Adventure

[6] Writer/director James Gray (The Lost City of Z) sends Brad Pitt into space in this film that takes place in the not-too-distant future. Pitt’s mission is discover if his long-lost father (Tommy Lee Jones) is the culprit behind attacks from Neptune that threaten human life on Earth, the moon, and Mars. You can think of it as a journey into Apocalypse Now‘s ‘heart of …

[7] Nicolas Winding Refn (Drive, Only God Forgives) serves up this meditative drama about a mute, one-eyed, pagan strong man (Hannibal‘s Mads Mikkelsen) who fights for the entertainment of his Norse captors way back around the year 1000 AD. He finally escapes and brings a young boy along with him. The two soon take up company with a small band of Crusaders looking for their …

[6] When it was William Shatner’s turn to spearhead a Star Trek movie, he wanted it to be about a search for God in which God turned out to be the Devil. The studio let him have his way, and Star Trek V: The Final Frontier ended up under-performing during the crowded summer of 1989 (when Batman and Indiana Jones slayed at the box office). …

[8] After dealing with the death and resurrection of Spock in the previous two films, director Leonard Nimoy was given free reign with the fourth entry in the Star Trek franchise. Nimoy decided it was time for the series to take a breather — to show its lighter side and let the characters shine. With a script co-written by Nicholas Meyer (Star Trek II: The …

[5] First Blood is a terrific action movie because, as absurd as it gets toward its conclusion, it’s rooted in solid drama and with great verisimilitude. This sequel, cowritten by Sylvester Stallone and James Cameron (Titanic, Avatar), and directed by George Cosmotos (Tombstone, Leviathan), lacks that sincerity or realism. It’s much more of a comic-book superhero movie, complete with a leading hero who looks more …

[7] Anthony Hopkins, Alec Baldwin, and Harold Perrineau survive a plane crash in the Alaskan wilderness where they have to rely on each other for survival against the elements and a bloodthirsty kodiak bear who follows them everywhere they go. So we’ve got ‘man against nature’ and ‘man against beast’ going on. Writer David Mamet and director Lee Tamahori (Once Were Warriors) go one step …

[7] Dennis Hopper co-writes, directs, and stars in this counter-culture cornerstone about two hippies (Hopper and Peter Fonda) who embark on a cross-country motorcycle road trip from Los Angeles to New Orleans, trying to figure out how to live their lives and survive harassment from small-town hicks. Easy Rider is a fairly avant-garde movie for a Hollywood studio to release. It eschews a traditional narrative …

[7] Spock himself, Leonard Nimoy, jumps into the director’s chair for The Search for Spock, which picks up immediately after the events of The Wrath of Khan. When Kirk (William Shatner) learns that Spock’s soul has been transferred to McCoy (DeForest Kelley) and that his body has been regenerated on the newly-formed Genesis planet, the Enterprise crew decide to risk everything to make Spock whole …

[8] Captain Kirk (William Shatner), Spock (Leonard Nimoy), Bones (DeForest Kelley) and the rest of the Enterprise’s bridge crew return in this sequel that better captures the spirit of the original TV show than the previous feature film. Khan Noonien Singhe (Ricardo Montalban), who was exiled by Kirk in one of the TV episodes, returns with a vow of vengeance on the man who left …

[8] Writer/director Steven Spielberg follows up his immensely successful Jaws with this tale of extra-terrestrials and government conspiracy. Richard Dreyfuss stars as a family man whose encounter with a UFO brings him into contact with a grieving mother (Melinda Dillon) whose young son has been kidnapped by aliens. Together, they are haunted by visions of a mountain. When they figure out their mysterious, shared vision …

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