Here are some movies that one would enjoy seeing if one wanted to be more aware of the scope of movies, what movies can be at their best and worst.
What are those old-timers ranting about when they say that "They don't make 'em like they used to?" Not all of these are old, of course. There are future classics being made today, movies that are really breakthroughs or the peak of their genre, movies that changed the scope of moviedom from that point forward. Flicks like Raiders of the Lost Ark, Star Wars. They're here, too. But many of the breakthroughs -- inventing a new type of movie or setting a new standard for epic scope, vision, violence, ordering, symbolism, evil, humor, slapstick, parody, dystopia, and such -- many breakthroughs happen early in the life of a medium. Sure, new ones are happening now, especially with respect to computer graphics and "photographing" scenes that can't really be seen. But, well, for example, even the new style of action flicks, where everything goes fast and then blows up, started decades ago with films like Bullitt, which I think invented the insane city car chase, and the early James Bond films that blew up everything.
And there are a number of cases where the same plot gets recycled into another movie a decade or two later. And we won't even mention the remakes of older movies, very few of which come near the standard of the originals.
Please remember that this is not intended as a "best of" list, but
as a list of, well, hard to say, sort of milestones, cultural shared
experiences, cinemahhhhh vocabulary. Like Joe Bob's list but with a bigger
scope. And I'm sure I have erred in not including a couple of his choices
in there, because he really was going for the
milestone-breakthrough-things-can-never-be-the-same-again-who-let-the-nitrate-genie-out-of-the-bottle high spots. Saturday reaction: "Jesus H! How
could they do that? In public!" Monday reaction: "But, C.
B., our next project has to leap over that new bar!"
Your help is requested in editing it into a saner format, with perhaps more
clear distinction between cinema history and "cultural
literacy." Currently, they are divided into three
categories:
Happy viewing!
| Title | Genre | Actors | Comments | Category |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2001 A Space Odyssey | sci fi | Keir Dullea, Stanley Kubrick (dir) | Book by Arthur C. Clarke. The first realistic sci fi movie. Images you'll never forget. Rated #1 in most best-of sci-fi movies lists. If you want to understand everything about the movie, you really have to read the book, which is terrific. | must see |
| 8-1/2 | drama | Marcello Mastroianni, Federico Fellini (dir) | Second of the Italian decadence and ennui movies, with male mid-life crisis added. | must see |
| Absolute Power | crime | Clint Eastwood, Gene Hackman, Ed Harris, Scott Glenn | Mere burglary turns into major political intrigue. Clint is the best burglar, hiding in the closet when bad things happen. | must see |
| African Queen, The | drama | Humphrey Bogart, Katharine Hepburn | Grungy boatman and prissy schoolmarm go down the river through the jungle. They even discover love through hate. | must see |
| Agony and the Ecstasy, The | bio | Charlton Heston, Rex Harrison | Michelangelo paints the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, and paint drips on the Pope. | must see |
| Airplane | comedy | Leslie Nielsen | Every possible slapstick device around a thin plot. One of several similar farces by the Zucker brothers. Laugh after laugh. | must see |
| Alien | sci fi | Sigourney Weaver | First you eat it, then it eats you. In the future, everything looks dirty. Design by weird German artist Giger. | must see |
| All That Jazz | musical | Roy Scheider, Bob Fosse (dir) | Choreographer's fantasy of death. Bob Fosse's sort of story of his own life. Great music and dancing, as you would expect. The guy sitting behind us in in the theater said, when it was over, ''I want my two bucks back.'' I almost punched him out. But being that much a Philistine for the rest of his life seemed to be punishment enough. | must see |
| American History X | drama | Edward Norton | Skinhead goes to prison, learns about life, how unfair the system really is, and reforms. | must see |
| Annie Hall | comedy | Woody Allen, Diane Keaton, Tony Roberts | Won the Oscar for best picture. Not just a flippant Woody Allen movie, but a serious exploration of relationships. | must see |
| Apocalypse Now | war | Martin Sheen, Marlon Brando, Francis Ford Coppola (dir) | Heart of Darkness (by Joseph Conrad) story retold in Vietnam. The desperate trip up the river to stop the renegade general. Apparently the film was a near-disaster to make, years in the jungles of the Philippines, but what a wonderful result. | must see |
| Arsenic and Old Lace | comedy | Cary Grant, Raymond Massey, Peter Lorre | Great, funny movie of famous play. Cary Grant goes way over the top. | must see |
| Arthur | comedy | Dudley Moore, Lisa Minelli, John Gielgud | Poor little rich kid drinks and drinks. Where's the rest of that moose? Dudley Moore's finest hour. | must see |
| Awful Truth, The | comedy | Cary Grant, Irene Dunne | Couple really don't want to get divorced, finally reunite at 11:59. | must see |
| Bad Day at Black Rock | drama | Spencer Tracy | After World War II, man (Tracy) comes to small town to find who killed his friend, a Japanese farmer in Arizona. He is not welcomed. | must see |
| Bad Seed, The | drama | Patty McCormack | A little girl likes to get her way, does whatever it takes, ruining and removing people in the process. Horrifying. | must see |
| Beast from 20,000 Fathoms, The | sci fi | dunno | Dinosaur attacks roller coaster. Classic single-frame animation. | must see |
| Becket | drama | Richard Burton, Peter O'Toole | Henry II vs St. Thomas Becket. ''Will no one rid me of this meddlesome priest?'' | must see |
| Bedazzled (old) | comedy | Peter Cook, Dudley Moore | Faust, with a hip Mephistopheles (Cook) and a schlemiel short-order cook (Moore). Watch the little things that Cook does to increase the anger in the world, like making parking meters go red, ripping the last few pages out of Agatha Christie books. | must see |
| Ben Hur | biblical, Roman | Charlton Heston | Indy 500 with chariots. One of the great Biblical epics. | must see |
| Big Easy, The | crime | Dennis Quaid, Ellen Barkin, Ned Beatty, John Goodman | Cops brawlin' in Nawlins. Surprisingly good cop flick. Great zydeco music. Real cops in New Orleans hate the story of corruption in the movie. | must see |
| Birds, The | horror | Rod Taylor, Tippi Hedrin, Alfred Hitchcock (dir) | Hitchcock story about the birds of the world turning on humans. Seagulls' revenge on the beautiful people in Bodega Bay. The advertising posters at the time said simply, "The Birds is Coming!" | must see |
| Blazing Saddles | comedy | Cleavon Little, Gene Wilder, Mel Brooks (dir), Harvey Korman, Madeline Kahn, Slim Pickens | Mel Brooks makes a Western. Black sheriff outrages town, saves town. Typical Mel Brooks insanity. No, not typical; probably his best. Shatters the fourth wall. | must see |
| Blob, The (old) | sci fi | Steve McQueen | Crazy goo. It eats you. Angry jello from meteorite absorbs animals and grows. How to stop it? | must see |
| Blow-up | crime | David Hemmings, Vanessa Redgrave, Michelangelo Antonioni (dir) | Photographer takes pictures of a couple meeting in a park. Maybe there's something interesting in that picture if you enlarge it enough. But what really did happen? Where's the proof? | must see |
| Body Heat | crime | Kathleen Turner, William Hurt | Smart woman outsmarts attorney. Scary movie about uppity woman who plans ahead. | must see |
| Bonnie and Clyde | crime | Warren Beatty, Faye Dunaway | Clyde Barrow and Bonnie Parker rob banks all over the midwest. Famous for its ultra-violent ending. | must see |
| Boys from Brazil, The | drama | Laurence Olivier, Gregory Peck, James Mason | Nazis in the late 1970s, the SS still plotting to take over. Book by Ira Levin. | must see |
| Bride of Frankenstein | sci fi | Elsa Lanchester | The monster is lonely, needs a date. ''She's alive! Alive!'' Love the gray lightning bolts in the hair. | must see |
| Bridge on the River Kwai | war | Alec Guiness | Prisoners build the Bridge of Death in Burma. Maybe not quite historically accurate but compelling. | must see |
| Bringing up Baby | comedy | Cary Grant, Katharine Hepburn | Hysterically funny madcap comedy. Supporting roles played by a dinosaur, a dog, and a leopard. Often on top-ten lists of comedies of all time. | must see |
| Cabaret | musical | Lisa Minelli, Bob Fosse (dir) | 1930s decadence in Berlin during the rise of the Nazis. Watch the kids sing Tomorrow Belongs to Me. | must see |
| Casablanca | drama | Humphrey Bogart, Ingrid Bergman | Play it, Sam. If this boy-loses-girl doesn't choke you up, you have no soul. | must see |
| Charade | mystery | Cary Grant, Audrey Hepburn, James Coburn, Walter Matthau | Sort of like Ten Little Indians. Which crook did it? They die off one by one. | must see |
| Chinatown | crime | Jack Nicholson, Faye Dunaway, John Huston, Roman Polanski (dir) | Nicholson as PI in corrupt thirties LA. Nicholson is tough and bumbling. Huston is wonderfully slimy. Where does LA's water come from? | must see |
| Citizen Kane | bio | Orson Welles, Joseph Cotton | Welles's triumphant epic as enfant terrible first-time director. Usually listed as the best movie ever made. Arguable, but certainly possible. | must see |
| Clockwork Orange, A | sci fi | Malcolm MacDowell, Stanley Kubrick (dir) | Anthony Burgess novel about ultra-violence. Lock your door. Very scary and creepy. | must see |
| Cocoanuts, The | comedy | Marx Brothers | The brothers run a hotel in Florida. The source of the saying, ''Why a duck?'' | must see |
| Crying Game, The | crime | Forrest Whitaker | IRA kidnapping goes wrong, but that's not the real story. Army buddy promises to take care of dead pal's girlfriend. | must see |
| Dark Passage | noir | Humphrey Bogart, Lauren Bacall | Innocent man escapes from San Quentin, then is helped by woman, pursued by everyone else. Beautifully atmospheric shots of forties San Francisco. ''There are a lot of smart people in San Quentin.'' | must see |
| Day the Earth Stood Still, The (old) | sci fi | Michael Rennie | Flying saucer lands in D.C. Alien comes bearing and hopeful yet frightening message. Earth reacts with predictable terror. Klaatu barada nikto, dude. | must see |
| Dead of Night | drama | Ensemble cast. | A sleeper, not well known. Weekend guests at English country house tell weird stories, recurring nightmares. And then some of them come true. | must see |
| Desperate Hours (old), The | crime | Humphrey Bogart, Fredrick March | Escaped convicts hold family hostage. | must see |
| Dial M for Murder | noir | Ray Milland, Grace Kelly, Robert Cummings, Alfred Hitchcock (dir) | Let's kill her. Oops. That didn't work. Okay, let's frame her. | must see |
| Dirty Harry | crime | Clint Eastwood | The first of five (?) so far, San Francisco cop tough guy films. A follow-on to Bullitt. A lot better than its reputation would lead you to believe. Do you want to know? Well, do ya, punk? | must see |
| Dr. Strangelove | black comedy | Peter Sellers, Peter Sellers, Peter Sellers, George C. Scott, Sterling Hayden, Slim Pickens, James Earl Jones, Stanley Kubrick (dir) | Subtitle: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb. The blackest of black comedies. You will laugh all the way to the end of the world. (Sellers plays three roles.) | must see |
| Dracula (old old) | horror | Bela Lugosi | First talkie vampire flick. Moody, slow paced, black and white. Atmospheric, and scary as hell. Read the book, too, if you never have, which is remarkably scary and waaay better than any recent vampire novels. | must see |
| Duck Soup | comedy | Marx Brothers | Funniest Marx Brothers movie. You're accused of not paying your taxes. Hey, I have an uncle who lives in Taxes. No, I mean money, dollars. Yeah, that's where he lives: Dollars, Taxes. | must see |
| Easy Rider | drama | Dennis Hopper, Peter Fonda, | Choppers and doobies. | must see |
| Enter the Dragon | action | Bruce Lee, John Saxon | The high-budget kung-fu movie up to its time. Amazing fight scenes. Much copied. With the real Bruce Lee. The scene with the nunchucks is fifteen seconds you have to see. | must see |
| Exorcist, The | horror | Max von Sydow | Truly horrifying flick from the famous novel, much quoted and parodied. | must see |
| Fail Safe | sci fi | Henry Fonda, Walter Matthau | The not-at-all-funny reality version of Dr. Strangelove. Glitch nukes Moscow. Eeeeeeeeeeeee. How do you stop World War III? | must see |
| Fantasia (old) | animation | (Disney) | Many short music pieces set to animation, or short cartoons set to classical music. Gotta see the dancing hippos in tutus. | must see |
| Fargo | crime | William H. Macy, Steve Buscemi, the Coen brothers (dir) | Fake kidnapping by massively incompetent criminals hired by incompetent businessman. Fortunately the cops are competent. Yah. | must see |
| Five Million Years to Earth | sci fi | No one we know | Ancient spacecraft dug up in London subway. It's not inert. Strange bodies and threatening technology. | must see |
| Forbidden Planet, The | sci fi | Walter Pidgeon, Anne Francis, Leslie Nielsen, Robby the Robot | Highest budget sci fi flick up to its time. Very high production values, and many familiar images. The real Robby the Robot debuted here. | must see |
| Frankenstein (old old) | horror | Boris Karloff, Colin Clive | Yes, that monster. The original one. | must see |
| French Connection, The | crime | Gene Hackman, Roy Scheider | Cops following and fighting Frog 1 and Frog 2, French heroin smugglers in NYC. Has the most amazing car chase of its time, which was shot without traffic control or insurance, according to the director. | must see |
| From Russia with Love | spy | Sean Connery, Robert Shaw, Lotte Lenya | The first (decent) James Bond movie. | must see |
| Godfather, The | crime | Marlon Brando, Al Pacino, Francis Ford Coppola (dir) | The beginning of a mob legend and film dynasty. | must see |
| Godzilla (old) | sci fi | Raymond Burr and a guy in a rubber suit | Originally a Japanese anti-nuke and anti-American flick. The Burr scenes were shot separately in the US and edited into the Japanese movie. | must see |
| Gold Rush, The | comedy | Charlie Chaplin | Chaplin starving in the Yukon. This steak is as tough as leather. | must see |
| Goldfinger | spy | Sean Connery, Robert Shaw, Lotte Lenya | The best early James Bond. Just what you expect, superspy fighting off the bad guys at every turn. | must see |
| Gone with the Wind | drama | Clark Gable, Vivian Leigh | Civil War epic. Frankly, I don't give a damn. | must see |
| Graduate, The | comedy | Dustin Hoffman, Anne Bancroft, Mike Nichols (dir) | Every boy's dream, then nightmare. Here's to you, Mrs. Robinson. | must see |
| Grapes of Wrath, The | drama | Henry Fonda, John Ford (dir) | Gritty, honest rendering of John Steinbeck novel. | must see |
| Great Escape, The | war | Steve McQueen, James Garner, Richard Attenborough | Escape from Nazi POW camp. Large ensemble cast. | must see |
| Harvey | comedy | Jimmie Stewart | Man with invisible companion. He's not a rabbit, he's a puka. | must see |
| High Noon | western | Gary Cooper | Bad guys coming to town and no one will help the sheriff. | must see |
| His Girl Friday | comedy | Cary Grant, Rosalind Russell | Hysterically funny madcap comedy. Remade several times. | must see |
| History of the World, Part I | comedy | Mel Brooks (writer and director, too), Dom DeLuise, Madeline Kahn, Harvey Korman, et al. | Insanely funny Mel Brooks romp from Biblical times thru Rome. Sort of Blazing Chariots. | must see |
| Horse's Mouth, The | comedy | Alec Guiness | Brilliant but nutso artist house-sits to paint his mural. | must see |
| How Green Was My Valley | drama | Walter Pidgeon, Maureen O'Hara, Roddy McDowall | Poor but noble coal miners in Wales. | must see |
| How to Succeed in Business without Really Trying | musical | Robert Morse, Rudy Vallee | Broadway musical on film. | must see |
| Hustler, The | crime | Paul Newman, Jackie Gleason | Pool player hits the skids. | must see |
| I, Claudius | historical drama | Derek Jacobi, Brian Blessed | (TV) Dozen-hour-long BBC production, wonderful, from the Robert Graves novels. Jacobi as Claudius and Blessed as Augustus are riveting. "In nineteen hundred year or near, Claw-Claw-Claudius shall speak clear." | must see |
| In the Heat of the Night | crime | Sidney Poitier, Rod Steiger | Black northern cop in southern town. | must see |
| Incredible Shrinking Man, The | sci fi | dunno | Radiation or something makes man shrink in size, to child-size, to doll-house, to matchbox. His battle with the spider is horrible. | must see |
| Inherit the Wind | comedy | Spencer Tracy, Fredric March, Gene Kelly, Harry Morgan | Stage play about the Scopes "monkey trial" of Clarence Darrow (Tracy) vs William Jennings Bryan (March), with reportage by H. L. Mencken (Kelly). Riveting. | must see |
| Invasion of the Body Snatchers, The (old) | sci fi | Kevin McCarthy | The original pod people invade California. Small town doctor notices kids complaining, Mommy isn't Mommy anymore. Then they discover the pod. Then the girl falls asleep. Oops. | must see |
| Invisible Man, The (old) | sci fi | Claude Rains | Invisibility corrupts. Footprints in the snow give him away. | must see |
| Ipcress File, The | spy | Michael Caine | Using psychological stress to break and brainwash. The first film with Caine doing the 'arry Palmah character. | must see |
| It's a Wonderful Life | drama | Jimmie Stewart | How different would the world be without him? | must see |
| Jaws | horror | Roy Scheider, Robert Shaw, Richard Dreyfus, Steven Spielberg (dir) | Don't eat the tourists, please. The shark is too damned smart. | must see |
| Judgment at Nuremberg | historical drama | Spencer Tracy, Richard Widmark, Maximillian Schell, Montgomery Clift, Burt Lancaster, Marlene Dietrich | The trials of Nazi judges as war criminals in the late forties. Long, and worth watching every minute. Amazing performances. | must see |
| Key Largo | drama | Humphrey Bogart, Lauren Bacall | Bad guys take over resort hotel during a hurricane. | must see |
| Killing, The | crime | Sterling Hayden, Stanley Kubrick (dir) | How to rob a race track. Very early crime procedural. Pseudo-documentary style with official-sounding narration in places. | must see |
| King Kong (old old) | sci fi | Clyde Beatty, Fay Wray | Old scratchy black and white. Sure, the animation is less smooth than modern versions, but the film has more soul. 'Twas beauty killed the beast. | must see |
| L. A. Story | comedy | Steve Martin, Victoria Tennant, Sarah Jessica Parker | Send-up of Los Angeles craziness, shallowness, narcissism. Few big laughs but constant little ones. Great fun. | must see |
| L.A. Confidential | crime | Kevin Spacey, Russell Crowe, Kim Basinger, Danny DeVito | LA cops, corruption and violence, surprise surprise. Powerful movie from Ellroy novel. The reputation for violence plagues LAPD to this day. | must see |
| La Dolce Vita | drama | Marcello Mastroianni, Federico Fellini (dir) | First of the Italian decadence and ennui movies. | must see |
| La Strada | drama | Anthony Quinn, Federico Fellini (dir) | Incredibly touching story of circus strong man and mute girl. | must see |
| Last Seduction, The | crime | Linda Fiorentino, Bill Pullman | Incredibly sexy heartless bitch screws, robs, kills. Great fun. Like Body Heat but nastier. | must see |
| Little Shop of Horrors, The (old) | black comedy | Jack Nicholson, Roger Corman (dir) | Feed me! Hungry plant from space becomes a sensation. Old B&W. | must see |
| Lodger, The (medium-old) | noir | George Sanders, Merle Oberon, Cedric Hardwicke | Quiet and odd man rents the room upstairs. Jack the Ripper, maybe? | must see |
| Lost Weekend, The | drama | Ray Milland | Alcoholism long before the Days of Wine And Roses | must see |
| Love and Death | comedy | Woody Allen, Diane Keaton | Woody is drafted into the Russian army to fight Napoleon. ''You don't want your children to grow up eating those rich pastries and cream sauces, do you?'' Becomes an accidental hero. | must see |
| Loved One, The | black comedy | Robert Morse, Jonathan Winters, Jonathan Winters, Rod Steiger, Robert Morley | Hysterical send-up of Hollywood funerals and Forest Lawn. Evelyn Waugh novel. | must see |
| M.A.S.H. | black comedy | Elliott Gould, Donald Sutherland, Robert Duvall, Sally Kellerman, Robert Altman (dir) | Hijinks in Korean War. The original, with a great cast. | must see |
| Magnificent Seven, The | western | Yul Brynner, Eli Wallach, James Coburn, Robert Vaughn, lots of others | American version of the Seven Samurai. One-stop shopping for Western cliches. | must see |
| Maltese Falcon, The | noir | Humphrey Bogart, Sidney Greenstreet, Peter Lorre, John Huston (dir) | Jon Huston's first movie as boy wonder writer and director. Tight, tense, an amazing first effort. Watch it down to the last second. | must see |
| Man Who Fell to Earth, The | sci fi | David Bowie | Alien illegal alien. | must see |
| Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, The | western | Jimmy Stewart, John Wayne, Lee Marvin | Extremely bad guy, extremely good killing. | must see |
| Man for All Seasons, A | drama | Paul Scofield, Robert Shaw | Henry VIII vs Thomas More. | must see |
| Man in the Glass Booth, The | coutroom | Maximilian Schell | Man is kidnapped in Paris and put on trial in Israel as a Nazi war criminal. Reminiscent of Eichmann trial. Gripping trial story. Maximilian Schell's finest hour. | must see |
| Manchurian Candidate, The (old) | spy | Frank Sinatra, Angela Lansbury | Soldier brainwashed to be assassin. Lansbury is deliciously evil. Sinatra is wonderful. Re-released after forty years in the vault. | must see |
| Manhattan | comedy | Woody Allen (dir), Diane Keaton, Mariel Hemingway | B&W Woody Allen with younger woman. | must see |
| Matrix, The | sci fi | Keanu Reeves, Lawrence Fishburn, the Wachowski brothers | Reality is going bye-bye. A breakthrough in special effects. | must see |
| Midnight Cowboy | drama | Jon Voight, Dustin Hoffman | Cowboy gigolo moves from the country to New York, finds it harder than he thought to make it. | must see |
| Millennium | sci fi | Kris Kristofferson | From the story by John Varley. The most plausible time travel story I've ever read or seen, and complicated. "How could you build all those nuclear weapons and think that no one would use them? They've been used eleven times." | must see |
| Miracle on 34th Street | comedy | Maureen O'Hara, Edmund Gwenn | Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus. | must see |
| Mirage | noir | Gregory Peck, Walter Matthau | Traumatic amnesia from seeing something horrible. Why is everyone trying to kill me? | must see |
| Moby Dick (old) | drama | Gregory Peck | Herman Melville would not be unhappy at this film rendering of his novel. Bombastic but effective. | must see |
| Moon over Parador | comedy | Richard Dreyfus, Raul Julia, Sonia Braga | Actor (Dreyfus) impersonates dead Latin American dictator for a while. Dave in a banana republic. Terrific cast, wonderful comedy. | must see |
| Mr Saturday Night | comedy | Billy Crystal | Old comic's comic tells several jokes per minute. Try to remember some of the hundred jokes. | must see |
| Mr. Roberts | comedy | Henry Fonda, Jack Lemmon, Jimmy Cagney | WW2 merchant marine ship. Tyrannical captain and rebellious crew. | must see |
| Mr. Smith Goes to Washington | drama | Jimmie Stewart | Trying to do good in D.C.? Filibuster. | must see |
| Mutiny on the Bounty (old old) | drama | Charles Laughton, Clark Gable | Hard captain, soft babes in Tahiti. | must see |
| My Favorite Year | comedy | Peter O'Toole | Kid is assigned as handler for an old time swashbuckler star. Insane. | must see |
| My Little Chickadee | comedy | Mae West, W. C. Fields | Quadruple entendre galore. | must see |
| Network | comedy | Fay Dunaway, Albert Finney | Backroom insanity in network TV. | must see |
| Never on Sunday | drama | Melina Mercouri | Hooker with heart of joy. | must see |
| Night at the Opera | comedy | Marx Brothers | You can't fool me. There ain't no sanity clause. Maybe second funniest Marx Bros. | must see |
| Ninotchka | comedy | Greta Garbo, Melvyn Douglas, Bela Lugosi | Bolsheviks need to sell czar's old jewelry to fund the government. Hysterically funny. | must see |
| North by Northwest | spy | Cary Grant, Eva Marie Saint, James Mason, Martin Landau, Alfred Hitchcock (dir) | Innocent man caught in web of spies by mistaken identity. Ends with literal cliffhanger at Mt. Rushmore. Hitchcock did two earlier drafts of this same plot: The 39 Steps and Saboteur. Third time's the charm. | must see |
| Nosferatu (old) | horror | Max Schreck | Probably the original vampire flick. Chilling. Hard to find a good copy, but there are some. | must see |
| Odd Couple, The | comedy | Walter Matthau, Jack Lemmon | Slob and obsessive-compulsive live together. Want a brown sandwich or a green sandwich? | must see |
| Of Mice and Men (old old) | drama | Burgess Meredith, Lon Chaney, Jr. | Wonderful telling of tragic John Steinbeck story. | must see |
| Oklahoma | musical | Gordon MacRae, Shirley Jones, Rod Steiger | Wonderful movie of Hammerstein play. | must see |
| Omega Man, The | sci fi | Charlton Heston | End of the world, by virus this time. Remaining man against mutants. | must see |
| On the Waterfront | crime | Marlon Brando, Lee J. Cobb, Karl Malden, Rod Steiger | I coulda been a contender. Watch this to understand the context of this famously parodied line. Eight Oscars. | must see |
| Our Man in Havana | comedy | Alec Guiness | Vacuum cleaner salesman becomes reluctant spy, from Graham Greene novel. | must see |
| Parallax View, The | spy | Warren Beatty, Paula Prentiss, William Daniels | Political assassination at a fund-raiser. Nothing unusual about that. But a couple years later, almost all the witnesses happen to be dead. Lone reporter, the last witness, tracking down assassins. The most paranoid political thriller flick. | must see |
| Pat and Mike | comedy | Spencer Tracy, Katharine Hepburn | Woman athlete and her manager. | must see |
| Paths of Glory | war | Kirk Douglas, Adolphe Menjou, Stanley Kubrick (dir) | The French general staff finds scapegoats to execute for a failing of the chain of command. Horrifying. | must see |
| Philadelphia Story, The | comedy | Katharine Hepburn, Jimmie Stewart, Cary Grant | Reporters come to cover society wedding. | must see |
| Pillow Book, The | drama | dunno | A novel written in a unique medium, on the skin of the messengers, one chapter at a time. | must see |
| Planet of the Apes | sci fi | Charlton Heston | Musical chairs for primates. Apes replace Man. | must see |
| Play It Again, Sam | comedy | Woody Allen (dir), Diane Keaton | The classic Woody Allen as schlemiel flick. Bogie's ghost gives him tips on getting the girl, but it still doesn't help. | must see |
| President's Analyst, The | comedy | James Coburn, Godfrey Cambridge | If you shrink the President, you become a security risk, right? Why is everyone trying to kidnap me? Or kill me? | must see |
| Producers, The (new) | comedy | Nathan Lane, Uma Thurman, Matthew Broderick, Will Farrell | New, musical version of Mel's masterpiece. Producer and accountant still trying to run the worst play in the world on Broadway. | must see |
| Producers, The (old) | comedy | Zero Mostel, Gene Wilder, Mel Brooks (dir) | The original, non-musical version of Mel's boys trying to produce Springtime for Hitler on Broadway. Insane. | must see |
| Psycho | crime | Anthony Perkins, Alfred Hitchcock (dir) | Classic Hatchplot. Mommy made me do it. Showering will be more exciting for a while. | must see |
| Public Enemy | crime | James Cagney | The bad brother goes really bad. | must see |
| Pulp Fiction | crime | John Travolta, Samuel L. Jackson, Uma Thurman, Harvey Keitel, Quentin Tarantino (dir) | Miracles and weirdness in the life of two hoods. Famous for out-of-sequence presentation and variety of plots that weave together. | must see |
| Putney Swope | comedy | Robert Downey, Sr. (dir) | A new take on advertising. Insane art director takes over agency and makes ads that almost wreck the US economy. | must see |
| Pygmalion | comedy | Leslie Howard, Wendy Hiller | George Bernard Shaw play, precursor to My Fair Lady musical. | must see |
| Raiders of the Lost Ark | swashbuckler | Harrison Ford | Every adventure cliche imaginable. Non-stop and frenetic. | must see |
| Rear Window | crime | Jimmy Stewart, Alfred Hitchcock (dir) | Man recuperating with broken leg gets bored, looks out the window at his neighbors. Odd goings-on. Did he really slice up his wife into little pieces? | must see |
| Rebecca | crime | dunno | Scary, atmospheric rendering of Daphne DuMaurier novel. | must see |
| Repossessed | comedy | Leslie Nielsen | Naked Gun does The Exorcist. Every cliche known to man. | must see |
| Repulsion | drama | Catherine Deneuve | Woman goes slowly nuts. You won't believe the rabbit in the purse. | must see |
| Richard III (Olivier) | Shakespeare | Laurence Olivier, Cedric Hardwicke, John Gielgud, Ralph Richardson | The British Gang of Four in one of the best Shakespeare movies. Creepily good. | must see |
| Road Warrior (Mad Max), The | sci fi | Mel Gibson | The end of the world with mutants and no gasoline. First of the series. Widely quoted and parodied. | must see |
| Rocky Horror Picture Show, The | comedy | Tim Curry, Susan Sarandon, Barry Bosworth | Let's do the Time Warp again! Cult flick for midnight shows. | must see |
| Rosemary's Baby | horror | Mia Farrow, John Cassavetes | Ira Levin novel of a Devil dad in the Dakota. | must see |
| Run Silent, Run Deep | war | Clark Gable, Burt Lancaster | WW2 submarine conflict, outside and inside. | must see |
| Ruthless People | comedy | Bette Midler, Danny DeVito | A man (DeVito) wants to get rid of his wife (Midler). She gets kidnapped and he doesn't pay. A plot so complicated, twisted, and insanely funny that it cannot be explained. See it. | must see |
| Saboteur | spy | Robert Cummings, Alfred Hitchcock (dir) | Innocent man caught in ring of spies by mistaken identity. Nazis in New York and California. Unforgettable cliffhanger scene at the Statue of Liberty. | must see |
| Saturday Night Fever | drama | John Travolta | Disco fever. Famous dance scenes. Widely parodied. | must see |
| Scarlet Pimpernel, The | drama | Leslie Howard | British aristocrats save French aristocrats from the guillotine during the French revolution. The plot is a lot like Zorro but in Europe. | must see |
| Scrooged | comedy | Bill Murray | Insane modern redo of Christmas Carol, and funny as the dickens. | must see |
| Seven Samurai | war | Toshiro Mifune | Unemployed samurai save a village. Original version of The Magnificent Seven. Long but worth it. | must see |
| Seventh Seal, The | drama | Max von Sydow, Ingmar Bergman (dir) | Soldier plays chess with Death. Images widely quoted in later flicks. | must see |
| Shaft (old) | crime | Richard Roundtree, Gordon Parks (dir) | Black private eye kicks butt, and the babes love him. Theme music by Isaac Hayes won Oscar. | must see |
| Shane | western | Alan Ladd | Ex-gunfighter saves family. | must see |
| Shot in the Dark, A | comedy | Peter Sellers, Walter Pidgeon | The funniest of the Inspector Clouseau flicks. Much funnier than The Pink Panther (old version). | must see |
| Silence of the Lambs, The | crime | Anthony Hopkins, Jodie Foster, Scott Glenn | Wonderfully creepy psycho murderers. Imagine a psychotic psychiatrist who's smarter than everyone else. | must see |
| Sin City | crime | Bruce Willis, Mickey Rourke, Clive Owen | Stark black and white reproduction of the graphic novels of the same name. Unique, beautiful, noir plots and cartoon violence. Amazing movie. | must see |
| Singin' in the Rain | musical | Gene Kelly | Dancin' in the rain. | must see |
| Sleeper | comedy | Woody Allen | Man reawakens in far future, where hot fudge sundaes are health food. | must see |
| Sleuth (old) | crime | Laurence Olivier, Michael Caine | Two-character play about what really happened. | must see |
| Some Like It Hot | comedy | Jack Lemmon, Tony Curtis | Hiding from the mob, in drag. | must see |
| Sound of Music, The | musical | Julie Andrews, Christopher Plummer | Almost-nun becomes Maria von Trapp. | must see |
| South Pacific | musical | Mitzi Gaynor, Rosanno Brazzi, Ray Walston | Movie version of Rodgers and Hammerstein play. WW2 Navy on (Tonkinese) island. Many horny sailors, too few nurses, and racist attitudes toward the natives. | must see |
| Spartacus (old) | biblical, Roman | Kirk Douglas, Laurence Olivier, Jean Simmons, Charles Laughton, Peter Ustinov, Stanley Kubrick (dir) | Huge ensemble cast. Script by Dalton Trumbo, who had been blacklisted. | must see |
| Spirit of St. Louis | drama | Jimmie Stewart | Charles Lindbergh story. | must see |
| Stalag 17 | war | William Holden, | Gritty Nazi prison camp. | must see |
| Star Wars | sci fi | Harrison Ford, Alec Guiness, George Lucas (dir) | Hard to believe it was done with hand animation, compared with modern computer-generated imagery. | must see |
| Starman | sci fi | Jeff Bridges, Karen Allen | Alien falls to Earth, must come go grips with his surroundings and survive until he can meet his rescue mission. A sensible, adult version of E.T. Best line: ''I observed you very carefully. Red means stop. Green means go. Yellow means go very fast.'' | must see |
| Sting, The | crime | Paul Newman, Robert Redford, Robert Shaw | A con game, but the mark can never know that he was conned. | must see |
| Stranger, The | noir | Orson Welles, Ida Lupino, Edward G. Robinson | Ex-Nazi hides in respectable Connecticut. Obscure but dandy. Welles really does evil roles well. Love the alarm clock. | must see |
| Sunset Boulevard | drama | William Holden, Gloria Swanson | I'm ready for my close-up now, Mr. DeMille. | must see |
| Taxi Driver | crime | Robert DeNiro, Harvey Keitel, Jodie Foster, Martin Scorsese (dir) | You talkin' to me? Early Scorsese flick, considered a classic. A taxi comes out of the fog. The driver tries to save a teenage hooker. All hell breaks loose. | must see |
| Ten Commandments, The | biblical | Charlton Heston, Yul Brynner | Charlton parts the Red Sea. | must see |
| Terminator, The | sci fi | Arnold Schwarzenegger, Linda Hamilton, James Cameron (dir) | The first of the Terminator series, one of the best B movies ever made. | must see |
| The 39 Steps | spy | Robert Donat, Alfred Hitchcock (dir) | Seems like first draft of Saboteur and North by Northwest. | must see |
| Them | sci fi | James Whitmore, Edmund Gwenn | Mutant ants, caused by atomic testing, eat cities. Giant bugs, dotty old scientist with beautiful daughter, one of the first of its type. | must see |
| They Live | sci fi | Meg Foster | Guy finds special sunglasses that let him see the aliens among us and their subliminal messages: ''Obey!'' ''Consume!'' | must see |
| Thin Man, The | crime | William Powell, Myrna Loy | Decadent drunks solve murder. The first of a long series. | must see |
| Thing (old), The | sci fi | James Arness (remember Sheriff Dillon?) | Flying saucer crashes near Arctic army station that is snowed in for the season. They find the body. Oops, it isn"t quite dead. The vegetable bites back. B&W. | must see |
| Third Man, The | noir | Orson Welles, Joseph Cotton | Welles's version of Graham Greene novel. Wonderful music. Watch it down to the last second. | must see |
| Three Days of the Condor | spy | Robert Redford, Faye Dunaway, Max von Sydow, Cliff Robertson, John Houseman, Sidney Pollack (dir) | Accidental amateur spy. Everyone wants to kill him, of course. Fabulous cast. A top-ten political thriller flick on every list. | must see |
| Thunderheart | crime | Val Kilmer, Sam Shepard, Graham Greene | Murder on an Indian reservation during something like the Wounded Knee uprising. The FBI sends in an Indian agent to show their sensitivity, ha ha. The locals call him "the Washington Redskin". | must see |
| To Catch a Thief | crime | Cary Grant, Grace Kelly, Alfred Hitchcock (dir) | Jewel robberies on the Riviera. When Hitchcock first saw Grace Kelly in the evening gown, he famously quipped, "There's hills in them thar gold." | must see |
| To Kill a Mockingbird | drama | Gregory Peck | Lawyer defends black man in the South. | must see |
| Top Secret | comedy | Val Kilmer | Sort of an early draft of Airplane. Not so polished but funny. | must see |
| Topkapi | caper | Melina Mercouri, Peter Ustinov, Maximillian Schell, Robert Morley | Heart-stopping museum burglary. | must see |
| Topper | comedy | Cary Grant | May the ghosts be with you. | must see |
| Touch of Evil | noir | Orson Welles, Charlton Heston | Corrupt cop (Welles) frames another cop's (Heston's) wife. Extremely dark. | must see |
| Toy Story | animation | Pixar Studios, Tom Hanks | First Pixar animated feature film. | must see |
| Treasure of the Sierra Madre | western | Humphrey Bogart, Walter Huston, John Huston (dir) | Bogart is down-on-his-luck American in Mexico, takes up with others as a prospector. Gold fever makes men crazy. We don't need no stinkin' badges. | must see |
| Twelve Angry Men (old) | courtroom | Henry Fonda, Lee J. Cobb | Eleven guilty votes, one not guilty, hours of argument. Gripping. | must see |
| Twelve Monkeys | sci fi | Bruce Willis, Andy MacDowell, Brad Pitt | The world of the future is grim, grim. They have time travel that sorta works, complete with paradoxes. | must see |
| Two Jakes, The | crime | Jack Nicholson, Harvey Keitel, Jack Nicholson (dir) | Sequel to Chinatown. Much better than the average sequel. | must see |
| Unforgiven | western | Clint Eastwood, Gene Hackman, Richard Harris, Clint Eastwood (dir) | The West, but much closer to the way it actually was. Received Oscars for best picture and director. | must see |
| Usual Suspects, The | noir | Kevin Spacey, Gabriel Byrne | Evil genius conscripts team to pull off suicide job. ''The Devil's best trick was convincing was convincing people he doesn't exist.'' | must see |
| Victor Victoria | comedy | Julie Andrews, James Garner, Robert Preston, Alex Karras, Lesley Ann Warren | Gender confusion in the theatre, surprise, surprise. Good musical numbers. Julie Andrews is terrific. | must see |
| Village of the Damned (old) | sci fi | George Sanders | Perfect little blond space kids, monsters all, conceived on the same day. Teacher has to take care of the coven before they break out. | must see |
| Viva Zapata | bio | Marlon Brando, Anthony Quinn | The zealous peasant leader of the Mexican revolution. | must see |
| Wait Until Dark | crime | Audrey Hepburn, Alan Arkin | Blind woman versus really bad guys. | must see |
| Waking Life | animation | Richard Linklater, dir. | Combination of live action footage, interviews and other scenes, then animated in a style called 'digital rotoscoping' that outlines the figures and flattens the areas of color. Like some of the brokerage ads you've seen lately. | must see |
| War of the Worlds (old) | sci fi | Gene Barry | Scary version of H. G. Wells's scary story from the fifties. Much scarier than the remake, which is all special effects and no soul. | must see |
| West Side Story | musical | Natalie Wood, Rita Moreno | Romeo and Juliet in New York, by Leonard Bernstein. Arguably the best film version of a musical play. | must see |
| White Heat | crime | Jimmy Cagney, Edmund O'Brien | Classic Jimmy Cagney gangster flick. Undercover cop brings down brutal, marauding gang. The end is even more violent than Bonnie and Clyde. Top of the world, Ma! | must see |
| Who Is Killing the Great Chefs of Europe? | comedy | George Segal, Jaqueline Bisset, Robert Morley | Very obscure but very funny flick. Chefs murdered in the style of their most famous dishes, as advertised. | must see |
| Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? | drama | Richard Burton, Elizabeth Taylor, Mike Nichols (dir) | Marital discord from hell. Play by Edward Albee. | must see |
| Witness for the Prosecution | comedy | Charles Laughton, Tyrone Power, Marlene Dietrich, Elsa Lanchester, Alfred Hitchcock (dir) | Man accused of murder. Girlfriend gives him an alibi. Girlfriend is a great actress. Courtroom fun with double jeopardy. Twisty, twisty. | must see |
| Wizard of Oz, The | musical | Judy Garland | Follow the yellow brick road. | must see |
| Wolfman, The | sci fi | Lon Chaney, Jr. | A b&w classic in the old style. Tourist buys an item in an antique shop. A cane ... with a silver handle ... in the shape of a wolf. He has an encounter with a wolf and kills it. Or was it the gypsy? | must see |
| Wrong Trousers, The | animation | Wallace and Gromit, Nick Park | Hysterical claymation from the animator of Chicken Run. Wallace, gadget junkie and kludge inventor, and his faithful dog, Gromit, and their adventures with the remote control. Nick Park and Tim Burton (Nightmare Before Christmas, q.v.) show what animation is really capable of. | must see |
| Adventures of Robin Hood, The | swashbuckler | Errol Flynn | Leaping from tree to tree with bow and arrow! | should see |
| Alfie (old) | drama | Michael Caine | Ladykiller with no soul. | should see |
| Apartment, The | comedy | Jack Lemmon | For company execs to hold afternoon assignations. | should see |
| Beau Geste | war | Gary Cooper, Ray Milland | Three brothers in the Foreign Legion. | should see |
| Birth of a Nation | drama | 1915 silent, D. W. Griffith (dir) | The Civil War and the Klan during Reconstruction, unfortunately makes the Klan look heroic and useful. | should see |
| Bullitt | crime | Steve McQueen | Great San Francisco hill car chase. One of the first SF crime super-cop movies. Became a cliche. | should see |
| Bus Stop | drama | Marilyn Monroe | A crime in a storm always goes wrong. | should see |
| Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid | western | Paul Newman, Robert Redford | Western crime duo made pretty. | should see |
| Captain Blood | swashbuckler | Errol Flynn | Leaping from deck to deck with sword and knife! | should see |
| Courage Under Fire | war | Denzel Washington, Meg Ryan, Michael Moriarty, Matt Damon, Lou Diamond Phillips | Very good movie about modern war (first Persian Gulf War), and courage and betrayal. Denzel investigates a nomination for the Medal of Honor while fighting his own demons. | should see |
| Day of the Jackal, The (old) | spy | Edward Fox, Derek Jacobi | The most exciting spy/crime novel I have ever read, and a pretty good movie, too. | should see |
| Death Wish | crime | Charles Bronson | Vigilante fighting street crime in New York. The first of its type, followed by many others. | should see |
| Dr. Ehrlich"s Magic Bullet | drama | Edward G. Robinson | Great ealy biopic. German doctor discovers many good things, but is still reviled. Cures syphillis but has to defend himself against early product liability action. | should see |
| East of Eden | drama | James Dean, Julie Harris, Raymond Massey | Dysfunctional family before the term was coined. | should see |
| Grand Hotel | drama | ensemble | The first of the many-story ensemble cast movies. | should see |
| Great Dictator, The | comedy | Charlie Chaplin | The Little Tramp does Hitler | should see |
| Gunga Din | war | Cary Grant, Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. | Kipling story. | should see |
| History of Violence, A | crime | Viggo Mortensen, Ed Harris, William Hurt | Hitman from Boston quits the life, starts over. The old life finds him. He has to fight back to protect his family. Violence ensues. Intense performances. | should see |
| It Happened One Night | drama | Clark Gable, Claudette Colbert | Runaway socialite befriended by reporter. | should see |
| Last Picture Show | drama | Timothy Bottoms, Jeff Bridges, Cybill Shepherd | Larry McMurtry novel. | should see |
| Laura | crime | Gene Tierney, Dana Andrews, Vincent Price, Otto Preminger (dir) | Murder investigator falls in love with his idea of the victim. | should see |
| Lawrence of Arabia | epic | Peter O'Toole | Sand epic. 'If he were any prettier, it would have been Florence of Arabia.' | should see |
| Lust for Life | bio | Kirk Douglas, Anthony Quinn | Van Gogh and Gaugin. | should see |
| M | crime | Peter Lorre | Criminals hunt one of their own. | should see |
| Marty | drama | Ernest Borgnine | Whatever it is women want, I ain't got it. | should see |
| Metropolis | sci fi | 1927 silent, Fritz Lang (dir) | Class warfare in far future. | should see |
| Nell | drama | Jodie Foster, Liam Neeson, Natasha Richardson | Seriously touching movie. Amazing performances by Foster and Neeson. Girl grows up isolated, almost "wild-child" in North Carolina hills. "Don't weep for Nell. I have no greater sorrows than you." | should see |
| Play Misty for Me | crime | Clint Eastwood | Sadistic female stalker flick. | should see |
| Rebel without a Cause | drama | James Dean, Natalie Wood, Sal Mineo | New kid in town proves himself. Others die. | should see |
| Red River | western | John Wayne | Cattle drive. | should see |
| Roman Holiday | comedy | Gregory Peck, Audrey Hepburn | Runaway princess befriended by reporter. | should see |
| Searchers, The | western | John Wayne, Natalie Wood | Said to be the best of the genre. Father searches for daughter taken by indians years ago. | should see |
| Seven Year Itch, The | comedy | Marilyn Monroe | Family away, sexy neighbor. | should see |
| Snake Pit, The | drama | Olivia de Havilland | How did I get into this asylum? I don't belong here! | should see |
| Strangers on a Train | crime | Farley Granger, Ruth Roman, Leo G. Carroll | Let's trade murders, then we'll both have alibis. | should see |
| Tale of Two Cities, A | drama | dunno | The Dickens novel of the French Revolution. | should see |
| Twentieth Century, The | comedy | John Barrymore | Show biz types on a train ride. | should see |
| 48 Hours | crime | Nick Nolte, Eddie Murphy | Cop-buddy-bad-partner flick. | fun to see |
| Across the Universe | other | Julie Taymor (dir) | If you love the music of the Beatles, you have to see this. A simple love story using the music and images of that generation. | fun to see |
| Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai, The | comedy | John Lithgow, Jeff Goldblum | Doc Savage updated for the next generation. | fun to see |
| Barabbas | biblical, Roman | Anthony Quinn | You have the privilege to be the property of the Emperor Tiberius. | fun to see |
| Basic Instinct | crime | Michael Douglas, Sharon Stone | Murders that may have been written about long before. | fun to see |
| Blade Runner | sci fi | Harrison Ford | Future cops vs androids in one of the original punk future flicks. | fun to see |
| Bound | crime | Jennifer Tilly, Gina Gershon, Joe Pantoliano, Wachowski brothers (dir) | Laundering money, literally, and then stealing it. | fun to see |
| Brazil | comedy | Terry Gilliam (dir) | Hard to classify. | fun to see |
| Contact | sci fi | Jodie Foster, Matthew McConaughey | Good movie from book by Carl Sagan about first SETI message from the stars. | fun to see |
| Conversation, The | drama | Gene Hackman | Who bugs the bugger. Sort of an intro to Enemy of the State. | fun to see |
| Dave | comedy | Kevin Kline, Frank Langella, Sigourney Weaver, Ving Rhames, Ben Kingsley | U.S. President has a stroke. Advisers don't want to turn over power to the V.P. They find a double. He learns the part all too well. | fun to see |
| Demolition Man | sci fi | Sylvester Stallone, Sandra Bullock, Wesley Snipes | Cops and robbers in a future kinder, gentler, and very campy LA. | fun to see |
| Devil's Own, The | drama | Brad Pitt, Harrison Ford | The IRA, and attendant violence, comes to New York. This is not an American story with a happy ending. | fun to see |
| Die Hard | action | Bruce Willis | Eventually, *every*thing blows up. First of at least three movies in the series, all fun. | fun to see |
| Do the Right Thing | comedy | Spike Lee (dir) | Tough neighborhood to run a business in. | fun to see |
| Dogma | comedy | Ben Affleck, Matt Damon, Kevin Smith (dir) | Theology can be funny. Jay and Silent Bob help save the Universe. And imagine Alanis Morissette as God. | fun to see |
| Earth Girls Are Easy | comedy | Jeff Goldblum, Geena Davis, Jim Carrie, Damon Wayans | Spaceship lands in bimbo's swimming pool. Carrie's and Wayans's first movie exposure. | fun to see |
| F/X | crime | Bryan Brown, Brian Dennehy, Jerry Orbach | Use Hollywood-style special effects to commit a crime, then rub out the f/x guy | fun to see |
| Fame | drama | Irene Cara | NY high school for the performing arts. | fun to see |
| Fatal Instinct | comedy | Armand Assante, Sherilyn Fenn | Parody of Fatal Attraction and Basic Instinct put together. | fun to see |
| Father Goose | comedy | Cary Grant, Leslie Caron | Goody Two-Shoes and the Filthy Beast meet on WW2 Pacific island. | fun to see |
| Giant Behemoth, The | sci fi | dunno | Dino eats roller coaster. | fun to see |
| Good Will Hunting | drama | Matt Damon, Robin Williams, Ben Affleck | Very smart but very damaged kid can't connect with real people. | fun to see |
| Hard Day's Night, A | musical | John, Paul, George, and Ringo | Delightful farce. But if you can't name all four beatles in less than two seconds, you might not care much. | fun to see |
| Heaven Can Wait | drama | Warren Beatty, Jack Warden, Julie Christie, Dyan Cannon, Buck Henry | Man accidentally killed before his time, gets another chance. Remake of Heaven Knows, Mr. Allison | fun to see |
| High Sierra | crime | Humphrey Bogart | Atmospheric crime drama. | fun to see |
| House of Games | crime | Joe Mantegna, Lindsay Crouse, David Mamet (author and director) | Incredibly complicated con game plot turns too real. | fun to see |
| I'm Gonna Get You, Sucka | comedy | Keenan Ivory Wayans, Isaac Hayes, Jimmy Brown, Spike Lee (dir) | An urban hero needs his own theme music. Black heros go after The Man. | fun to see |
| In the Line of Fire | crime | Clint Eastwood, John Malkovich, Rene Russo | Ex black ops assassin wants to assassinate the President. | fun to see |
| Jeremiah Johnson | western | Robert Redford | Frontier man vs indians, incredible mountain scenery. | fun to see |
| Last Action Hero | sci fi | Arnold Schwarzenegger | Movie as reality, reality as movie, great fun. | fun to see |
| Ma and Pa Kettle | comedy | dunno | Dogpatch slapstick. Whole series. | fun to see |
| Moonstruck | comedy | Cher, Nicholas Cage, Olympia Dukakis, Vincent Gardenia | Cher as accountant with boring life meets madman Cage for affair. | fun to see |
| My Fair Lady | musical | Audrey Hepburn, Rex Harrison | Pygmalion with music. Broadway play. | fun to see |
| Nashville | drama | Robert Altman (dir) | Crazy country music business. | fun to see |
| No Way Out | spy | Kevin Costner, Gene Hackman | Politician accidentally kills his mistress, covers up, blames innocent man. Sorta. | fun to see |
| Noises Off | comedy | Michael Caine, Carol Burnett | Little-known but hysterically funny play within a play. | fun to see |
| Ring, The | horror | Naomi Watts | This movie should have a warning label for people with weak hearts. | fun to see |
| Robe, The | biblical, Roman | Richard Burton | Another biblical epic. Burton driven nuts by touching the robe. | fun to see |
| Romeo is Bleeding | crime | Gary Oldman, Lena Olin | Dirty cop versus the Bitch Queen of Hell. But boy is she gorgeous. | fun to see |
| Run Lola Run | sci fi? | dunno | What if...? Seconds can make a difference when you're really in a hurry. | fun to see |
| Sabrina (old) | drama | Humphrey Bogart, William Holden, Audrey Hepburn | Industrialist and the chauffeur's daughter. Better than the modern remake. | fun to see |
| Sea of Love | crime | Al Pacino, Ellen Barkin, John Goodman | Who is killing off the few remaining straight single men in New York? | fun to see |
| Sex, Lies, and Videotape | drama | James Spader, Andie MacDowell | Everybody is having an affair with everybody else. | fun to see |
| Shakespeare in Love | drama | Gwyneth Paltrow, Ben Affleck, Tom Stoppard (author) | Shakespeare has trouble writing the play, but succeeds. | fun to see |
| Shampoo | comedy | Warren Beatty, Julie Christie | Ladykiller with no soul. Hairdresser who listens to women, understands them to nail them all. | fun to see |
| Silent Running | sci fi | Bruce Dern | Tree-hugging in orbit around Saturn. | fun to see |
| Spaceballs | comedy | Mel Brooks, Bill Pullman, John Candy, Joan Rivers | Mel Brooks send-up of Star Wars characters. Less violently insane than Blazing Saddles but worth your time. | fun to see |
| State and Main | comedy | William H. Macy, Philip Seymour Hoffman, David Mamet (author and director) | Very funny Mamet craziness about trying to shoot a movie in a small town. | fun to see |
| Striptease | comedy | Demi Moore, Armand Assante, Burt Reynolds | Good movie version of great book by Carl Hiassen. Burt in Vaseline has to be seen. | fun to see |
| The Lives of Others | noir | Ulrich Muehe, Sebastian Koch | Chilling tale of the East German secret police (Stasi) spying on their own population. | fun to see |
| Thousand Clowns, A | comedy | Jason Robards, Jr. | Man hates the insipid, gosh 'n' golly, you betcha. | fun to see |
| Time Machine, The (old) | sci fi | Rod Taylor, Yvette Mimieux | Good version of H. G. Wells's story. | fun to see |
| Tom Jones | comedy | Albert Finney, Susannah York | Ladykiller with humor. | fun to see |
| Total Recall | sci fi | Arnold Schwarzenegger, Sharon Stone | Governor Arnie version of classi sci fi story We Can Remember It for You Wholesale. | fun to see |
| Videodrome | horror | James Woods | TV really does warp your mind. | fun to see |
| Walk like a Man | comedy | Howie Mandel | Boy raised by wolves, returns to society. Insane. | fun to see |
| Where the Buffalo Roam | comedy | Bill Murray, Peter Boyle | Bill Murray does Hunter Thompson (Uncle Duke for you Doonesbury fans) wonderfully. | fun to see |
| Day the Earth Stood Still, The (new) | sci fi | Keanu Reeves | Seriously stupid remake of what was a great movie. |
Comments and flames to the author. "Why use rational argument when there's a flame-thrower handy?" Hey, go ahead. I didn't exactly leave the gloves on when I wrote this.
Last edited 2007/10/23.
Copyright (C) 2003-2007 Richard Landau. All rights reserved.