Marathon Man (1976)

This is a really thriller. Dustin Hoffman plays a pacifist grad student who eventually learns to use a gun to defend himself. He has a brother (Roy Scheider) who is a secret government agent surveilling a Nazi war criminal (Lawrence Olivier) who is after some diamonds he wants to cash in. Olivier is pure evil in this film. The scene where Holocaust survivors recognize him on the streets of New York is particularly chilling. The climax is a thrilling showdown between Hoffman and Olivier, two of the best film actors of all time. Co starring William Devane as another government agent.

Clash of the Titans (1981 and 2010 versions)

Fondly remembering the older version, I went to go see the new Titans over the weekend and enjoyed it. Special effects have come a long way in 30 years and the time was right for an update. I think I like this movie better than the original, when I first saw it on a black-and-white television when I was a kid.

What do I most remember about the 1981 version? Of course, the Medusa sequence. The original was pretty scary when I saw it as a kid. Even if I knew the snakes in her hair were all made out of clay (maybe seeing it in B/W added to the fear). As an adult, this new version was even more terrifying, with her long slithering tail and killer gaze.



There is a really good cover story in this week's Entertainment Weekly. I learned that the director of the remake, Louis Laterrier thought the same as I did when he re-watched the 1981 original: "It was a better movie in my memory". When I now watch the 1981 film, I can't help but think that Laurence Olivier (Zeus) and Burgess Meredith chose to do this just for the money. Other renowned actors such as Maggie Smith and Claire Bloom give the film a fragment of respectability.

The original movie is still OK with me, but it's does seem dated with its stop motion animated creatures. But before CGI, that's the best we could do.


In the new film, we also have a number of well known stars playing the gods: Liam Neeson is Zeus, and Ralph Fiennes is Hades.

Interestingly, they both were in Schindler's List. In that film, as you may recall, Fiennes also played a demonic character.



The new Titans is a bit darker, and is more intense. Some who have seen it in 3D have been complaining, saying there are no cool effects. I went to see it in 3-D and I didn't think it wasn't all bad. Plus, remember that back in the 1950s they only had paper 3-D glasses (not nice plastic ones we have now), and those kids lined up to see a matinee of "The Blob" would love to see such action like this today.

In the new version, Perseus (Sam Worthington), the son of Zeus, is motivated by revenge rather than his love for Andromeda, who is to be sacrificed to the "Kraken" monster. Worthington is OK, but I would have rather seen someone else play this. He seems like he doesn't want to be in this movie.

And instead of the chirping stop-motion "Bibo the Owl" creature that accompanied Perseus in the original, we now have a beautiful guide by the name of Io, played by Gemma Arterton.

For a great review and comparison between the two versions, check out Monty's post at his awesome new blog dedicated to TV and movie superheros, Hero Worship.

A Little Romance (1979)

As the title implies, this is a romance between a couple of kids. I guess it may have been the "My Girl" of its day. It's not a comedy, but there are some elements of humor. For the most part it has a serious tone.  At the film's center is Lauren, a rich American girl played by 14-year old Diane Lane. She and her parents (mother is played by Sally Kellerman) live in Paris because of her dad's job. She attends a boarding school and develops a romance with a young Parisian teen.  They spend their time watching movies and discussing capitalism, Heidegger, and existentialism. One day they literally bump into an elderly Parisian gentleman played by Laurence Olivier, in a small role, and one of his last movies. He ends up giving them some advice about life and love and inspires them to to travel to Italy to kiss on a gondola on the River Seine. As the young couple run away throughout Europe, the furious parents send out a search party, while Olivier sits back and sighs. Georges Delerue won an Oscar for his music score. The ending is touching and heartbreaking. I'd like to see a reunion movie with the two stars as adults. Diane Lane was a pretty good performer at this age. As an additional bonus, there is a cameo by Broderick Crawford (Oscar winning Best Actor for 1949's "All the Kings Men")