Stanley Kramer’s funny, provocative, and poignant Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner from 1967 has been a hole in my viewing history for far too long. With the arrival of Sony’s release of Columbia Classics 4K Ultra HD Collection Volume 4, I was able to remedy that, and I was finally able to settle in and…
Tag: iconic
Robin Hood: Men in Tights (1993) – Mel Brooks
Mel Brooks skewers the legend of Robin Hood with his 1993 film Robin Hood: Men in Tights. None of the versions created are safe, and Cary Elwes is perfectly cast as the iconic hero that from its opening moments takes shots at everything, nothing is safe. Using the classic tale of Robin of Locksley coming…
Logan’s Run (1967) – William F. Nolan, and George Clayton Johnson
I loved the movie when I first saw Logan’s Run, I was too young to really understand what was going on, and while everyone my age was very excited over Farah Fawcett, this was my first introduction to Jenny Agutter, and I had one of my first crushes. I’ve seen the film a number of…
Indiana Jones and The Dial of Destiny (2023) – James Mangold
James Mangold is not Steven Spielberg. No one said he was. But stepping into a film series whose other four instalments were directed by Spielberg, comparisons will be drawn as Harrison Ford grabs his whip and fedora and settles into the iconic role of Indiana Jones one last time. There are lots of things to…
Close Encounters of the Third Kind: The Ultimate Visual History (2017) – Michael Klastorin
I remember the first time I watched Close Encounters of the Third Kind. It was 1984, it was my 13th birthday, I had read the fotonovel from the school library, was fascinated by the subject matter (I still am), and though I had seen the rubber toys in grocery stores when the film came out,…
Rocky (1976) – John G. Avildsen
From the horn fanfare created by Bill Conti to the fantastic steadicam work (a revolutionary reveal at the time), to an open, honest performance from Sylvester Stallone, 1976’s Rocky remains an iconic film, and the first ‘sports’ film to win the Best Picture Oscar. Stallone wrote the film and was heavily involved in its making,…
Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, Part 1 (2012) – Jay Oliva
The Dark Knight Returns is an iconic graphic novel, a story that redefined Batman in the 80s, and was, perhaps, the one adaptation that I was looking forward to most. I liked that the creative team knew to tell the story properly, they had to take their time with it, setting everything up, which meant…
Thief (1981) – Michael Mann
Michael Mann is a fantastic director. I’ve enjoyed everything I’ve seen by him, but for some reason, I had never gotten around to checking out his 1981 film, Thief, starring James Caan. Featuring Mann’s iconic shooting style, gritty, neon-lit city life, the film follows Frank (Caan), a master thief who is intent on pulling one…
Heat 2 (2022) – Michael Mann & Meg Gardiner
Iconic Holywood writer/director Michael Mann pairs up with acclaimed novelist Meg Gardiner to revisit and expand on the world of cop Vincent Hanna, thieves Neil McCauley and Chris Shiherlis and the pursuit of their goals before and after the events portrayed in the 1995 film. Coiled like a spring, this crime thriller ratchets up the…
The Natural (1984) – Barry Levinson
Barry Levinson and Robert Redford deliver one of the all time great baseball fairytales with their adaptation of Bernard Malamud’s stirring novel of the same name. Set in a gloriously rendered version of yesteryear, the film follows Roy Hobbs (Redford) the best ball player that ever was. The film gives us this hazy beautiful look…
The Mind Reels 