The Devil’s Advocate (1997) – Taylor Hackford

The final recommendation from the Great Movies – 100 Years of Film book for my screening of La Belle et La Bete is this 1997 legal thriller with supernatural overtones that lets Keanu Reeves take on a scene-chewing Al Pacino. Charlize Theron co-stars as Reeves’ wife Mary Ann, while Keanu plays Kevin Lomax, a not…

Quantum Leap (1991) – Justice and Permanent Wave

Sam (Scott Bakula) is less than happy to find where he has leaped to in Justice. Penned by Toni Graphia and with an original airdate of 9 October, 1991, Sam is Clyde, and he’s just been inducted into the Klu Klux Klan – people who stand for everything Sam’s family taught him to fight. It’s…

Quantum Leap (1991) – Shock Theater, and The Leap Back

Season 3 of Quantum Leap comes to an end this week with the stellar episode, Shock Theater. Written by Deborah Pratt (surprise, surprise, seeing how good it is), the season finale aired 22 May, 1991. And oh, boy… is it good. It’s 3 October, 1954 and Sam (Scott Bakula) finds himself in the body of…

Quantum Leap (1991) – Heart of a Champion, and Nuclear Family

Sam is one part of a wrestling team, when he leaps into Terry Sammis in Heart of a Champion. With an airdate of 8 May, 1991, Sam finds himself in all manner of trouble in this script by Tommy Thompson. It’s 23 July, 1955 and Terry and his brother Ronny (Jerry Bossard) are professional wrestlers,…

Secret Agent (1936) – Alfred Hitchcock

  I dive back into the Thriller genre for the Great Movies – 100 Years of Film book, and the title this time around is North by Northwest, which I’ve previously covered for the blog, but not all the recommendations that follow it have been reviewed here on the blog. So I’m about to dig…

The Stepford Wives (2004) – Frank Oz

  Sigh. You’d think that a film boasting the likes of Frank Oz behind the camera, and Nicole Kidman, Christopher Walken, Bette Midler, Jon Lovitz, Glenn Close and Matthew Broderick in front would constitute a better film. But you can tell just by the casting that the film is slipping away from the dark conformist…

The Stepford Wives (1975) – Bryan Forbes

  Katharine Ross headlines in William Goldman’s adaptation of Ira Levin’s novel, which is the next stop on the Sci-Fi Chronicles book. Ross is Joanna Eberhart, a smart, beautiful woman, who is much put-upon by her husband, Walter (Peter Masterson), who wants his wife to be more ‘ahem’ traditional. Packing up the family, they leave…

Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith (2005) – George Lucas

  The Sci-Fi Chronicles brings me to the final entry in the Prequel Trilogy, and arguably the strongest despite some troubling moments. While still suffering from the too clean, too digital, green-screen EVERYTHING, this one feels the closest to a Star Wars movie, and that opening sequence through the space battle over Coruscant is highly…