As the 2014 Winter Olympics wrap up tonight in Sochi, it's a great time to look back at 1981's Best Picture winner, CHARIOTS OF FIRE. The film takes a detailed look at the British track team and their prep and participation in the 1924 Olympics. Ben Cross stars as determined, serious Jewish athlete Harold Abrahams. He faces discrimination at nearly every turn, but channels his resolve into becoming the fastest man on the planet and gaining victory on the track. Ian Charleson stars as Eric Liddell, a devout Christian who feels that he must win as a testament to his faith. As the story shows their quest for victory from their different perspectives and very different receptions from the fans, you realize they share one trait. Neither is willing to bend from his devotion and faith in their quest to win. A great supporting cast surrounds them, including Ian Holm as a cantankerous Italian trainer and Sir John Gielgud at his pompous best as a racist University Master. Many scenes are taken to the next level by Vangelis award-winning and legendary musical score and the photography of David Watkin. Together, they turn a beach run into film legend. The races are fast, the film is stately but never boring. The story draws you in quietly. This was Director Hugh Hudson's first film and he followed it with "Greystoke, The Legend of Tarzan". After those two big hits, he just slipped away into much lesser films. Academy Award winner for Best Picture, Music Score, Best Screenplay and Costume Design. Chariots of Fire runs away (in slow motion) to a solid B.

In 1962, the two best looking movie stars in the world got together and made a GREAT film, CHARADE. Cary Grant (in full Hitchcock North by Northwest/To Catch a Thief mode here) and Audrey Hepburn (fresh off Breakfast at Tiffany's) are charming, likable and a lot of fun playing off each other. Hepburn, planning on divorcing her husband in Paris, returns from a ski trip to find her husband missing and their apartment empty. Soon, she meets three of her husband's partners who are after a quarter million dollars he came into under questionable circumstances....and the film is off and running. James Coburn and George Kennedy provide strong support as two of the people after the cash, Walter Matthau is a CIA agent after the truth and Peter Stone's screenplay is the real star, providing witty, fast and fun dialogue for the entire film. Grant and Hepburn are at FULL star power here and make the whole affair look easy. It's hard to balance suspense, comedy and thrills this well, so sit back and enjoy. Charade is an unexpected A for me.

I only thought I knew the story behind Edward "Teddy" Kennedy's infamous and ill-fated drive into a lake in 1969. The suspenseful new drama CHAPPAQUIDDICK details all the events around the event and what SHOULD have been Kennedy's last days in politics. Jason Clarke (Zero Dark Thirty, The Great Gatsby) looks EERILY like Teddy, especially in some key moments in the film that are spooky in their realism. The black sheep of the Kennedy family and last surviving brother of the wealthy clan, Teddy is a womanizing, drinking, mess of a politician. He's able to turn it on for the cameras, but behind the scenes, he's always lesser than the moment. When he decides to drive young campaign worked Mary Jo Kopekchne (Kate Mara) home after a night of drinking, he drives their car off a bridge. The car flips, Teddy swims out and Mary Jo perishes (not quickly) inside the car. Inexplicably, Teddy simply walks back to the party and grabs his two cousins and close advisors to tell them, at leisure, what's happened. Those two men are played in serious fashion by two great comic actors, Ed Helms (The Office, The Hangover) and Jim Gaffigan. Rushing back to the scene, they dive repeatedly to save the girl, without success. The men plead with Teddy to report the accident immediately, but he fails to do so, setting off a chain of events too crazy to be anything but actual history. Clarke is excellent as Kennedy, showing the remorse, the anguish, the ego & the arrogance of a man raised in privilege, with no clear sense of moral obligation, but a very obvious sense of entitlement. Bruce Dern is powerful in an almost dialogue free performance as stroke-addled Joe Kennedy, who rules the family with an iron fist and abhors Teddy's weakness. Clancy Brown (Carnivale, Highlander) cuts a powerful swath as Robert McNamara, who leads a veritable gaggle of power players brought in by Joe to clean up the latest Teddy mess. The way the power brokers twist the truth and control the system to protect the powerful Kennedy's at the expense of ANY resemblance of due process for the bumbling senator is as horrifying as it is revolting. I never realized that this event took place the same weekend as the first Moon Landing, which was blessed timing to bury Mary Jo's death on the back pages of the paper, at first. The film plays like a suspense thriller, well crafted to reveal the sequence of events in a fashion that shows Mary Jo might have lived quite awhile after the accident. How many of the EIGHT HOURS after the accident, in which Kennedy failed to report it, was she fighting for life in the car? Watching the actual ABC news footage of man in the street interviews after Kennedy finally makes his statement about the accident in prime time, you cant help but shake your head on the near complete lack of justice served. Kennedy comes across as a flawed, less than intelligent man living in the long shadow of his older, smarter brothers. I felt the same amount of sympathy for him watching the film as he ever expressed for the death of the young woman in his car: ZERO. Observant, smart and telling, CHAPPAQUIDDICK gets a B.

Consistently hilarious and a perfectly executed showcase for its two stars, CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE exceeds expectations. As the film opens twenty years ago, our two main characters are at opposite ends of the high school spectrum. It's the last assembly before graduation and school superstar Calvin Joyner (Kevin Hart) is accepting a national award before the adoring students. Suddenly, school bullies toss a very naked and very obese student into the middle of the gymnasium. Calvin is the only student not to laugh and hands the terrified young man his letterman's jacket. Flash forward 20 years and we meet modern day Calvin, a low level forensic accountant passed over yet again for a promotion. Dreading his 20 year high school reunion and feeling very unworthy of his "most likely to succeed" banner, Calvin is suddenly contacted by Bob Stone, that obese bullied boy, who has now become Dwayne Johnson in all his glory. There are a hundred great physical references to Hart and Johnson's comparative size, and both play them for maximum impact. When Bob asks Calvin to take a look at an accounting problem for him, the numbers cruncher is soon pulled into a massive government and global conspiracy. Since it's in the title, it's no spoiler to reveal that Bob is in the CIA, but surprisingly, the film does a great job of creating an exciting thriller that will keep you guessing on just who are the bad guys. The other thing the film gets right is in its casting. Hart plays against type as the straight man and Johnson becomes the comic lead. Both are having a great time and nail every verbal and physical punch line. Johnson has been great on SNL in the past, but he shows real comedy gifts here, unafraid to go in any direction to deliver the laughs. Amy Ryan is terrific as Bob's CIA boss, Jason Bateman is our evil high school bully now grown up, Aaron Paul (Breaking Bad) is Bob's former partner at the CIA and Ryan Hansen (Veronica Mars) has a true comic breakout performance as Calvin's fellow accountant Steve. The man has never met a taser or an opportunity to suck up to the boss he didn't grab. Hansen is hilarious in his small but memorable role. You KNOW that Bob & Calvin will eventually end up at their high school reunion, but by the time they do, you'll be pleasantly surprised how well its executed and what twists are in store. Credit screenwriter Ike Barinholtz (MAD TV, The Mindy Project) for crafting a screenplay that elevates a formula beyond expectations. CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE is far better than it needs to be as a formula movie. Its the rare film that I left HOPING there would be a sequel. Just like Melissa McCarthy's "Spy", I walked out of the theatre hoping I would see these characters again. Get ready to have some fun! CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE is a laugh filled bulls-eye that gets an A-. (Make sure and stay for the credits for some very funny bloopers.)

Oh my, what a mess. Based on one of Stephen King's more recent books, which was a fun, lightweight and short (for King!) thriller, CELL is a misfire on nearly every level. The film opens well, with graphic artist Clay Riddell (John Cusack) in an airport, surrounded by thousands of strangers on their cell phones. When a mysterious pulse signal broadcasts to every phone in the world at once and turns everyone with a phone in the ear into a bloodthirsty, mindless zombie, the airport turns into a killing field. The entire opening ten minutes shows real promise, from the first frames until the airplanes spinning into the tarmac in a massive explosion. And then the film begins a fast downward spiral into pathetic, predictable and boring plot lines. Samuel L. Jackson is normally a fine actor, but his role is so poorly written here, he's rendered helpless, spewing clever lines that dont ring true. As Riddell and a small band of survivors battle the phone zombies on a quest to get to a cell free sanctuary, the film slowly evolves into an all too literal and clumsy allegory about cell phones turning us into zombies, blah blah..... Especially surprising is the fact that the film is co-written by King himself. With this and "Maximum Overdrive" on his screenwriting credits, I think one of my favorite writers should stick to novels, where he excels. Cusack is one note. It feels like every scene that fleshed out the villain in a way we would have some feeling of motivation or clarity, was left on the editing room floor. The final reel has some startling visuals, especially the human carousel of zombies circling the tower by the thousands, but the final 5 minutes is one of the worst endings since "Jaws:The Revenge" leaving you muttering "what the hell...?" as the credits roll. When this didn't receive a theatrical release and went right to iTunes and Pay-Per-View, it should have been a louder clue of just what an ill-conceived bomb it is. CELL is a wrong number on every level and gets a D.

Oh man this is one funny movie. At first I was worried that it was all going to be too predictable, but pretty soon I realized I couldn't stop smiling at this sweet, dirty, hilarious movie. If there is anyone funnier in supporting roles than John C. Reilly is here, you have to tell me who and where. How can you be this nasty, smarmy, sexist and likeable at the same time? Reilly steals the show. Ed Helms and Anne Heche are great here too. It surprised me with some of its darker moments. You can definitely feel the influence here of producer Alexander Payne (Sideways, About Schmidt). This is really a sweet, funny flick. Traveling to Cedar Crapids gets an A from me.

In 1985, Stephen King was a mainstay in theatres. As a follow up to his successful adaption of King's "Cujo" the previous year, Director Lewis Teague brought a trilogy of King short stories to the screen with CAT'S EYE. He should have stuck with the Dog. Mean-spirited and dull, the three stories only linking thread is a house cat that wonders through the first two tales before taking part in the 3rd. Chapter One is 'Quitters Inc', detailing the most heinous Stop Smoking organization in history. Comedian Alan King has fun as a former mob boss bringing his talents to smoking cessation and James Woods is at his nervous best as a hard core smoker. What might have been fun on the page just becomes sadistic on screen. Chapter Two is the weakest, with a millionaire (Kenneth McMillan from 'Dune") making his wife's lover (Robert Hays of "Airplane") walk around the outside of his penthouse building in a bet as penalty for his infidelity. It's boring and goofy. The last chapter "The General" is the best chapter (it's a low bar) with a young Drew Barrymore as a young girl with a seriously demented little Gremlin in the wall of her bedroom. The problem with the story is that her Mom (Candy Clark) comes across as the worst mother of the year in service of the story, while Drew's left battling green screen monsters. Thank heavens that damn cat is there to help her against the goofy little creature. Come to think of it, there was a Disney movie called "That Darn Cat" in 1965 that probably had more dramatic credibility than this stinker. It's hard to believe that King wrote the screenplay. To this day he's one of my favorite writers on the page, but he's rarely had success in writing for the big screen. A different forum to be sure. I'll follow King anywhere in hardcover, but this one is all set up and no payoff. I'll give it a D. King fans might have fun spotting the all too obvious references to Cujo, Christine, The Dead Zone (one of the BEST King film adaptions) and Pet Semetary.

One of my favorite guilty pleasure films of the early 80's, CAT PEOPLE is loaded with visual style, dark sexual undertones and terrific music that could only have been born in 1982. Writer/Director Paul Schrader had just made "American Gigolo" and tackled his own dark take on a b-movie classic as his next film. It would not receive the same response as his previous blockbuster hit. Nastassia Kinski (Tess) stars as Irena, arriving in New Orleans as the film opens to meet her brother for the first time. Her sibling Paul is perfectly played for creeps and loaded with inappropriate sexual desire by Malcolm McDowell (Time After Time, Blue Thunder). Meanwhile, a wild, hungry black panther begins prowling the Big Easy, showing up in seedy hotel rooms to slaughter hookers. Why is that every time the Panther appears, Paul goes missing? Hmmm... We meet Zookeeper Oliver, well played by John Heard (Home Alone), his girlfriend Alice (Annette O'Toole) and their co-worker Joe (Ed Begley Jr.) as they track down and capture the panther. Irena finds herself drawn to the zoo, Oliver falls for her and lust emerges from every corner. Oliver for Irena, Alice for Oliver, Paul for Irena and the panther for human blood. When Schrader's story hits a wall, he just piles on nudity and gore or throws us back in time to an ancient world where huge sleek cats mate with beautiful natives, surrounded by the coolest fantasy sets of the 80's by Ferdinando Scarfiotti (The Last Emperor, Last Tango in Paris, Scarface). It makes virtually no sense, but is so beautiful to look at and hear, who cares? Lather a rich, beat-heavy music score by Giorgio Morodor on top of the production design and throw in a David Bowie favorite made for the film "Putting Out the Fire with Gasoline" and you have one of the strangest films of the era. I loved it from the first time I saw it, but if you cant roll with a film that's much more about visual grace and style than it is storytelling, run for the hills. It's way more David Lynch than Alfred Hitchcock. There are violent animal attacks, buckets of artery pumping blood, graphic nudity and sex, along with layers of Schrader's patented vision of morality, sexual desire and human weakness. It bombed at the box office but found new life in the early days of DVD as audiences discovered it and made it a cult favorite. Tarantino loved it and used Bowie's song in the critical Nazi movie theatre sequence that serves as the finale for his brilliant "Inglorious Basterds". This is one twisted, dark little adventure and I love its complete disregard for anything appropriate. Revisiting it every few years, I'll give CAT PEOPLE a purrfectly revolting B.

Joseph Heller's classic anti-war novel CATCH-22 is a brilliant read, but you could arguably describe it as "un-filmable". In 1970, Paramount Pictures threw a lot of cash, a first rate production team and cast to bring it to the screen and the results are intriguingly mixed. Director Mike Nichols and Writer Buck Henry had "The Graduate" together, capturing the late sixties zeitgeist of rebellion against tradition. With many times the budget and a war size production, they bring their same smart, urbane wit to the story of bombardier Capt. Yossarian (Alan Arkin) and his descent into the madness of World War II. We see the war through Yossarian's eyes and experiences with a massive cast of characters, including the inept Colonel Cathcart (Martin Balsam), kiss-ass Col. Korn (Buck Henry), unwilling Major Major (a hilarious Bob Newhart). the innocent Capt. Nately (Art Garfunkel), unstable Chaplain Tappman (Anthony Perkins) and the insane Brigadeer General Dreedle, played with gusto by the terrific Orson Wells, who never attends a briefing without his gorgeous young wife. The film is a crazy blend of styles, from the pratfalls of every soldier falling over themselves to get Dreedle's wife a chair, to quiet musings on death and violence as Yossarian comforts a wounded gunner mid-flight. Jon Voight is terrific as 1st Lt. Milo Minderbinder, who manages to turn the entire war into a money making corporation that provides everything from ammo to prostitution. He's a much darker version of Radar O'Rielly in "M*A*S*H" that hit movie screens the same year. Nichols and Henry challenge you with their storytelling. The entire movie is non-linear, with scenes popping up several times and a timeline that's as scattered as Yossarian's bombing efforts. It's a strong choice, forcing you to consider the character's actions in the context of each scene, versus any kind of arc from beginning to end. You can never get too emotionally involved in any scene before it pops to another that might have preceded it in time. The budget is massive, the flight scenes full scale and the madness of it all on full display. CATCH-22 will make you laugh a lot while delivering a very dark message about the military complex and war itself. Like "M*A*S*H", its got a lot to say beneath the laughter. CATCH-22 is inconsistent, difficult, smart, sad and funny. We'll give it an intriguing B.

One of Steven Spielberg’s best films, CATCH ME IF YOU CAN is all the more startling in the fact that it’s the true story of the world’s greatest con man, who accomplished more before turning 20 years old than most of us knock out in a lifetime. The reliably terrific Leonardo DiCaprio stars as young Frank Abagnale Jr. Watching his small time con-man father Frank Sr. (Christopher Walken) dazzle his way through life and his French mother’s love for them both, he seems content. But as his father’s cons start to catch up with them and their suburban life forces their hand, Frank goes on the run. The brilliance of the film is its fast-paced, detailed and fascinating depiction of Frank’s deep and furious descent from small time bad check writer to the most wanted fraud and con man in the USA. Attracting the attention of the FBI and its most dogged agent Carl Hanratty, (Tom Hanks) Frank moves quickly. Soon, he’s masquerading as a Pan Am Co-Pilot, traveling over 2 million miles on the airline’s dime and cashing huge checks all over the world. When the trail gets hot, Frank decides to become a doctor, then a lawyer. How far the young man gets in every thing he pursues is hilarious, impressive and one hell of a story. DiCaprio is excellent in every facet of his portrayal of young Frank. His arc from a scared kid watching his family unit collapsing in front of him to a confident con artist living the high life and facing off with the odds every day is always believable. Hanks matches him step for step as Carl. The two form an odd bond as they begin to realize that they are both alone in life. Their Christmas Eve calls to each other form a solid core for the film as Carl’s chase goes on holiday after holiday. Christopher Walken is excellent, capturing his pride and fear for his son as the game escalates. Martin Sheen adds a ton of fun as an important Louisiana lawyer and a very young Amy Adams is great as Brenda, the girl that Frank truly loves that may end his game for good. John Williams’s music is excellent throughout and the period settings are perfect. Who doesn’t miss the glamour of Pan American? The main titles are fantastic, designed by true artists named Oliver Kuntzel and Florence Deygas. They stand alongside “Bullitt” and “Goldfinger” as the best title sequences of the past 50 years. I stopped the film to go back and watch them three times. It's brilliant visual storytelling that kicks the film off in style. Check them out here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gaLDyrun_Cc With terrific movies like this, Spielberg will never go out of style. Only he could take some of the dark elements of this story and make them so entertaining. Hanks and DiCaprio make you care about these two men on opposite sides of a crime spree. I was fortunate enough to see the Broadway musical version of this film in New York with Aaron Tviet and Norbert Leo Butz in the roles of Frank and Carl. It was one of the best musicals I’ve ever seen. We saw it again in LA with lesser actors in the roles and it didn’t hold up quite as well, but Tviet and Butz gave DiCaprio and Hanks a run. Speaking of running, CATCH ME IF YOU CAN never stops and earns an A+ and a spot in my all-time Top 100 films.

With very fond memories of 1965's CAT BALLOU being one of my Dad's favorite films, I sat down for some nostalgia from this comedy/western. Jane Fonda is beautiful and funny as Cat, a western school teacher trying to help her father Frankie (John Marley from "The Godfather", having better luck with horses here than he did in that film) protect his ranch from a crooked company trying to steal his land. Cat meets Clay and his "uncle" Jed and they join the Ballou's on their ranch as protection, but the real help arrives with infamous gunslinger Kid Shelleen. Lee Marvin is perfect as Shelleen, a drunken shell of the great gunman he used to be. After a few shots of bourbon though, the skills come back with a vengance. It's a fine line of course, as one more drink turns him right back into a fall down drunk. Lee Marvin won an Oscar for his performance as Shelleen, as well as a ruthless hired gun named Strawn that works for the bad guys. His nose shot off in a battle, Strawn wears a big silver nose guard instead. In either role, Marvin brings the goods, winning an Oscar for Best Actor. Two singing balladeers pop in and out of the story, narrating the tale from beginning to end. Luckily for us, they are played by Nat King Cole and Stubby Kaye, hugely successful sixties entertainers that bring plenty of old fashioned fun to the proceedings. With a big dance that turns into a brawl, a wild showdown in the main dirt streets of the town and plenty of horses blazing across the landscapes, it's a traditional western with a light touch and plenty of laughs. Fonda carries the film on her back effortlessly, believable as a school teacher and an outlaw in her quest for revenge. My Dad loved physical comedy. Between this and his love for Benny Hill, you get exactly what tweaked his sense of humor. It's with terrific memories of watching this film numerous times with him that CAT gets a nostalgic, enjoyable and very old-fashioned B. Marvin is worth the price of admission, stealing every scene he's in. It grossed over $20 million back in 1965, so plenty of people bought that ticket again and again!

I remember enjoying CAST AWAY in a large theatre in Chicago during its release in 2000. But I had forgot how powerful this mostly quiet story is, driven by another terrific Tom Hanks performance. Hanks is Fed Ex supervisor Chuck Noland, jetting around Moscow as the film opens. We see him at home for a very quick Christmas with his fiance Kelly (Helen Hunt in a reserved, powerful role). When the film isn't quiet, it overwhelms you with noise, including one of the most realistic depictions of a jet liner crash in film history. Noland is plummeted into the ocean in an explosion of fire and water. He drifts onto an island in the middle of nowhere, hundreds of miles from any vehicles searching for the flight. Director Robert Zemeckis (Flight, The Walk) unspools an incredible story, detailing Noland's four years alone on the tropical island. The film crew took one year off after filming the opening scenes, during with time Hanks lost 50 lbs. Noland is a man challenged by the elements and isolation. His conversations with soccer ball Wilson not withstanding, Hanks conveys an incredible range of emotions almost silently. The final 40 minutes detail Noland's return to life and the challenges that await him at home. How do you adapt when everyone thought you were dead for four years? Hanks remains silent in many of these moments too, but you'll feel the heartbreak when he realizes that his life can never be the same. Zemeckis and screenwriter William Broyles (Apollo 13, Flags of Our Fathers) have crafted a huge adventure, a quest for rescue and a personal story that leave you moved. I must be very in sync with Zemeckis' style, because I often like his films a lot more than audiences. "The Walk" detailing high-wire artist Philippe Petit's walk between the towers of the World Trade Center was one of my favorite films of 2015. Very few saw it. Alan Silvestri's music score is very small and used sparingly, but when it fills your ears and it's the first thing you've heard in over an hour other than constant waves, it hits you. CAST AWAY carries a gut punch of emotion during Noland's moments on the island, as well as during Chuck and Kelly's powerful but ill-timed reunion. It's one of Hanks best and Zemeckis' most cleverly crafted films and gets an A. Wilson!!!!!!!!!