Articles by Mike Long
The Next Step
The best way to describe ’The Next Step’ is ’A Chorus Line’/’Staying Alive’ meets ’Red Shoe Diaries’ (the box describes the film as ’Erotic Drama). Rick Negron (is he Taylor’s brother?) stars as Nick Mendez, a dancer who is pursuing [...]
Girls Just Want To Have Fun
As Helen Hunt seems to be in a new movie every week these days, it’s nice to go back to a gentler time when she was less visible and made a living by appearing in films like ’Girls Just Want to Have Fun.’ This spunky, feel-good movie is a staple of [...]
Go, Go Second Time Virgin
Not only does ’Go, Go Second Time Virgin’ get the prize for the most amusing title of the month, it also garners a huge award for being one of the bleakest and most disturbing movies that I’ve ever seen. Any movie that opens with a rape and then [...]
Ecstasy Of The Angels
Until recently, I was unfamiliar with the work of Japanese director Koji Wakamatsu. Having now viewed two of his films, I now understand why this director has a cult following and why he is seen as a controversial figure in his native land. Believe me, [...]
Black Christmas
Those of you who couldn’t get enough of Bob Clark’s classic ’A Christmas Story’ during it’s 24-hour marathon on TNT over the holidays, you may want to check out Clark’s earlier take on the holiday season with 1974’s ’Black Christmas’. [...]
Forgotten Silver
In the 15 years since the release of ’This is Spinal Tap’, we’ve seen the ’mockumentary’ genre grow by leaps and bounds. A recent entry into this arena is ’Forgotten Silver’, an offering that comes to us from New Zealand and cult director [...]
Saving Grace
’Saving Grace’ falls firmly into the subgenre of British films, which are set in towns full of quirky characters, such as ’The Full Monty’ and ’Billy Elliot’. It opens with the entire town going to the home of Grace (Brenda Blethyn), for the [...]
The Best Of Friends
Recently, we’ve seen a growing number of television shows making their way to DVD. The latest offering is the hit series ’Friends’ from Warner Home Video. Instead of releasing the shows in chronological order starting with Season One, as has been [...]