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Animal House is many things: riotously funny movie, cultural touchstone, seminal hard-R teen comedy. Those make it a font of archetypes and catchphrases, including Bluto (“Seven years of college down the drain.”), Neidermeyer (“A Pledge Pin!”), Dean Wormer (“DOUBLE SECRET PROBATION!”), Flounde…

Mel Brooks parodied Alfred Hitchcock movies in High Anxiety with middling results, though perhaps the movie simply hasn’t aged well over time. It remains modestly funny all these decades later, with the added value of now being a time capsule from the late 70s, back when Hyatt Regency atriums w…

John Wayne’s final movie serves as a benediction for gunfighters at the dawn of the 20th Century, and for Wayne’s career as a celluloid gunfighter. It does the latter better than the former, making it more of an obligation for fans of the Duke than for Western fans generally.

The Shootist b…

Art Carney reached late career nirvana as Harry the cat lover in Harry and Tonto. Tonto? His ginger tabby. I prefer gray tabbies, so kinda understand his ardor. Carney won his sole Oscar as a gray-haired Best Actor.

Paul Mazursky’s second big directorial hit after “Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice”…

Thunderbolt And Lightfoot still entertains nearly half a century after it premiered. The star power of Clint Eastwood and a young Jeff Bridges see to that, as does a cockamamy story about Montana bank robbers.

Mostly it’s a first-rate buddy picture, not unlikely buddies but very likely budd…