So perhaps we shouldn’t judge producers too harshly when they remake blockbusters from years past to ensure box office success…like The Great Gatsby or Footloose.

This may also explain ‘sequel-itis’…although quality seems to figure less in that equation.

Case in point:  New Year’s Eve from director Garry Marshall.

New Year’s Eve is the sequel to last year’s horrible Valentine’s Day, a romantic comedy jam-packed with stars, cliched story lines and performances that were shallow to say the most.

(Sorry; it was that bad.) 

I’m not surprised actors are drawn to the sequel; it’s the easiest money they’ll ever make.  And Garry Marshall probably just used the Valentine’s Day shooting script and changed the California locations to New York City.

But why do it at all?

Critics skewered the first film, and audience reviews were only slightly warmer.  And while Valentine’s Day did break $100 million at the box office, there were a lot of celebrity salaries to pay.

Well, after seeing the trailer, I think I’ve figured it out.

Garry has directed a train wreck of a film…and we all know how hard it is not to look at one of those.

Cha-ching!

Immediately, I recall Knight Rider and the A-Team. Although they were not feature movies as such, the impact of these two series are phenomenal. I have always said that in order to create a great story thee must be something unusual placed in the usually mundane environment. Additionally, the actors who played the leading roles worked well together on-screen and kept the audience with them all the time.

Other series that I particularly enjoyed watching on Saturdays would have included Airwolf, Street Hawk and Charles in Charge, a sitcom presentation.

A few weeks ago I sat back and looked at Starz Encore Action as they showed The Jewel of the Nile. I was taken way back down memory lane. The youthfulness of Danny Devito and Michael Douglas was amazing to see; it was a vivid reminder that we all grow older and that life is to be enjoyed at all ages. The metaphoric use of jewel in this movie as well I thought was a good technique of holding the audience’s attention.

One of my all time favourite movie has to be Lethal Weapon 2. My gosh! Talk about building action. Talk about no retreat no surrender! (which is another 80s classic by the way). But Danny Glover and the energetic Mel Gibson gave the crooks  run for their money. What I particularly enjoy with lethal Weapon 2 is the fact that evil, as manifested by the bad guys from South Africa, is never able to get the upper hand by use of threat, intimidation or openly brutal force. Whatever action the crooks take the crime-fighting duo comes back with just as much or even more “reasonable force” to show who is really the boss. This is great, non-stop action and humour, along with calculated romance, from beginning to end.

I have also loved the movie “Batteries Not Included, a movie that combined sci-fi special effects with down to earth family love and friendship. This movie had introduced me to the now deceased Jessica Tandy. She outplayed herself in this role. The combination of the characters of the tenants in this dilapidated apartment building added to the unpredictability of the plot. Again, if you want an unforgettable story, put the extraordinary into the ordinary.

And who can forget Driving Miss Daisey and Lean on Me? Two of the classical works of actor Morgan Freeman. In Driving Miss Daisey by the way, Jessica Tandy played the leading female role. Dan Akroyd from the Ghostbusters hall of fame also completed the eclectic cast in this movie. I thought the humility and loveable traits of the characters, especially Morgan Freeman, were special indeed.

In a previous post I talked about  Stand By Me. This movie just hit me right there. In the emotions. I have always valued friendships and I was able to identify with the story line a lot. The words of the writer at the end I found so very real: “I have never had any friends like the ones I had when I was twelve. Jesus, does anyone?”  As any of us grows older we are able to appreciate coming of age films, especially when the characterization is something we can connect with.

Just yesterday I am learning of the death of “Bubba” Smith. He  was Officer Hightower in the 1980s Police Academy series. His size, strength and usual silence helped cement those films in the annals of entertainment history. I doubt there is anyone on the planet who can watch any of the Police Academy films and not have a good laugh.

For a while, after the decade of the 80s there were some great films. “What a damn night!” My line from American Ninja. The bumbling partnership of the actors of Kangaroo Jack cannot be easily matched for their humour, in my opinion. Few other movies have added humour and good happy laughter to the audience. I recall the first time i watched “Its’s a Guy Thing” that I almost had cardiac arrest from the apparently inexplicable events. The scenes when the police announce they have found and arrested a suspect bearing an identical match to the phony details provided by the main character and again when the pastor kept asking for anyone to come forward to object to the wedding both blew me away. Seriously!

Within the last few years I have to admit that my love for movies have dropped. I see Hollywood remaking a lot of earlier classics, and sometimes with terrible results. I felt sad that  Superman Returns could not have been produced with a better plot and simpler love story. The character of Superman was really never given the chance in the movie to “return”. It seems to me that Superman was the least super of all the characters.

Another path I see Hollywood taking is to make sequels to the prequels that often turn the audience off. Hollywood needs to learn that having a good prequel does not necessitate always making sequels. I really don’t think that the growing young generation today really knows what makes a great entertaining film.

A major ingredient of the films of yesteryear must be the wholesome family values and respect shown to people’s bodies. A movie does not have to contain gross curse words, bloody baths and terrorism-attack like scenes of horror or torture to be a good movie. When you get a chance you must compare a love scene shot in today’s movies to a love scene shot in the 1980s or that era. The differences will surprise. I end this post with a quote from the  CEO of Dreamsworks studio., producers of Madagascar, Jeffrey Katzenberg.

“The last seven or eight months of movies is the worst lineup of movies you’ve experienced in the last five years of your life. They suck. It’s unbelievable how bad movies have been.”

This article, written by Edward Ludvigsen, appeared Tuesday, July 26 on NYC Mob Tour

Leave the Gun, Take The Giuliani

Certainly no stranger to self promotion, gangsters, or just hamming it the hell up— former prosecutor, mayor, misunderstood drag performer, and savior of NYC during 9/11 ( (just ask him, he’ll tell you), Rudy Giuliani will be hosting “Mob Week” on AMC from August 1 through 7. Giuliani is apparently a big Godfather fan, which will be great for him as AMC is playing the films in exhausting rotation over the course of the week. Over 300 hours of The Godfather, says quick math. Is that too much Abe Vigoda, or just enough to hook you for life? Food for thought.

One supposes that the former mayor of New York City is a sensible choice for a celebrity host, as he is very familiar with the organized crime landscape of the city. Notes The Gothamist:

Of course, Giuliani has always been a family guy—even when he was raiding bars during his mayorship, it’s long believed that he never touched Kokie’s—Williamsburg’s notorious members-only cocaine den—because it was owned by his friend’s brother (it was raided and shut down when Bloomberg came into office).

Breezing through AMC’s “Mob Week” schedule reveals a roster of all the expected biggies: Godfather, Goodfellas, Donnie Brasco, Untouchables, Scarface. More Pacino and DeNiro than you can shake a (bread)stick at. The Juror, curiously, is also in heavy rotation. Affordable syndication?

The only two films that stand out as being a little unexpected are Machine Gun Kelly, for which you will have to tune in at 4AM on August 2 to see, and . The latter is a funny little gem from 1993 starring DeNiro (playing against type), . It gets a few more time slots and may be easier to catch. It would have been nice to see a little more variety and unexpected fare within AMC’s gangland film festival. The Freshman, Mean Streets, and The Pope of Greenwich Village all spring to mind.

Got any favorite mobster movies that may NOT be amongst the expected family of classics? Let us know in the comments!

http://www.josephbrunowriter.com/index.html

My grandmother, Nanie, purchased this movie for my daughters and immediately, I recalled fond memories of watching it as a youngster.  Nanie would round us up and take us to the theater for the Saturday matinee, which of course wasn’t complete without Butterfinger candy bars!

Anyway, back to the movie…Despite the cover, it isn’t an animated cartoon, but rather, Seven Alone is a great family movie and a history lesson all in one. It’s an older movie, so the quality isn’t what we have grown accustomed to with today’s movies, but it’s a must-see classic nonetheless. It is based on the true story of the Sager children, who became orphaned and traveled on the Oregon trail to fulfill their father’s promise of homesteading there. Katherine, the oldest daughter, kept a diary of their adventure and how they later came to live with the Marcus and Narcissa Whitman missionary family.

There is much to discuss in this movie, including selfishness and disobedience on the part of the oldest child, John Sager. There are some scary parts, so caution is recommended if viewing with small children.

All in all, this movie was just as good as I remembered it years ago. I highly recommend it!

For more movie suggestions, please see my Mom-Approved Movies tab.

Happy Mother’s Day to all the most amazing heros of our times.

Contrast those movies with a movie contemporaneous with them, John Carpenter’s Prince of Darkness, and you’ll see what I mean about technology dating a movie. Basically, some people are investigating a weird phenomenon in the basement of a church when frightening and horrifying things start happening. To make matters worse, the place is more or less surrounded by zombie-like street people who murdered one of their number. They try to call the police, but the phone lines have been cut, which will have most of us, but especially the young, thinking “Oh, yeah, this is before cell phones.” The last time I watched this movie, I actually found this a distraction.

Many older movies are spoiled by their outdated technology. Old James Bond movies have him using or trying to defeat technology that looks like it was kluged together for a high school electric shop class project. And many is are the movies where people are staring into monochrome screens with no graphics at all and characters so large you can read them from across the room. People having to do research in libraries also makes a movie seem old, especially when you know that the same information, quite possibly more accurate and up to date, is available over the Internet. Entire libraries are on the Internet now, some of them by subscription only, but not all of them.

It’s amusing to consider what some young person 30 years from now will see in a movie of today that will have him or her thinking, “Oh yeah, they didn’t have (?) back then.” Personal robot slaves, clear plastic trousers, eyeball implants, voice controlled cars…? What do you think we’ll probably have then that we don’t have now?

At any rate, despite their age, Alien and Blade Runner remain, in many people’s minds (and not just old people), the best in the horror/thriller and sci fi genres. Ridley Scott may be the best director on the planet today. He certainly does know how to make a movie that remains relatively timeless.

So when I saw an ad about ice cream inspired by two movies the other day, I got really excited and curious.

What would ice cream inspired by “Gone With The Wind” and “Doctor Zhivago” taste like?

So off we go, my mum and I, down to the supermarket where we found that all “Gone With The Wind”-ice cream had been sold out.

Luckily, however, we managed to get hold of the last box of “Doctor Shivago”.

“White ice cream with mascarpone and lemon ice cream, honeycombed with a sauce of vodka and lemon and topped with chocolate snowflakes.” – That’s what the box promised and even though I’m not a huge fan of lemon and lime flavours (except when you put them in a Cuba Libre or Caipi) I tried it.

And… oh… how delicious. DELICIOUS!

I actually believe they managed to translate the story of the book and the movie into a container of ice cream.

Well, I guess you can’t really say it tastes like winter because what does winter taste like?

But the ice cream melting in my mouth made me automatically think of icy Russian winters and Moscow.

I also really like the way the designed the container – very cool and I will definitely be trying to get my hands on “Gone With The Wind” (apparently a combination of chocolate and raspberry ice cream) as well.

To Kill a Mockingbird

Author: Harper Lee
Created: 1962
Origin: United States

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To Kill a Mocking bird is a movie set in the depression of the deep south. The movie tel ls a story of the good and bad sides of human nature, integrity and justice. The plot follows the path of a young man who is unfairly accused of assaulting a young girl in his home town. The Hero Atticus finch played by a Gregory Peck bravely  to defend the accused.

The movie To Kill a Mockingbird was created out of the need to bring a highly successful and influential story to the big screen. The author Harper Lee had a story to tell based on experiences of growing up in a Southern town  which transcended any desire for fame and notoriety as an author.

The  town in which the movie is set could be anywhere between Louisiana and Georgia and the characters are very typical of American society in the South. It  is all the more satisfying that previously unknown American author Harper Lee could create such a powerful and influential story which has achieved critical acclaim and universal popularity despite such dramatic shifts in attitudes and fashions . To Kill a Mockingbird has stood the test of time and maintained its stature as a true movie classic.

Without Charles Boyer, Pepe Le Pew wouldn’t have existed. Neither would Tom The Cat’s renditions of velvet-voiced French urbanity. What distinguished Boyer from other romantic smoothies is the sense in which courtship becomes an extension of a private performance: self-amused and ironic. This is a man, I think, who could never have been bored (by which I mean the men he played; Boyer killed himself in 1978). But he’s no solipsist: his commitment to Irene Dunne, Ingrid Bergman, Danielle Darrieux, and countless others is uncontested. Once the seduction is over, however, he’s likely to retire early to his study to read Racine.

I’m inspired by my viewing of Mayerling, which got a decent Essential Art House release last year after two decades of terrible, popping transfers. As the roué who also happens to be the Archduke of Austria and hence heir to the throne, Boyer isn’t as interesting as he’d later be; he’s merely laying the cornerstone of his legend. What registers is his talent for self-restraint within the confines of a character; his Archduke has reserves of strength that sustain him when his stuffy royal parents don’t allow him to court Baroness Marie Vetsera (Danielle Darrieux). Very far from a great film, but a decent potboiler with moments of intensity. However much I believed Boyer and Darrieux, I found his relations with his majordomo Loscheck (Andre Dubosc) more convincing, foreshadowing the treatment  of the silent understanding between Louis Jourdan and his butler in Letters From an Unknown Woman, Max Ophuls’ mid forties tearjerker.

Two other Boyer films to check out:

Cluny Brown (1946): In this bizarre, wonderful film, never released on DVD, Boyer plays a WWII-era refugee who befriends a plumber’s niece (Jennifer Jones) after she’s hired as a maid by the family of the young man (Peter Lawford) infatuated with Boyer’s non-existent ideals. Credit for the film’s tone goes to Ernst Lubitsch, who in his last film creates the equivalent of a verse drama: reality is slightly off-kilter, and every character speaks with an eloquence no one ever possessed. Closer to Wodehouse than drama, to be honest*. Boyer is required to speak in long, absurd monologues that strain his command of English, but he pulls it off with considerable finesse. As the smiling, daft airhead with a great deal of sense, Jones demonstrates comic chops she would only flex one more time, in John Huston’s Beat the Devil (if she’d made more comedies we might remember her as a treasure).

Earrings of Madame De… (1953): Boyer perfected. In his greatest role, Boyer wrings more irony from a grin than any actor not named Setsuko Hara. As the French general linked by the chain of damage caused by a set of earrings handed off several times between him, his wife (Darrieux again), and her Italian diplomat lover (Vittorio de Sica), he’s the only one aware of the deliciousness and slow horror of the roundelay in which he’s trapped — and how it will end.

*Martin Amis on Wodehouse: “It is a world devoid of all the baser energies. The greatest terrors its denizens face are mild social embarrassment, the pecuniary delinquencies of friends, the occasional unrequited crush, and the prospect of being bullied by an aunt into marrying a bossy cousin.”

More than 200 posters in a 3-storey building

Our poster collection at Esperanza Artshop (Elmaer) keeps growing. Yesterday, 20 new vintage movie posters was added to the gallery at the 2nd floor: Most asked classic titles such as “Singing In The Rain”, “The Maltese Falcon”, “The Sound of Music”, “Dial M for Murder”, “The Wizard of Oz”, “An American In Paris” and many more. Now we have 120 vintage movie posters in total – and counting!

Esperanza Artshop is at Elmaer region; it’s a three-storey shop, full of paintings, movie posters, vintage pinups and original 3D art made by myself. All items are modifyable (no copy) and transferrable. There are special bundle packs as well as individual posters.

At first floor, there is Part 1 of our movie posters collection and classical paintings by famous artists such as Van Gogh, Renoir, Gauguin and many more. Second floor hosts the Part 2 of movie posters collection. Finally, at the third floor, you can find around 40 vintage pinup posters and 12 original 3D artwork by me.

“…now I want you to remember that no bastard ever won a war by dying for his country. He won it by making the other poor dumb bastard die for his country… we will cut out their living guts and use them to grease the treads of our tanks“.  

Meanwhile, as General Patton pushed his troops to the edge of Nazi lines, Major Franks Burns was making the most of the Korean War by banging the Head Nurse,Major “Hot Lips” Houlihan in her barracks.  Now unfortunately for them and what Major Burns and Hot Lips didn’t realize was that while they were heavily engaged in friendly fire, they were unintentionally broadcasting every grunt and groan of their sexual escapade over the PA system providing quality entertainment for the entire 4077th and movie goers alike.

By 1971 the box office battles had abandoned the fields and moved to the streets of San Francisco where Inspector “Dirty” Harry Callahan and his trademark .44 Magnum were tracking Scorpio the manic serial killer…

“I know what you’re thinking. ’Did he fire six shots or only five?’ Well, to tell you the truth, in all this excitement I’ve kind of lost track myself. But being this is a .44 Magnum, the most powerful handgun in the world and would blow your head clean off, you’ve got to ask yourself one question: ‘Do I feel licky?’ Well do ya, punk?”

Charlie Bucket certainly felt lucky when he peeled open the wrapper of that “scrumdiddlyumptious” Wonka Bar, found the last Golden Ticket and headed off to “everybody’s non-pollutionary, anti-institutionary, pro-confectionery factory of fun!”   Unlike bad seeds Augustus, Veruca, Violet and Mike Teevee who were positively rotten to the core… and despite having a sip or two of some Fizzy Lifting drink with Grandpa Joe, Charlie, the poster boy for niceness, proved his honesty by not handing over Wonka’s revolutionary Everlasting Gobstopper to that sketchy Arthur Slugworth. In exchange for his selfless act, the eccentric mischievous genius Willy Wonka hands over the magical candy factory to Charlie and invites his whole family to move in and live happily ever after… An offer too good for Charlie to refuse.

Later that same year and thanks to Mario Puzo and Francis Ford Coppola, “offers that couldn’t be refused”, defined a genre. The Godfather soon became the gangster movie all mob movies would be judged against.  Don Vito Corleone’s refusal to do business with drug dealing Sollozzo sparked a war that would involve all five major New York crime families, last for years and shake the Corleone family to it’s roots.  

“Someday, and that day may never come, I’ll call upon you to do a service for me. But until that day accept this justice as gift on my daughter’s wedding day.”-Don Vito Corleone

1973 started out with four condescending suburban professional men on a weekend river canoe trip that quickly becomes one of the most intensely humbling and disturbing cinema experiences of all time. Plausibility was the key component that made this banjo country flick such a chilling experience.  After watching Bobby (Ned Beatty) held down at knifepoint while being violently sodomized by an inbred redneck, I guarantee you’ll never listen to a banjo the same way again and you will undoubtedly think twice about the truck stops you choose along the way. Now “Squeal like a pig!”

1973 may not have been the year of the Dragon, but that didn’t stop Bruce Lee’s Kung Fu film, Enter the Dragon, from becoming the first Asian American pop culture cult classic.  Lee’s skill, physical prowess and unforgettable double nunchaku scene had set the tone… from that point on… America was Kung Fu fighting.  After being humiliated,  punished by Lee’s lightning fast backhand slap down and never once landing a single blow, sore loser scar-faced Oharra, visibly mangled and unable to grasp defeat decides to waste two perfectly good Tsingtao’s, smashes the bottles together and attempts to kill his tormentor.  That might of seemed like a good idea at the time, but the second the camera shifted into slow motion, it was clear that his decision was going to prove fatal.   Bruce Lee clearly infuriated over the needless waste of beer is finally given the chance to avenge his sister and brings Oharra to the ground, crushes his neck and releases his trademark Death Cry. “Oharra’s treachery has dis-craced us.”

In 1974, Regan MacNeill infected Generation X with the worst outbreak of the heebie-jeebies the world had ever known. Hands down, the Excorcist was (and still is) the scariest movie ever to hit the silver screen.  Demonically challenged Regan gave her mother, Father Damien and movie goers alike the most intensely bone chilling ride of their lives as we watched that unforgettably haunting scene when Regan, with her face covered in lesions screamed out obscenities in that deeply disturbing gravely voice while violently jamming herself raw with a crucifix.  This film, frightening as the devil itself, taps into your fear with remarkable realism, gets deep with your being and rattles you down to the core like nothing you’ve ever experienced.  This film scares the living shit out of you.  Never has there been such a film that possessed such ability to haunt it’s viewers even after they’ve left the theater and for the rest of their lives.

As Exorcist induced nightmares subsided, movie goers eventually worked up the nerve to head back into theaters but would soon find themselves never wanting to go back in the water… Motion picture history was being made, theaters were jam-packed and beaches across the country were justifiably deserted.  Without warning, terror had declared the beaches of Amity Island harbor it’s feeding ground.  It was up to Chief “We’re going to need a bigger boat” Brody, Matt Hooper and salty old sea captain Quint to put an end to the Great White people eater.  Below deck Hooper’s scars proved no match for Quint’s unforgettable monologue describing his survival of the gruesome shark frenzied attack on the Naval officers of the sinking USS Indianapolis.  “…eleven hundred men went in the water; 316 men come out and the sharks took the rest, June the 29th, 1945.”   Three barrels weren’t enough to finish the job, but that “Son of a bitch” finally smiled long enough for Brody to fire a shot, pearcing the SCUBA tank lodged in monsters mouth and blowing him to Kingdom Come. 

The worst Idea award for 1975 goes to, 38 year old, Randle McMurphy (Mac) for attempting to cushion his prison sentence by declaring insanity and getting transferred to a mental asylum. Wisecracking non-conformist McMurphy and his rebellious card-shark skill immediately enters into an intense battle of wits with sexually-repressed Nurse Ratched, winning over viewers and the likes of some of cinematography’s most memorable mental patients like the massively silent, gum chewing “Chief“, Billy B-b-b-bibbit, Cheswick, “hard-on” Harding, Taber and Mister “I bet a nickel” Martini.  Underestimating Nurse Ratched’s absolute power, Mac made his second biggest (and last) mistake after flying into a  violent rage, locking his hands around Ratched’s throat and attempting to strangle the sadistic nurse for her cruel contribution  to the suicide of his new impressionable friend stuttering B-b-b-b-billy  B-b-b-b-babbit. 

1976 brought us ringside and to the streets of Philadelphia where southpaw underdog, Rocky “the Italian Stallion” Balboa, who needed to prove to himself that he “wasn’t just another bum from the neighborhood”  took on the undefeated World Heavyweight Champion (and “Master of Disaster”) Apollo Creed.  After intense raw egg drinking training with perpetually disgusted ex-bantamweight fighter, Mickey Goldmill,  rib breaking meat locker combination punches, Balboa’s conditioning climaxed along with “Gonna Fly Now”  as he ran to the top of the Philadelphia Art Museum steps.  In round one, loud mouth Apollo Creed, expecting nothing more than a New Years Day publicity stunt, soon realized he was getting more than he bargained for when Rocky dodges his haymaker, swings, knocks Apollo to the ground and sends the crowd into a complete “Rocky” chanting frenzy that carries the Italian Stallion through all 15 grueling rounds of the most famous shoot-out boxing match in movie history.

“You’ll be able to spit nails, kid. Like the guy says, you’re gonna eat lightning and you’re gonna crap thunder. You’re gonna become a very dangerous person.”-Mickey Goldmill

Since 1977 had such a long list of movies and a short time to watch them… let’s start with Bo (aka the Bandit) Darville’s  legendary twenty-eight hour, $80,000, 400 case beer run from Texarkana to Atlanta.  With smokies hot on is trail, Bandit made matters personal by taking Sheriff Buford T Justice’s simpleton deputy son’s runaway bride along for ride.  In his black trademark Trans Am and in constant high speed police car crashing, road-block breaking pursuit and with the help of his truckin’ CB buddies, life long pal Cledus (the Snowman) Snow and Snowman’s hound dog Fred, the Bandit took us for the most fun-loving, good time, carefree movie ride of our lives.

“There’s no way, NO way that you came from MY loins. Soon as I get home, first thing I’m gonna do is punch yo mamma in da mouth!”             - Sheriff Buford T. Justice

Later that same year in a movie far far away from Texarkana, George Lucas had redefined science fiction and ascended movie merchandising to levels never before seen by convincing everyone under age 20 that their Star Wars experience wouldn’t be complete until they’d collected at least 50 action figures…  After stumbling upon a distress call from the captured Princess Leia, Luke Skywalker searched out old Ben Kenobi(Obi-Wan) who informed Luke of his Jedi heritage, armed him with a lightsaber (“the formal weapon of a Jedi Knight”) and introduced him to “the force”. Meanwhile, the Evil Galactic Empire’s sinister DeathStar was nearing completion and getting ready to destroy the Rebel Alliance.  Along withC-3PO, R2D2 and aboard the Millennium Falcon with the hired help of space pilot/smuggler Han Solo and his Wookie Chewbacca, they set out to free the princess and eventually destroy the Death Star.  

Perhaps it was from breathing in all that X-wing Fighter exhaust or maybe remnants from the extinguished Death Star had permeated earth’s atmosphere that had contaminated Gen X… but what ever the reason, everyone (especially Brooklyn Itallian Tony Manero) had contracted a severe case of Night Fever.  If only on Saturday night’s, Tony had found a way to break loose from his boring everyday dingy hardware store life.  After hours of styling his hair in his bedroom mirror, Tony would leave his dysfunctional home and head out with his buddies to the 2001 Odyssey disoteque where he lit up the already illuminated dance floor to the Super 70′s sound of the Bee Gee’s. Travolta’s lead role as Tony Manero with his wide collared shirts, platform shoes, and revolutionary dance moves  had indisputably and overnight led him to be forever known as “the King of Cinema Disco” and had universally become a living icon for Disco itself.

Basking in his Super 70′s stardom, America’s favorite Sweathog turned back  the cinematic hands of time to the nostalgic days of doo-wop where blue jeans, tee shirts and black leather motorcycle jackets were all the rage.  Leader of the T-Bird’s Danny Zuko gets the surprise of his life when Australian summer love, goody-goody Sandy turns up at  Rydell High.   While gum chomping “lady with a baby” Rizzo gets knocked up in the backseat of Kenickie’s new car, Frenchy and the other Pink Ladies helped to break virginal Sandra Dee out of her ingénue cocoon.  Split after split amidst the pep rally, dances, drive-ins, and a drag race, Danny, finally throws in his greaser towel, shows up at the school carnival in a letterman sweater only to find his sweet little innocent Sandra Dee has transformed into a pelvic thrusting Spandex-clad hottie that any man would be happy to Grease in the back of his hot-rod.

Sandra-Dee wasn’t the only one with silver screen legend to break out from a mousy shell and parade around in tights…  No longer able to repress his superhuman powers, Clark Kent (Christopher Reeve in the role he was born to play), compelled by a green glow stick, headed to the North Pole where the crystal gave rise to his “Fortress of Solitude”.  After 12 years (2 minutes for viewers), via space age crystal technology, Jur-El, educated Clark about his home planet, power and responsibility’s to the people of earth.  Eagerly accepting his duty to fight for truth and justice, Superman flies off to Metropolis, lands himself a job as a mild mannered reporter for the Daily Planet where the man of steel soon develops a weakness for Lois Lane second only to Kryptonite.  While our caped crusader was hard at work ridding the city of bad guys, Lex Luther, the world’s greatest criminal mind, was busy hatching his dastardly get rich quick plan to send most of California crashing into the sea.  Faster then a speeding bullet, in true comic book super hero style, Superman takes to the sky diverting missiles, allows a would-be train wreck to pass over his back, saves falling Jimmy Olsen from the bursting damn and turns back time to save buried alive Lois Lane.

After the first 20 minutes of persistently terrorizing anonymous  phone calls to Jill Johnson, not only were movie goers paralyzed with anxiety, but baby sitting rates were going through the roof and even Ma Bell herself was afraid to answer the phone. “Have you checked the children, lately?”… “Why haven’t you checked the children?”  After a series of increasingly creepy calls leading up to a want for “your blood…all over me,” , Jill’s emergency calls to the police finally pay off and the bone chilling calls are traced.  “Jill, we’ve traced the calls… They’re coming from inside the house!”   Audience’s were glued to the edge of their seats, hearts pounding and wanting to scream out loud… DON’T GO UPSTSTAIRS!  One narrow escape and two dead children later, the police capture and institutionalize the maniac crank call killer Curt Duncan until the blood curdling suspense filled terror continues when he escapes several years later and pays homage to Jill Johnson’s own children and their baby sitter. 

You didn’t need to lay in bed hippie-notized by your lava lamp, wear bell bottoms or grow up listening to southern rock to appreciate the timeless classics of the 1970′s.  In fact, these films weren’t about the 70′s at all – but what they did do, was mark movie making’s creative highpoint.  Legendary film maker’s like Steven Speilberg, George Lucas and Frances Ford Coppola explored new story telling techniques that would change the industry forever by taking more risks then their predecessors, stretching boundaries and twisting genre’s.

It wouldn’t be hard to name 50 movie greats to come out of that decade.  But, since I had to draw the line somewhere, I went with the films that left the biggest impression me.  If you haven’t seen any of the movies mentioned above then sign onto Netflix or get your ass over to Blockbuster.

If you feel strongly about any I’m missing… I would love to hear your thoughts.

-Regular Joe

We waited and waited, along with hundreds of other dejected Chicago admirers of Frances “Baby” Houseman and her spitfire sassypants dancer/lover, Johnny Castle. After several concerned Chicago-311 calls were made demanding info on the whereabouts of the missing mobile movie screen truck, lost in the city somewhere with the 3-story-tall projection of the unmistakable face of the young Jennifer Grey, Cricket Hill erupted into a riot of drinky moves and gritty voices, having the time of our lives, together in the dark, without owing anything at all to the city aldermen.

Rrrrrrahhhhhh, I roar back.