There's a great sense of humor in this retelling of the oft-told Cinderella tale with Jean Stapleton as the sassy Southern fairy godmother and Eve Arden as the horrific stepmother coming close to walking away with every scene they're in. Jennifer Beals and Matthew Broderick are both adorable as Cinderella and her prince and the effects and costumes are just magical enough. Excellent music score, too.
Reviews
34 Reviews
Gotta Love Liza
30 December 2021
Liza Minnelli is at her kooky best as the princess who is put to the test by a neighboring prince and his scheming mother to see just how much of a princess she really is. She has great chemistry with Tom Conti. It suffers from a little bit of padding, but Minnelli and Conti keep things interesting.
One of the Best Episodes
30 December 2021
Vanessa Redgrave gives one the series' most memorable, committed, and hammy performances as the Evil Queen who sets out to kill stepdaughter, Snow White, because she's more beautiful than her. The adaptation is well paced with just enough darkness and humor to balance each other out. Elizabeth McGovern isn't given much to do with a poorly written role, but she's very sweet as Snow White, Tony Cox is hilarious as one of the dwarves, and Vincent Price is terrific as the Queen's magic mirror.
Collins Entertains
30 December 2021
Joan Collins appears to be having the time of her life playing both the manipulative and sultry stepmother of the title characters and the wicked witch who wants to fatten them up and eat them. It's worth seeing just for her, but it's also a good, faithful adaptation of the original story complete with the child abandonment themes that have been sanitized from other versions of the story.
Bernadette Peters is Beautiful
30 December 2021
This adaptation is a little drawn out to pad out what is a pretty short Grimm fairy tale, but the cast is charming and some of the effects are creepy, such as Beverly D'Angelo's fairy turning into a fire-breathing dragon at the episode's climax. Bernadette Peters is absolutely beautiful and charming in the title role and Christopher Reeve is equally beautiful and dashing as the prince.
Excellent Telling of the Classic Story
30 December 2021
Shelley Duvall stars as both the title character and the title character's mother in this charming adaptation of Rapunzel with Jeff Bridges also pulling double duty as Rapunzel's father and Rapunzel's prince. Gena Rowlands is the big star here as the wicked witch who steals Rapunzel and puts her up in a secluded tower. She embraces both the pathos of the character and the inherent camp.
Well Made
30 December 2021
Roger Vadim essentially remakes Cocteau's adaptation of the same story only shorter and in color, but it's not without its charms. Susan Sarandon makes for a fetching lead and Klaus Kinski is creepy as the beast. It's also the only episode of the series to have portions shot on film and video, which makes for an interesting contrast between the warmth of Beauty's home as compared to the eerie coldness of the Beast's castle.
Charming and Cute
30 December 2021
Howard Hesseman plays a cold king who doesn't let his daughter, Ellen Barkin, do anything fun. Her days consist of nothing but school and homework. Needless to say, this is a stuffy and unfunny castle. There's a competition to see who can break the ice around the royal family and Howie Mandel volunteers. It's a short, fun story that's worth seeing, but it's not the best episode of the series.
Gorgeous Lee Remick
30 December 2021
Lee Remick is spellbinding as the title character and the adaptation tries to squeeze in as much as it can from Andersen's epic fairy tale. Melissa Gilbert and Lance Kerwin are also very good as the young leads and the production does a lot with what was obviously a tiny budget.
Not the Best Episode
30 December 2021
The Pied Piper is one of the lesser episodes even though it brings back Eric Idle who helped create one of the best ones, The Frog Prince. He stars this time as the title character and, while he's good, all the rhyming dialogue can grate the nerves after awhile and it's clear they're trying to pad the story out too much.
The Funniest Faerie Tale Episode
30 December 2021
When you team up Robin Williams, Terri Garr, and Eric Idle, you'd hope you'd at least get a few chuckles and this adaptation of the Grimm fairy tale, The Frog Prince, is not only side-splittingly funny at times, but it's also one of the best episodes of Faerie Tale Theatre. They do a great job of expanding a very short story into an incredibly entertaining hour.
Rarely Told Story
30 December 2021
Closer to the Original Story
30 December 2021
This adaptation, coming a few years before Disney took a crack at the story, is much more faithful to Andersen's heartbreaking original story and Pam Dawber is charming at the lead character with Treat Williams appropriately dashing at the handsome prince. Karen Black's eccentric sea witch, not a villain like she is in the Disney version, comes close to stealing the entire show.
The Dullest of the Episodes
30 December 2021
There's magic lost in Rip Van Winkle - the most boring episode of the entire Faerie Tale Theatre series. It's surprising, too, since it has one of the highest pedigrees of all the episodes with Harry Dean Stanton, Talia Shire, and Tim Conway.
Scary Freddy
30 December 2021
Most people can only focus on how this is the "gay" Nightmare on Elm Street sequel and, while that is interesting, most people forget what a great mood and feeling of dread this sequel has. The cinematography is just as menacing and dark as the original film and Freddy's makeup is even more frightening with the filmmakers going great lengths to light him just right to maximize his fear factor. The young actors are all excellent even if the script can't compete with Craven's original and takes some risks that don't always pay off.
The Texas Chainsaw Massacre
(2003)
Good Remake
30 December 2021
Bathed in a kind of sun-bleached, puke-green color palette, this new take on Texas Chainsaw Massacre means business from the start and creates an unnerving sense of menace right from the get go with a well done "found footage" gimmick that would be overused before the decade was out. 7th Heaven's Jessica Biel turns out to be a half-decent scream queen and fills the shoes of Marilyn Burns better than one would have ever expected, but it's R. Lee Ermy's sleazy police officer who steals the show.
Phenomena
(1985)
Connelly and Her Insect Friends
30 December 2021
Jennifer Connelly and Donald Pleasance are the unlikely dream team to lead this bizarre, fairy tale-esque slasher/thriller from Dario Argento. Connelly plays the neglected daughter of a movie star who's sent to an elite Swiss private school where her telepathic link to insects will help her solve a string of gory murders. It's fun in spite of the inherent silliness of the concept and the last act throws everything it can at you in an admirable attempt to close things out with a bang.
The Faculty
(1998)
High School Body Snatchers
30 December 2021
Anyone who's seen more than one "body snatcher" film in their lifetime will be able to tell where The Faculty is going from the first few minutes, but the ride is more fun than it needs to be and the cast is stacked with some of the most recognizable names every to appear in a horror film. Some of the computer effects could be better, but they're not as cringe-worthy as others from around this time period.
Hitcher in the Dark
(1989)
More Interesting Than First Glance
30 December 2021
Before putting in Hitcher in the Dark, I expected the usual lost in translation quality that haunts so many films made in America by European directors, but the script is stronger than expected with some interesting psychological things going on and the acting isn't terrible either. The interplay between rich boy psycho and kidnapped victim is interesting and it's nice to see a victim try to make the right choices to escape every now and then.
The Killer Nun
(1979)
Not As Fun As Expected
30 December 2021
Anita Ekberg is the unlikely lead of this trashy and lurid European thriller where she plays a sexually repressed nun dying of cancer who knocks the false teeth out of the elderly people she's supposed to be caring for, shoots up on morphine, has lesbian sex with another nun, leaves the grounds to have sex with strange men, and might also be a murderer. With all this going on, you'd think it'd be a sleazy good time, but it doesn't offer as much camp value as one would hope. Still, it's nice to see someone like Ekberg in a role like this and she's very good in it.
Jason X
(2001)
Goofy and Endearing Sequel
13 October 2021
Serial killer Jason Voorhees is frozen and thalled out years later and resumes his killing spree, but this time it's on a spaceship. That's about all there is to this movie and I'm alright with that. It doesn't pretend to be profound and revels in its own silliness. At least it seems in on the joke. After all, how could a concept like this ever be taken seriously?
Friday the 13th
(2009)
Embarrassing
13 October 2021
Friday the 13th takes the worst aspects of the original franchise and exploits them to a vulgar degree. Don't expect any of the relatable characters found in the original 4 films. This film replaces them with amalgamations of the worst characters in the later entries. They're rude, annoying, and some are even downright cruel. I suppose this is to make us cheer when Jason slashes them to bits, but I prefer my horror victims to be a little more on the likable and relatable side. I don't want to root for the killer.
House of Wax
(2005)
Brutal Remake
13 October 2021
While billed as the movie where you get to see Paris Hilton die, House of Wax has much more to offer than a campy death scene for a vapid reality star. The set up is classic slasher routine - some friends break down and go into a deserted town to ask for help, noticing the one big landmark is a wax museum made entirely of wax. Of course, the figures inside aren't your run of the mill wax figures but are, instead, real people who have been murdered and encased in wax and there's room for a few more in the exhibit.
Most performances are naturalistic and believable and the murder scenes impress with their brutality and intensity. It takes a little while for the terror to get started, but if you can wait a little while, you won't be disappointed.
Most performances are naturalistic and believable and the murder scenes impress with their brutality and intensity. It takes a little while for the terror to get started, but if you can wait a little while, you won't be disappointed.
When a Stranger Calls
(2006)
Good Remake
13 October 2021
As remakes go, When A Stranger Calls has all the right ingredients. Since the original film wasn't exactly a gore fest to begin with, the PG-13 rating doesn't hurt the film and allows it to focus more on mood and atmosphere to make the viewer uneasy. Just seeing the camera track down one of the main location's dark hallways where danger could be lurking behind any open door or dark corner is enough to get the mind racing.
If the film has a major flaw, it's unexpressive performance by Camilla Belle as the film's lead. She's got the perfect, all-American girl next door look, but she always seems somewhat bored. That hurts the film, but the production and sound design are so well done that they keep you invested in all the terror happening.
If the film has a major flaw, it's unexpressive performance by Camilla Belle as the film's lead. She's got the perfect, all-American girl next door look, but she always seems somewhat bored. That hurts the film, but the production and sound design are so well done that they keep you invested in all the terror happening.
New Nightmare
(1994)
Uncommonly Smart
13 October 2021
Writer/director Wes Craven returned to the Nightmare on Elm Street franchise in 1994 with what is perhaps one of the smartest and freshest sequels of all time. In his story, he tells us that the evil Freddy Krueger represents has been unleashed upon the cast and crew of the Nightmare on Elm Street films because they stopped making the films and they'll need to make another one to "put the genie back in the bottle."
Heather Langenkamp gives one of her best performances as a fictionalized version of herself - an actress struggling with balancing career and motherhood. Even Craven gets in on the fun playing a version of himself.
Heather Langenkamp gives one of her best performances as a fictionalized version of herself - an actress struggling with balancing career and motherhood. Even Craven gets in on the fun playing a version of himself.
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