After her brilliant career in a comedy duo with Mike Nichols, Elaine May made tentative progress as a director, making only four films between 1971 and 1987 (her last being the disastrous but underrated Ishtar). Released in 1972, The Heartbreak Kid (from a screenplay by Neil Simon) is widely considered her best work from behind the camera, and it's still one of the most accomplished--but least recognized--comedies of the 1970s.
Bill Murray does warmth in his most consistently effective post-Stripes comedy, a romantic fantasy about a wacky weatherman forced to relive one strange day over and over again, until he gets it right. Snowed in during a road-trip expedition to watch the famous groundhog encounter his shadow, Murray falls into a time warp that is never explained but pays off so richly that it doesn't need to be.
A stirring example of courage and the indomitable human spirit, for many John Sturges's The Great Escape is both the definitive World War II drama and the nonpareil prison escape movie. Featuring an unequalled ensemble cast in a rivetingly authentic true-life scenario set to Elmer Bernstein's admirable music, this picture is both a template for subsequent action-adventure movies and one of the last glories of Golden Age Hollywood.
Brimming with the energy, passion and music that rocked a nation, Hair is an entertaining and powerful tribute to the turbulent spirit of the '60s. Brilliantly recreated by Oscar-winning director Milos Forman and screenwriter Michael Weller, this vibrant screen version of the Broadway phenomenon ranks "among the best film musicals" (The Hollywood Reporter). Fresh from the farm, Claude Bukowski (Savage) arrives in New York City for a date with the Army Introduction Board, only to walk into a hippie 'happening' in Central Park and fall in love with the beautiful Sheila (D'Angelo).
All aboard for runaway action and suspense in this riveting masterpiece from writer/director Michael Crichton! Starring Sean Connery, Donald Sutherland and Lesley-Anne Down, it's a "spine-tingling and suavely performed adventure," (The Hollywood Reporter) based on history's first train robbery. Filmed by Academy Award-winning cinematographer Geoffrey Unsworth, this "ingenious" (Variety) and "wonderful" (Gene Shalit) crime caper delivers mile-a-minute thrills and breathtaking excitement.
Oscar nominee Kate Hudson (Almost Famous) and Matthew McConaughey (A Time To Kill) give the battle of the sexes an outrageously unexpected twist in their runaway comedy hit the Daily News applauds as "Hilarious"! As the "How to..." columnist for trendy Composure Magazine, Andie Anderson (Hudson) agrees to write a first-hand account about what it takes to drive a man out of your life...in exactly 10 days. At the same time, eligible ad agency bachelor Benjamin Barry (McConaughey) accepts a high-stakes bet that he can lure any woman into falling head-over-heels in love with him...
Clint Eastwood's second film as a director finds the celebrated action star returning to his familiar Old West stomping grounds and his internationally acclaimed role of "The Man With No Name". This time, The Stranger (Eastwood) mysteriously appears out of the heat waves of the desert and rides into the lawless, sin-ridden town of Lago. After making a name for himself with a string of blazing gun battles, The Stranger is hired by the townspeople to provide protection from three ruthless gunmen just out of jail.
Mel Brooks's 1981, three-part comedy--set in the Stone Age, the Roman Empire, and the French Revolution--is pure guilty pleasure. Narrated by Orson Welles and featuring a lot of famous faces in guest appearances (beyond the official cast), the film opens well with Sid Caesar playing a caveman, then moves along to the unlikely but somehow hilarious juxtaposition of Caesar's soldiers (the other Caesar, not Sid) with pot humor, and ends on a dumb-funny note in the French bloodbath. This is a take-it-or-leave-it movie, and it works best if you're in a take-it-or-leave-it mood.
As paranoid cop Del Spooner, Will Smith (Independence Day, Men in Black) displays both his trademark quips and some impressive pectoral muscles in I, Robot. Only Spooner suspects that the robots that provide the near future with menial labor are going to turn on mankind--he's just not sure how. When a leading roboticist dies suspiciously, Spooner pursues a trail that may prove his suspicions. Don't expect much of a connection to Isaac Asimov's classic science fiction stories; I, Robot, the action movie, isn't prepared for any ruminations on the significance of artificial intelligence.
Gary Oldman, Jeroen Krabbe, Isabella Rossellini and Valeria Golino star in Immortal Beloved, a mesmerizing mystery based on the tumultuous real life of Ludwig van Beethoven. Oldman gives a tour de force performance as the passionate, volatile genius who inspired love and hatred in equal measure. Whether seducing regal followers or criticizing the ruling class, Beethoven made many enemies. But he also had one true love -- the unnamed Immortal Beloved mentioned in an enigmatic letter discovered upon his death.
