![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
![]() A spoonful of sugar makes the medicine go down. The sugar: a terrific love story. The medicine: the wanton cruelty and dehumanization endemic to the nascent Soviet Union. Director David Lean – King of the Epics – reunited with Omar Sharif and several essential crew members from "Lawrence of Ar…
WikChip Video
They don't make 'em like they used to.
|
||||||
![]() Essential though Patton may be – as war movie, as American history, as biopic – it’s not the epochal statement the Academy thought they were canonizing with seven Oscars in 1971, including Best Picture. Back then Frances Ford Coppola’s script seemed subversive, undermining American militarism …
WikChip Image
If I had my way, I'd meet Rommel F2F.
|
||||||
![]() A deserved classic, this aptly titled movie features giant stars, a ginormous mansion incongruously stuck in the heart of the giant state of Texas, a running time that exceeds three hours and giant story elements. It all works amazingly well, never seeming drawn-out or boring, notwithstanding a …
WikChip Image
Legendary stars in a provocative pose.
|
||||||
![]() Popcorn movies should all be this strong. Channeling Indiana Jones’ 1940s movie tropes, Marvel’s First Avenger proves engaging from the outset, exciting from the middle and exhilarating to the end. Notwithstanding a pair of underwhelming leads, the overall strong cast, irony-free patriotism …
WikChip Image
Devastating parody of Nazi racial ins...
|
||||||
![]() The Coen Brothers are writers as much as directors, making Barton Fink – a satiric tribute to tortured writers and the demonic pull of Hollywood – more than a little self-reverential. Oops, did I say reverential? Referential, self-referential. Either way, it’s one of their best movies, not…
WikChip Video
"It's the carrot that wags the dog." ...
|
||||||
![]() Considered by many to contain Tyrone Power’s finest performance as an actor(admittedly not setting the bar too high here) “NIghtmare Alley” is a noirish psychological thriller about an ambitious sleazebag who enters the world of carnys with the goal of getting really good as one of those phony fo… |
||||||
![]() Defiance is a white horse of a movie, telling an improbable and previously little known story that seems too good to be true. Anglo-Saxon star Daniel Craig playing Jewish partisan Tuvia Bielski adds to the fable. A must see for Jews and other WWII buffs, the movie delivers plenty of action, i…
WikChip Image
Action Hero: The real Tuvia Bielski
|
||||||
![]() Preston Sturges made RomComs that are funny, sexy, glamorous, clever and sophisticated. The Lady Eve proves the point. It still works three quarters of a century later, especially with the proto-modern Barbara Stanwyck as the minx in the middle of a screwball con-game extraordinaire. Modern…
WikChip Image
The Lady Eve dress by Edith Head
|
||||||
![]() Devil In A Blue Dress is a twofer: a damn good neo-noir movie and an excellent 1940s L.A. period piece, from an African-American POV. Throw in a prime Denzel Washington performance and you’ve got a great movie, one that stands the test of time. Pity they never made a sequel. Taken from Walte…
WikChip Video
Denzel on Devil In A Blue Dress
|
||||||
![]() Judith features Gentile moviestars playing Jewish freedom fighters during Israel’s War of Independence. It’s amazing how glamorous a story centered on early kibbutz life at the end of the British Mandate can be. To that end, Judith is a fabulous Sophia Loren movie. The great Loren stars a…
WikChip Image
Kibbutznick Extraordinaire
|