation" pictures, private eye John Shaft (Richard Roundtree) travels to the "motherland," where he breaks up a modern slavery ring. Shaft is hired by a diplomat, Emir Ramila (Cy Grant), to infiltrate the criminal empire of the evil Vincent Amafi (Frank Finlay), who is kidnapping poor Africans and shipping them to Europe as slave laborers. Amafi murdered Ramila's son when he attempted to expose the illegal operation, and Ramila, now aware that his investigation of Amafi has been compromised, needs an unfamiliar to face to help bring the ring leader down. After undergoing some training at the hands of a comely tutor so that he'll be able to pass muster as an African, Shaft travels to Ethiopia and allows himself to be shanghaied by Amafi's men. However, the high-ranking Wassa (Debebe Eshetu) is the traitor in Ramila's ranks, and he has betrayed Shaft. As the tough private eye attempts to free the slaves being held captive in a former Nazi prison below a French chateau and bed any beautiful women who crosses his path, he must also dodge a series of assassination attempts by Ramila's men. ~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide

In this grim wartime drama, two vengeful soldiers of fortune engage in a deadly competition to see who can kill the other first. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

"How did they make a movie out of Lolita?" teased the print ads of this Stanley Kubrick production. The answer: by adding three years to the title character's age. The original Vladimir Nabokov novel caused no end of scandal by detailing the romance between a middle-aged intellectual and a 12-year-old nymphet. The affair is "cleansed" ever so slightly in the film by making Lolita a 15-year-old (portrayed by 16-year-old Sue Lyon). In adapting his novel to film, Nabokov downplayed the wicked satire and sensuality of the material, concentrating instead on the story's farcical aspects. James Mason plays professor Humbert Humbert, who while waiting to begin a teaching post in the United States rents a room from blowzy Shelley Winters. Winters immediately falls for the worldly Humbert, but he only has eyes for his landlady's nubile daughter Lolita. The professor goes so far as to marry Winters so that he can remain near to the object of his ardor. Turning up like a bad penny at every opportunity is smarmy TV writer Quilty (Peter Sellers), who seems inordinately interested in Humbert's behavior. When Winters happens to read Humbert's diary, she is so revolted by his lustful thoughts that she runs blindly into the street, where she is struck and killed by a car. Without telling Lolita that her mother is dead, Humbert packs her into the car and goes on a cross-country trip, dogged every inch of the way by a mysterious pursuer. Once she gets over the shock of her mother's death, Lolita is agreeable to inaugurating an affair with her stepfather (this is handled very, very discreetly, despite the slavering critical assessments of 1962). But when the girl begins discovering boys her own age, she drifts away from Humbert. One day, she leaves without warning. This is humiliation enough for Humbert; but when he discovers who her secret lover really is, the results are fatal. We are prepared for the ending because the film has been framed as a flashback; what we are not prepared for is Stanley Kubrick's adroit manipulation of our sympathies and expectations. An incredibly long film considering its subject matter, Lolita is never dull, nor does it ever stoop to the sensationalism prevalent in the film's ad campaign. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

None of the many cinemadaptations of Johan Wyss' The Swiss Family Robinson are as relentlessly enjoyable as this 1960 Disney feature. The film wastes no time getting down to business, with the shipwreck of the Robinson family occurring as the credits flash across the screen. Fashioning a raft, the family heads to a lush tropical island. While the mother (Dorothy McGuire) isn't too happy about being a castaway, the father (John Mills) and the sons (James MacArthur, Tommy Kirk, Kevin Corcoran) are thrilled at the prospect of carving out a new life for themselves. In short order, the industrious Robinsons have constructed a treehouse with all the creature comforts and "utilities" of their home in Switzerland. Later on, the little party is joined by Janet Munro, the daughter of a sea captain who has been captured by pirate Sessue Hayakawa and his band. After a series of adventures calculated to arouse the envy of every man, woman and child in the audience, the film comes to a rousing conclusion as the Robinsons resourcefully fend off Hayakawa and his pirates with a variety of jerry-built booby traps. A box-office winner to the tune of $30 million, The Swiss Family Robinson proved beyond doubt that Disney's decision to emphasize the humor and adventure of the Wyss original, while downplaying the sociopolitical undertones, was a sound one. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide