An almost
perfect movie ~ visually lush, with an excellent script and first
rate performances. Inspired an endless succession of imitators,
like The Magnificent Seven, Battle Beyond The Stars and so on.
One of the best
films from the best visual storyteller now working in film. This
film is available in English, but the Japanese version (without
subtitles) is far superior. It can be enjoyed and followed entirely
in Japanese, without knowing the language! Features the bus-stop
scene which is about as perfect a moment of film as can be seen.
A gripping
family and crime drama set in West Texas in the modern day. The
finest American film of the year when it came out. Just about
perfect ~ with some truly stunning cinematography. Plus it has Chris
Cooper and Elizabeth Pena in great performances.
An excellent Western from the director of Evil Dead.
Got hammered by the critics, but it's shot near Tucson, has a
fabulous cast and (I think) some depth in it. Most people were put
off by Sharon Stone's gunfighter, but I loved it. Part of the
inspiration for the character of Thyatis in OATH OF EMPIRE.
You've seen
BladeRunner even if you haven't seen it... This film, a box-office
failure when it came out, has stamped its visual style on our image
of the future. The kick-off of the Cyberpunk future then explicated
in print by William Gibson. Unfortunately it loses an enormous
amount when seen on the small screen. Buy a bigger TV!
The
Big Sleep (starring Bogart & Bacal, written by Henry
Faulkner and Leigh Brackett)
A film noir
classic, but I love it most for the snapshot it gives of late-1940's
America ~ a society where men and women, under the enormous manpower
pressure of WW2, had achieved a startling equality. If you watch the
society in the background of this movie, you'll realize what a
disaster the 1950's were to America.
A gruesome
little film that fuses the pre-modern horror of H.P. Lovecraft to
the paranoia of the X-Files. Stunning visual effects (though not for
the squeamish!) and Kurt Russel's best performance ever. Often
imitated by subsequent horror films. And... I think this one is far
superior to Howard Hawk's original version (which was not a bad film
either!).
Want to see
what directly inspired Star Trek and Lost In Space? See this movie ~
a rare foray into live action big-budget SF by Disney in the 1950's.
This movie gave us concepts of the future that you still watch each
week (on the ST franchise and Babylon Five). Oh, and the original
story is by some English hack named Shakespeare...
A great
historical war movie set in South Africa. The classic "small
band of men besieged by tens of thousands of natives" movie.
Michael Caine's first (and best) film. Makes me root for both sides,
which is pretty good film-making, I think.
The visual and
stylistic successor to Blade Runner. This is the second best of the
Japanese anime (with Miyazaki's films coming first) and a great
action film. Unfortunately, you can't really understand everything
that's going on without reading the 60-volume manga the movie is
based on.
The best
horror-comedy film ever made. Gruesome, hysterical and just plain
weird. Stars Bruce Campbell as the fabulous Ash and brings (like The
Thing) the H. P. Lovecraft oeuvre into the mainstream with a heavy
helping of gore.
A classic of
British Hammer Films SF -- excavations in London unearth an ancient
ship. Features Prof. Quatermass - a daring rocket scientist - who
unravels the mystery. Was cribbed by Steven King as The
Tommyknockers.
Now, quit
laughing! Besides the cool special effects, the naked girl (Mathilda
May), the SAS and the destruction of London by zombie vampires -
this homage to the Hammer SF films of the 50's and 60's is very
entertaining and super-campy. A mismash of both the first Quatermass
movie and Colin Campbell's novel "The Space Vampires".
One of the best
WW2 movies ever made, and a very funny film to boot. An all-star
cast, great tanks and battles, a bank full of gold, and - of course
- some catchy singing numbers. Notorious for being the first movie
shown in each Fall semester at the University of Arizona's Gallagher
Theatre.
The biggest budget Chan film
and my favorite, though I can't really say why. A racing movie with
the usual hijinks. Really, I aught to like Drunken Master II better,
but this is always the one I think of first.
A gem of a police procedural
thriller. Toshiro Mifune and a fine Japanese cast. Perfect pacing
with great views of common Japanese life in the 1950's on the poor
side of the tracks.
Actors
and Actresses
Harrison Ford
(Star Wars, Indiana Jones, Jack Ryan)
Jennifer Connelly
(Labyrinth, Dark City, Requiem for a Dream)