I was thirteen when Top Gun came blazing to the big screen in 1986. I absolutely loved the film and saw it three or four times during its original theatrical run. Tom Cruise was buff, the planes were cool, and the soundtrack rocked; in my newly minted teenage mind Top Gun had all the ingredients …
Flashdance arrived in U.S theaters on April 15, 1983. Critics hated the film, but the public loved it. Just ten-years old at the time, I remember how torn sweatshirts and leg warmers became must-haves. Because the movie was rated R, I didn’t get to see it in theaters, but rented it a couple of years …
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Released in 1969, Me, Natalie is very much a film of the 1960’s, but dealing with female late adolescence. A subject nearly anyone who’s ever been there, can relate too in some way. Scripted by A. Martin Zweiback, from a story by Stanley Shapiro, Me, Natalie stars Oscar winner Patty Duke (The Valley of the …
One of the biggest influences on Mel Brooks’ spoof Blazing Saddles, Destry Rides Again takes place in the town of Bottleneck, corrupt from the mayor on down. Marlene Dietrich plays Frenchy, the local saloon owner who quietly helps the criminals cheat and steal their way to money and power. The town has gambling, drinking, and …
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Editor’s Note: Elements of this piece appeared in a review for an earlier release of this film–RW] Released just four years after Cruise’s mega-hit Top Gun, Days of Thunder follows largely the same premise–except here, the speed machines are race cars instead of jet fighters. Days of Thunder is practically interchangeable with Top Gun. You’ll …
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Released in 1963, Sunday in New York is the kind of lukewarm sex comedy–pre-sexual revolution–only that era could produce. Eileen, played by a young Jane Fonda, is a virgin from Albany annoyed by the fact that all her suitors end up trying to take her to bed. Afraid that her relationship with a handsome heir …
By the end of the 1960’s, Bette Davis big screen appearances were increasingly rare. Released in 1970, Connecting Rooms explores the relationship between three people who have rooms in a rundown London boarding house. Davis plays Wanda Fleming, a lonely cellist who is flattered by the attention of a much younger fellow tenant Mickey Hollister …
Released in 1975, the TV movie Love Among the Ruins marked the first-and only-time acting royalty Katharine Hepburn and Laurence Olivier would work together onscreen. Helmet by Hollywood veteran George Cukor, who had directed Hepburn in eight films, including such classics as Holiday, The Philadelphia Story, and her 1934 screen debut Bill of Divorcement. Their …
[Editor’s Note: Elements of this piece appeared in a review for an earlier release of this film–RW] Few directors have made a commercially successful career out of the erotic thriller. Fewer still have got critical raves for their work along the way. English director/screenwriter/producer Adrian Lyne is widely known and respected for films that deal …
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The British New Wave (or “kitchen sink drama movement”) was an innovative, but brief cinematic movement during the late fifties and early sixties. These films, usually in black and white, focused on class and social issues. Billy Liar directed by John Schlesinger, is cited on many best British Films of All Time lists. Billy Fisher …
