20 Movies: Murder by Decree (1979)

August 3, 2010

I was traumatized when I went to IMDb and saw Murder by Decree retitled as Sherlock Holmes and Saucy Jack. I have no idea why this occurred other than to guess this reflects some U.S. release, probably one that hoped to capitalize on the recent Sherlock Homes movie. Apart from being an idiotic title (most [...]

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20 Movies: Shadow of a Doubt (1943)

August 2, 2010

A list of movies that didn’t include Alfred Hitchcock wouldn’t be much of a list. One of my favourites, and one I think it’s time I watched again, is Shadow of a Doubt, with a very creepy Uncle Charlie played by Joseph Cotten. As mentioned in the review below, in many ways Hitch is the [...]

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20 Movies: The Truman Show (1998)

July 30, 2010

An innocent abroad in a less-than-innocent world is a standard story template. It has been used over and over. Decades ago I read Robert Heinlein’s A Stranger in a Strange Land. That was one take on the innocent story. Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse-Five, with his main character of Billy Pilgrim, was another. It shows up in [...]

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20 movies: The Core (2003)

July 29, 2010

It’s summer. Surely that calls for a “popcorn” movie? I suggest The Core (2003), a “world facing imminent destruction that only a well chosen quirky few can save it from,” kind of movie. You don’t look to disaster movies for credibility. A disaster movie that takes itself too seriously … now that is a genuine [...]

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20 movies: Insomnia (2002)

July 28, 2010

You may have heard of a guy named Christopher Nolan. He’s directed a few movies such as Batman Begins, The Dark Knight and the currently in release, Inception. He made his first really big splash with a movie called Memento (2000). Insomnia is a relatively lesser known movie he made. It’s the one he made [...]

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20 movies: The Big Heat (1953)

July 27, 2010

Depending on your age, you may remember seeing Glenn Ford in movies and on television. I’m thinking roughly of the 1970′s, perhaps late 60′s. He usually had an avuncular quality. He was a nice, friendly older man. He often played fatherly types. For example, in 1978′s Superman: The Movie he played kindly Pa Kent. So [...]

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20 movies: Tombstone (1993)

July 26, 2010

I can think of no better place to start my list of twenty movies than with one of my favourite kinds of movies, the western, and specifically one of my favourite westerns, Tombstone from 1993. If you want something to watch this summer, try this one. While there are many aspects to the movie that [...]

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