Friday, November 17, 2006

Next: "Naked Kiss" for tots! Oh, wait a minute . . .

In her near-rave review of the new kids' movie Happy Feet, the New York Times' Manohla Dargis says that director George Miller, "after doing an extremely credible approximation of the wonderful world of Walt Disney, plunges his hapless hero into a nightmare worthy of Samuel Fuller’s Shock Corridor."

Ever seen Shock Corridor? Here's the plot as the Times' Hal Erickson describes it:
Peter Breck plays a ruthless journalist who believes that the quickest way to a Pulitzer Prize is to uncover the facts behind a murder at a mental hospital. To glean first-hand information, Breck pretends to go insane and is locked up in the institution. While pursuing his investigation, Breck is sidetracked by the loopy behavior of his fellow inmates. During a hospital riot, Breck is straightjacketed and subjected to shock treatment. By now almost as crazy as he's previously pretended to be, Breck begins imagining that his exotic-dancer girlfriend Constance Towers (a Samuel Fuller "regular") is actually his sister!
Your 7-year-old will love Happy Feet!

(via Michael Medved)

Update: All the li'l linkies in that last graf were in the NYT's version. When did they start sticking links in their old reviews? Who cares, it's a good idea.

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