1977

[4] In this Sinbad adventure, the famed sailor is trying to wed a princess (imagine that), but can’t get her brother’s blessing until he reverses an evil spell that turned the brother into a baboon. The story isn’t much, but at least it throws in several new Ray Harryhausen stop-motion creations, including a saber-toothed tiger, a giant walrus, and some banshees. I enjoyed disparate parts …

[8] Clint Eastwood and Sondra Locke’s romantic but combative relationship fuels this road-trip action/adventure also directed by Eastwood. He’s a cop trying to transfer her from one jail to another, but both the mob and the cops want her dead, and no one cares if he dies with her.  The movie’s climax pits the two of them against the world, as Eastwood drives an iron-plated …

[6] Mel Brooks sends up Alfred Hitchcock in High Anxiety, a spoof centered around a psychiatrist who uncovers shenanigans at ‘The Psychoneurotic Institute for the Very, VERY Nervous’.  Brooks plays the shrink, a man who must cope with his own ‘high anxiety’ while getting to the bottom of a murder mystery before the Institute’s nefarious head nurse and former administrator order him killed! Cloris Leachman …

[6] An Englishman finds himself prisoner on an island where a mad doctor is mixing human and animal DNA. The fine line between what is human and what is animal is one of my favorite subjects, so I love the original novella by H.G. Wells, and I enjoy all the film versions of the story — including the 1933’s Island of Lost Souls and 1996’s …

[5] The least entertaining (even in a cheezy way) of the Airport disaster ilk. The star-studded cast seems to realize what a turkey they’re in, but mad cheers to Olivia de Havilland, Christopher Lee, Lee Grant, and Darren McGavin for making the most of it. Grant in particular really chews up the scenery here. Everyone else in the cast, including Jimmy Stewart, Jack Lemmon, Joseph …

[10] Star Wars needs another review like a wookiee needs Rogaine, but let’s reflect anyway, lest we start to forget its cultural importance and overall awesomeness.  After film reached (still) unparalleled popularity in the late ’30s and ’40s, television came along and the film industry instantly began to shrivel. The dry spell lasted until the mid-70s (perfect timing, mom and dad), when the ‘film school …

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