Category: Hollywood

Casablanca: This Bogart-Bergman classic mixes varied themes & genres to create a heady cocktail of classical Hollywood entertainment

Casablanca(1942) is undoubtedly the most beloved American motion picture ever made. With a dream cast top lined by Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman and a crew led by eminent director Michael Curtiz and producer Hal B. Wallis and an endlessly quotable script designed by more than five writers, the movie’s genius lay in its ability … Continue reading Casablanca: This Bogart-Bergman classic mixes varied themes & genres to create a heady cocktail of classical Hollywood entertainment →

Advertisement

Magnum Force: Clint Eastwood’s ‘Dirty Harry’ battles ultra-vigilantes in this expansive, episodic and very entertaining sequel

Magnum Force(1973), directed by Ted Post, is the very successful sequel to the iconic 1971 crime thriller, Dirty Harry. Clint Eastwood returns as the renegade-cop, Harry Callahan, in its relatively subdued version; the filmmakers have created a quartet of ultra-vigilante super-cops as the antagonists to tone down the criticism that Harry faced in the original … Continue reading Magnum Force: Clint Eastwood’s ‘Dirty Harry’ battles ultra-vigilantes in this expansive, episodic and very entertaining sequel →

Fort Apache: John Wayne and Henry Fonda represents the two sides of the American soldier in this magnificent first film in John Ford’s ‘Cavalry’ trilogy

Fort Apache starring John Wayne and Henry Fonda is the first film in what became John Ford's 'Cavalry' trilogy. It's one of John Ford's most balanced, racially sensitive westerns that tries to understand the Native American issue even as it pays homage to the Army Who better than an Irishman can understand the Indians, while … Continue reading Fort Apache: John Wayne and Henry Fonda represents the two sides of the American soldier in this magnificent first film in John Ford’s ‘Cavalry’ trilogy →

The Big Sleep: Howard Hawks’ steamy Noir classic is an eternal cinematic monument to the love between Bogart and Bacall

Humphrey Bogart co-starred with his beloved wife Lauren Bacall as the iconic detective, Philip Marlowe, in Howard Hawks' 1946 film adaptation of Raymond Chandler's The Big Sleep. “Bogart can be tough without a gun,Also he has a sense of humor that contains the grating undertone of contempt. [Alan] Ladd is hard, bitter and occasionally charming, but … Continue reading The Big Sleep: Howard Hawks’ steamy Noir classic is an eternal cinematic monument to the love between Bogart and Bacall →

Three Days of the Condor: The definitive Robert Redford star vehicle is also a first rate paranoid thriller

Three Days of Condor(1975), starring Robert Redford, Max Von Sydow and Faye Dunaway and directed by Sydney Pollock,  is a brilliantly crafted conspiracy  thriller as well as a terrific star-vehicle for Robert Redford Robert Redford is my most favorite modern movie star . And I'd put MOVIE STAR in capital letters, because Redford is not … Continue reading Three Days of the Condor: The definitive Robert Redford star vehicle is also a first rate paranoid thriller →

Chinatown: Nicholson is great, Huston is iconic and Dunaway’s at her greatest in Robert Towne and Roman Polanski’s Neo-noir classic

Chinatown(1974), directed by Roman Polanski, written by Robert Towne and starring Jack Nicholson, Faye Dunaway and John Huston, is one of those rare gems from New Hollywood cinema of the '70s, whose appeal remains undiminished even after 4 decades (Spoilers are included) Post the collapse of the old Hollywood studio system in the early 1960s, … Continue reading Chinatown: Nicholson is great, Huston is iconic and Dunaway’s at her greatest in Robert Towne and Roman Polanski’s Neo-noir classic →

Moonraker: Roger Moore’s James Bond goes on a space odyssey in the grandest and the most grandly absurd of all Bond films

Moonraker(1979) is the eleventh James Bond film and the fourth starring Roger Moore as Ian Fleming's James Bond . This is the kind of ridiculous and ridiculously entertaining Bond spectacle that's unthinkable in today's times. After ruling the silver screen in the 1960s, James Bond was facing some tough times in the 70s. Bond, brought … Continue reading Moonraker: Roger Moore’s James Bond goes on a space odyssey in the grandest and the most grandly absurd of all Bond films →

On Her Majesty’s Secret Service: George Lazenby’s sole outing as James Bond resulted in the most romantic Bond film

On Her Majesty's Secret Service(1969) was the sixth James Bond film. It introduced a new James Bond and it was very different from any Bond film that came before or after it. On Her Majesty's Secret Service(OHMSS), the sixth James Bond film from Harry Saltzman and Albert R. Broccoli's Eon Productions, started off with a … Continue reading On Her Majesty’s Secret Service: George Lazenby’s sole outing as James Bond resulted in the most romantic Bond film →

Once upon a time in Hollywood: Quentin Tarantino’s love letter to 1960s Hollywood is his most satisfying film since Pulp Fiction.

Once upon a time in Hollywood, featuring an all star-cast of Leonardo Di Caprio, Brad Pitt, Al Pacino etc..., is Quentin Tarantino's most satisfying and most personal  film since Pulp Fiction. He has gone beyond his quirky Tarantinoisms to craft a technically competent, mature film that expands his range as a filmmaker (Mild spoilers included) … Continue reading Once upon a time in Hollywood: Quentin Tarantino’s love letter to 1960s Hollywood is his most satisfying film since Pulp Fiction. →

The Missouri Breaks: Marlon Brando gives a wildly entertaining performance opposite Jack Nicholson in this bizarre and Fascinating Western

Marlon Brando and Jack Nicholson teamed up for the first and only time in the quirky and fascinating 1976 Western, The Missouri Breaks, directed by Arthur Penn. After conquering the world of theater in the 1940's and the world of movies in the 1950's - with a totally new 'method' that redefined the craft of … Continue reading The Missouri Breaks: Marlon Brando gives a wildly entertaining performance opposite Jack Nicholson in this bizarre and Fascinating Western →

Sorcerer: William Friedkin’s visceral, minimalist epic is a mesmerizing exercise in pure cinema

When William Friedkin's  Sorcerer came out in 1977, it was rejected outright by both audience and critics. It was a very expensive, ambitious and idiosyncratic film , whose failure ,almost destroyed the career of Friedkin  But now , with the release of a restored print of the film personally supervised by Friedkin, it has  finally … Continue reading Sorcerer: William Friedkin’s visceral, minimalist epic is a mesmerizing exercise in pure cinema →

True Grit: John Wayne piled on the pounds, put on an eye patch, and finally won an Oscar

John Wayne passed away on June 11 1979. Exactly a decade before that, on July 11 1969, "True Grit" was released. It's the film that finally won Wayne an Oscar for his acting after almost forty years in film business. I was getting anxious because there was this young guycalled Clint Eastwood making Westerns in … Continue reading True Grit: John Wayne piled on the pounds, put on an eye patch, and finally won an Oscar →

White Heat : James Cagney made it to the Top of the World in one of the greatest screen performances ever

James Cagney gave a performance of a lifetime as gangster Cody Jarrett in Raoul Walsh's classic film White Heat (1949) that completes 70 years.   Made It Ma, Top of the world One of the most famous exit lines in movies, spoken by the great James Cagney in the 1949 film White Heat. James Cagney … Continue reading White Heat : James Cagney made it to the Top of the World in one of the greatest screen performances ever →

Unforgiven: Gene Hackman’s brilliant performance as the self-righteous antagonist is at the core of Clint Eastwood’s revisionist western classic

Unforgiven(1992), which Clint Eastwood directed and acted in, is most probably his final western and was a major milestone in his career. It finally won him the respect of his peers as the film was decorated with Oscars for best picture and director, as well as a supporting actor Oscar for Gene Hackman for his … Continue reading Unforgiven: Gene Hackman’s brilliant performance as the self-righteous antagonist is at the core of Clint Eastwood’s revisionist western classic →

The Towering Inferno: At the height of new-Hollywood, two golden age studios joined hands to create the ultimate film spectacle that remains the crown jewel in Disaster film genre

Though 1970s is considered to be the height of dark, serious auteur-driven cinema, Two old-Hollywood studios, Warner Bros. and Twentieth Century-Fox joined hands to make the big budget spectacle, The Towering Inferno(1974). The spectacular disaster film brought Steve McQueen and Paul Newman together on screen for the first time,  along with an assortment of stars … Continue reading The Towering Inferno: At the height of new-Hollywood, two golden age studios joined hands to create the ultimate film spectacle that remains the crown jewel in Disaster film genre →

Touch of Evil: A baroque and wildly innovative Orson Welles masterpiece that came at the end of the golden era of film Noir

Touch of Evil(1958) is one of  Orson Welles' greatest films and it's perhaps the last great film Noir from the classic period. The Film  was butchered by the studio at the time of its release, but has since been restored to its intended form.   Everything about me is a contradiction, and so is everything … Continue reading Touch of Evil: A baroque and wildly innovative Orson Welles masterpiece that came at the end of the golden era of film Noir →

Psycho : Hitchcock’s Macabre masterpiece that became a pop cultural phenomenon

Alfred Hitchcock designed his 1960 film Psycho as a personal, passion project devoid of any stars or a big budget simply to have some fun  and indulge in his passion for pure cinema. But it ended up creating a pop cultural phenomenon It’s an area of film-mak­ing in which it’s more important for you to … Continue reading Psycho : Hitchcock’s Macabre masterpiece that became a pop cultural phenomenon →

The Yakuza: A great Robert Mitchum performance anchors this fascinating genre mashup from director Sydney Pollack

Sydney Pollack's 1974 film, The Yakuza, is a strange mashup of Neo-Noir, Gangster-drama, Samurai film, Yakuza-eiga , martial arts film and cross cultural Romance. This mixture is not always successful, but still makes for fascinating viewing "When an American cracks up, he opens a window and shoots up a bunch of strangers, he shoots out … Continue reading The Yakuza: A great Robert Mitchum performance anchors this fascinating genre mashup from director Sydney Pollack →

Doctor Zhivago: Omar Sharif excels as the titular romantic pacifist in David Lean’s epic tale of Love, War and Russian Revolution

Sir David Lean's classic romantic-war epic, Doctor Zhivago(1965), is adapted from Boris Pasternak's novel by the great writer, Robert Bolt. The film boasting an all-star cast comprising of Omar Sharif, Rod Steiger, Alec Guinness, Julie Christie etc. explored love and loss in the background of the first World War and the Russian Revolution. I think … Continue reading Doctor Zhivago: Omar Sharif excels as the titular romantic pacifist in David Lean’s epic tale of Love, War and Russian Revolution →

Hondo: John Wayne stars in an exciting 3D Western that emphasizes romance, courtship and father/son bonds

Hondo(1953), starring John Wayne and Geraldine Page, shows some new dimensions of Duke as a star and actor, but still, the film remains a quintessential John Wayne Western. "Women always figure every man who comes along wants 'em." A typical John Wayne line delivered in the typical John Wayne style by John 'Duke' Wayne. The film … Continue reading Hondo: John Wayne stars in an exciting 3D Western that emphasizes romance, courtship and father/son bonds →