The 1974 movie Gold (not to be confused with the later Matthew McConaughey film of the same title) was one of two action movies Roger Moore made with director Peter Hunt in the 70s, in between James Bond assignments. (The other being Shout At The Devil). Its a terrific story, if one can get beyond…
Horror Express
Horror Express is one of my favourite 1970s horror movies. This Spanish-British co-production stars both Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing as friendly rivals (plus Telly Savalas as a Cossack) and is set in 1906 aboard the Trans-Siberian express train. An alien monster who can move between bodies by possessing its host is on the loose….
The Heroes of Telemark
This 1965 WWII “men on a mission” film is based on the real-life exploits of a small team of Norwegian saboteurs, who were tasked with preventing the Nazis from manufacturing ‘heavy water’, essential for production of an atomic bomb. Kirk Douglas and Richard Harris offer strong chins and a miso-mash of accents as the leads….
Magnum Force
Magnum Force was the second (and narrowly second best) of the Dirty Harry movies. Clint Eastwood is on great form as Harry, this time facing down vigilante motorcycle cops who (spoiler alert) turn out to be led by his own uptight boss (Hal Holbrook). A young David Soul plays one of the cops, pre Starsky…
They won’t believe me!
“A fast ride to ruin – on a one-way track of terror!” This is one of those film noir B movies that I’ve never seen, and quite likely never will, but I love the OTT way they market it, which is why I bought the poster. Robert Young stars as a doomed anti-hero on trial…
The Graduate
“Here’s to you, Mrs Robinson….” Simon and Garfunkel’s famous song is one of the many delights of this 1967 classic. It is the movie that made a star of Dustin Hoffman, and earned director Mike Nichols an Oscar. Hoffman plays an aimless 21 year old college graduate who is seduced Ann Bancroft’s older married woman,…
Escape from Alcatraz
Escape from Alcatraz is one of the grittier movies Clint Eastwood has starred in. It was the fifth and final collaboration between him and director Don Siegal. There’s no Dirty Harry-style catchphrases here in this true(ish) story of allegedly the only convicts to ever escape from Alcatraz island. Its a fairly dour affair, as Clint…
Brazil
Terry Gilliam’ famously fought a public battle against studio meddling over Brazil, particularly regarding an enforced happy ending. Heavily influenced by both Orwell’s 1984 and Kafka, the movie stars Jonathan Pryce as a low level bureaucrat, who becomes lost between his dreams and reality in a hyper-stylised city, somewhere between film noir and Lang’s Metropolis….
Dead Of Night
British film studio Ealing is famous for making many classic comedies (Whisky Galore, Passport To Pimlico etc) in the 40s. They also, strangely, made one of the greatest horror movies of all time. Dead Of Night is a ‘portmanteau’ style horror – later popularised in the 60s by another British studio, Amicus (Tales From The…
Pearl Harbor
Back in 2001, I was living in Japan. It was there I had the somewhat surreal experience of attending the world premiere of Pearl Harbor, in the company of director Michael Bay, star Ben Affleck, and around 40,000 Japanese. (I have no idea quite what they made of it). It is, frankly, a crappy movie…