Blame Cleopatra for why this is late, but never late than never, right? In this expansive News From the Lake segment, I’ll announce some DVD release dates, discuss Mel Brooks getting the AFI Lifetime Achievement Award, a new biopic in the works, and what movies you can see in theaters this summer courtesy of Cinemark.
The review is a bit late, and hastily written today, but I just got home (it’s about midnight) from watching Cleopatra, on the big screen, for its 50th anniversary. Despite it’s excessive runtime, Cleopatra is the quintessential movie to see in a theater due to its epic scope; they don’t make movies like this anymore. Continue Reading
Does your father enjoy social reform movies, and/or the work of acclaimed actor Robert Redford? If you answered “yes” to either of those questions, you might want to pick up a copy of the 20th Century Fox film, Brubaker on Blu-ray. While the movie is dated with its hammy analysis of prison reform, the script is bristling with emotion and has some fantastic performances from Redford, Yaphet Kotto, and a pre-fame Morgan Freeman.
Twilight Time is ambitious for putting out a critically excoriated (at the time) Sam Peckinpah film, but they have and I applaud the effort. While I didn’t adore Major Dundee, and it wears its problems sewn into its sleeve, there’s something to admire in its scope and tenacity. Containing an extended edition, which helps solve several of the narrative problems, Twilight Time puts forth another excellent lost-gem worth picking up. **This review kicks off a series of films as part of my unofficial Father’s Day Gift Guide!**
If I told you to list some of the staples of motion pictures what would you include: stars, a good script. Would you mention sex? Whether explicit or implied, the act of making love is always portrayed on-screen (even when the Code removed it from film there were still ways to imply that people were getting down). With that, I’ve always found books about the history of sex on film to be fascinating, so I had a lot of fun with author Simon Sheridan’s Keeping the British End Up: Four Decades of Saucy Cinema. I wouldn’t have guessed that some of the more explicit sexual acts were being film across the pond. The exploitation cinema in Britain throughout the fifties and into the seventies is detailed in this coffee table book that’s not for the prudish.
Scheduled Features
Saturday: Journeys in the Disney Vault
Sunday: Biopic Theater
Monday: Hollywood Book Revue
