sharkboy
Posts: 6031
Joined: 26/9/2005
From: Belfast
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With Natalie Wood back in the news this week, I was reminded of this little beauty, her last appearance:
Take one part sci-fi, one part conspiracy thriller, one part chase movie and one part existential debate. Stir them together and you get this delight. Scientists discover a way to record not only what people see but what emotions they experience at the same time. Of course, it's not long before it gets put to nefarious uses (including torture and, in one memorable scene, to record orgasms!). But when it is used to reord the ultimate out-of-body experience, the men in suits start to close in and the chase begins.
And while I'm in a recommending mood, here are another couple:
Lots of people think that Lawrence of Arabia was O'Toole's finest performance. Wrong! While old T.E. was a great turn by Mr O'Toole, it was as Alan Swann, the alcoholic star from Hollywood's golden age, that Peter really excelled. Perhaps it was life imitating art, perhaps he just enjoyed the chance to do comedy, but whatever the reason he turned in the performance of a lifetime, getting a well-deserved Oscar nomination for his trouble. The movie is based on an episode from Mel Brooks's early career when, as an aspiring writer for The Sid Caesar Show, he was told to chaperone Errol Flynn for the weekend and keep him out of trouble. A career high for O'Toole and director Richard Benjamin.
I'm gonna champion this one until I've no breath left to do so! 12 Angry Men is often held as the ultimate courtroom drama (and rightly so IMO), but this one comes damnded close. This was the first half of Stanley Kramer's consecutive courtroom dramas (Judgement at Nuremberg following the next year), and featured one of Spencer Tracey's best performances as Henry Drummond, the humanist lawyer called to the deep south town of Hillsboro to defend the local schoolteacher from the charge of teaching the theory of evolution. he finds himself going head-to-head against not only the righteous townfolk of Hillsboro, but also his old friend Matthew Brady, a fundamentalist christian and former presidential candidate who comes in guns blazing to defend his faith. The scenes between the two are abaolutely riveting, and there are also some treats in the supporting cast such as Gene Kelly playing against type as the odious journalist who hires Drummond as defence attorney for the accused. In this age where "intelligent design" is being taught as a science in some schools, this movie is more relevant than ever!
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Every time we think we have measured our capacity to meet a challenge, we look up and we're reminded that that capacity may well be limitless
I left in love, in laughter, and in truth and wherever truth, love and laughter abide, I am there in spirit.
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RE: Recommend an unsung gem - 
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