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 Year: 1946
Directors: Michael Powell & Emeric Pressburger
Cast: David Niven, Kim Hunter, Roger Livesey, Marius Goring, Raymond Massey.
Plot Outline: British bomber pilot Peter Carter radios an American WREN in his fatal last flight. But when his heavenly guide fails to find him an English pea soup fog, Carter miraculously survives his bailout with no chute, and meets his WREN (June) on the beach. When the guide comes to retrieve him, Peter challenges for an appeal, and then finds himself fighting for his life in a heavenly court, and in real life on an operating table.
Standouts: I adore this movie. I’m especially fond of movies that posit theories of what the afterlife will be like; here it is presented as a big beaurocracy in cold black & white, where survival is determined by invoices and numbers, and appeals. Life, which Peter Carter is loath to leave behind, is in vivid technicolor and ruled by love and passion. The courtroom scenes tend to bog the movie down a little bit, but it’s still a marvel. Kim Hunter is sweet, but the character isn’t given enough depth. Wonderful performances from David Niven and Roger Livesey.
 Year: 1978
Director: Randal Kleiser
Cast: John Travolta, Olivia Newton-John, Stockard Channing, Jeff Conway
Plot Outline: Danny Zuko, greaser and leader of the T-Birds, has a summer fling at the shore with good girl Sandy. When the two meet up again at Rydell High, will it be love forever, or splitsville? Also: drag races, sock hops, singing, dancing, etc.
Standouts: This was the first movie that I saw multiple times in the movie theatre — as a youngster, I had quite a crush on Mr. Travolta (I’m pleased to report that this has passed). Of course it is great fun to watch and sing along. But as a grown-up now, looking back on it, I wish they’d used more of the songs from the original stage show (my favorite, “Those Magic Changes,” is relegated to a background song at the dance), and that the other cast members had been allowed to keep their solos (e.g., “Greased Lightning” is supposed to be Kenickie’s number). Still tons of fun to watch. I watched it at home, but if you ever get a chance to see it in a theatre, definitely go for it — I’ve seen two revivals and it’s always a laugh.
 Year: 1956
Director: Charles Walters
Cast: Grace Kelly, Bing Crosby, Frank Sinatra, Celeste Holm
Plot Outline: Based on Philip Barry’s The Philadelphia Story, heiress Tracy Lord is to be wed in Newport, RI. Mucking up the proceedings are her ex-husband, C.K. Dexter Haven, and two reporters from Spy Magazine, come to do an exclusive on the wedding (in exchange for the removal of a dirty story on Tracy’s father).
Standouts: It’s not a patch on the original Philadelphia Story, which is superior in all ways. The funny lines don’t have as much punch, the deeper moments are pretty shallow. I love Sinatra and Crosby, but they’re not what I would call great actors. I must confess, though, that I adore Cole Porter’s songs, and seeing Sinatra & Crosby together is great fun. Also viewed with Dad while he was in town — this is one of Dad’s all-time faves.
 Year: 1959
Director: Alfred Hitchcock
Cast: Cary Grant, Eva Marie Saint, James Mason, Martin Landau
Plot Outline: Ad man Roger Thornhill is mistaken for espionage agent George Kaplan, and finds himself on the run from the law, on the run from enemy agents, and in a fight to clear his own name when he’s falsely accused of murder.
Standouts: So many bests here. My father was in town and we decided to give the blu-ray a try — the print looks fantastic, like it was shot yesterday. I didn’t get a chance to dig into any of the extras; it comes in a nice booklet with stills and stories. This movie represents Cary Grant at his absolute finest — all the wit and urbanity and charm that the critics always mention when speaking of Cary Grant. He insinuates himself effortlessly into one of my favorite movie characters, Thornhill — a Madison Ave type, whose ex-wives accuse him of leading “too dull a life,” and whose ability to think on his feet and adapt to each and every change coming at him — he’s so easy to root for, even though you can tell he’s a cad. Bribing his own mother. Eva Marie Saint is excellent too (my Dad said this was her best role), and James Mason as the dry villain, paired with Martin Landau as the closeted homosexual, sadistic sidekick — just a great bunch of characters and a fun group of actors to watch. At over two hours, the movie flies by like thirty minutes each time I see it. Great score, great script, mediocre plot, but great dialogue and marvelous performances.
 Year: 1993
Director: Harold Ramis
Cast: Bill Murray, Andie MacDowell, Chris Elliott
Plot Outline: Bastard weatherman Phil Connors is forced, by some bizarre unexplained phenomenon, to relive the same day over and over again — February 2nd, Groundhog Day.
Standouts: Still one of the most inventive stories I have ever seen on film, and I continue to wonder at it each time I see it. Question for those who have seen the movie: How long do you think Phil was stuck?
Previously reviewed: 8/17/08, 2/2/07, 9/5/05.
 Year: 1938
Director: Lloyd Bacon
Cast: Edward G. Robinson, Ruth Donnelly, Allen Jenkins, Bobby Jordan.
Plot Outline: When Prohibition is repealed, bootlegger Remy Marko announces to his gang that they are going straight and opening a brewery. There’s only one problem — his beer, which sold great when it was the only game in town, stinks. Now Marko has to contend with the bank calling in his note, his daughter’s expensive schooling and her cop fiancee, and the four dead bodies discovered at his country estate.
Standouts: Edward G. Robinson is pretty much always enjoyable, especially in comedies like these where he spoofs his tough guy gangster image. There’s a great cast of Warner Bros. tough guys like Allen Jenkins and Edward Brophy, and Dead End Kid Bobby Jordan. The plot is a little muddled; I think they tried to throw a little too much into the mix. But it’s fast-paced and breezy, and not a bad way to spend 85 minutes.
 Year: 1981
Director: Steven Spielberg
Cast: Harrison Ford, Karen Allen, Paul Freeman, Denholm Elliott.
Plot Outline: Archeologist and adventurer Indiana Jones teams up with a former flame in a race to recover the lost Ark of the Covenant before the Nazis get to it. Gee, when you put it like that, it sounds kind of dumb.
Standouts: There is nothing in this movie that’s not a standout. It’s quite simply the best work of Steven Spielberg’s long and storied career. It’s maybe a perfect movie, in fact. It’s got everything: adventure, humor, romance, Nazis, good vs. evil — all without being condescending or resorting to hideously simplistic character stereotypes. Well, true, the black trench-coated Nazi is pretty stereotypical, but Rene Belloch is a great layered villain with shades of grey about him. Indy is of course the perfect hero that makes you want to root for him, but Marion is his perfect foil — a tough gritty adventure heroine who is smart, funny, beautiful and awesome.
See it again and again, folks. It still to this day transports me back in time to summer 1981, sitting in the front row of a crowded movie theatre with my family, munching popcorn and cheering along our hero.
 Year: 2006
Director: Tarsem
Cast: Cantinca Utaru, Lee Pace
Plot Outline: (from IMDB) In a hospital on the outskirts of 1920s Los Angeles, an injured stuntman begins to tell a fellow patient, a little girl with a broken arm, a fantastical story about 5 mythical heroes. Thanks to his fractured state of mind and her vivid imagination, the line between fiction and reality starts to blur as the tale advances.
Standouts: This movie was recommended to me by my co-worker Tom — who is also responsible for my seeing Pan’s Labyrinth, so now I’m doubly indebted to him. The photography is lush and vivid, and while it’s a great spectacle and feast for the eyes, at its heart this is a very simple story about the tentative friendship between two damaged and sad people. Lee Pace makes a handsome hero with sufficient vulnerabilities, but the true standout is young Cantinca Utaru, who is a complete natural in front of the camera. Most of their scenes together appear to have been improvised. There are a few visual shout-outs to one of my favorite films of the last decade, Baraka. What I loved most about this movie was that I was never sure it was going to go next. Highly recommended.
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