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Back to the Future Part II takes the franchise ahead to 2015, and although the movie didn't predict the future with complete accuracy, there was a specific piece of foreshadowing that came eerily close. The first Back to the Future sequel actually got several things right about 2015, despite being released in 1989. However, there is one piece of the movie's lore that resonated particularly well with viewers, and the prediction was pretty much fulfilled in the real world in 2002.

The Back to the Future movies are widely considered to form one of the best and most consistent trilogies of all time. Led throughout by Michael J. Fox as Marty McFly and Christopher Lloyd as Dr. Emmett "Doc" Brown, the Back to the Future cast takes the audience through a thrilling time travel adventure that features almost as much nail-biting jeopardy as it boasts comedic moments. Despite an emphasis on making the audience laugh,...

In honor of 'Veterans Day'/'Remembrance Day', take a look at director Joseph Sargent's 1998 TV movie "The Wall" and the segment titled "The Badge":

"...there are 58,183 names on the 'Vietnam Veterans Memorial'. The lives they touched tell their stories. This is the story of 3 brave men who never made it home, told in three short, unique segments.

"In 'The Pencil Holder', Edward James Olmos plays a tough 'Colonel' struggling to raise his young son on an American military base surrounded by the brutality of battle. 

"In 'The Player', starring Frank Whaley & Michael DeLorenzo, a selfless squad leader must confront a hustler who's getting rich off the spoils of war..." 

"In 'The Badge', actress Ruby Dee reveals the pain a grandmother feels as she sends her beloved grandson overseas, then confronted by a long-haired vet , while searching for her grandson's name on the wall..."

Click the images to enlarge.

If you're hoping to discover that Russell Johnson, the level-headed, boundlessly inventive Professor Roy Hinkley from "Gilligan's Island" lived a life riddled with scandal, prepare to be sorely disappointed. Aside from his 1948 divorce and the time he entered the Burbank Post Office parking lot through the exit lane because he was running late for a Kiwanis Club dinner, there's not so much as a speck of dirt on this guy.

Born in 1924, you won't be surprised to learn that he served in World War II. But you might be interested to learn that on his 45th bombing raid in the Pacific Theater, his B-25 was shot down, forcing him to ditch the aircraft off the coast of the Philippines. His co-pilot was killed, while Johnson broke both of his ankles. Johnson received a fistful of medals, was honorably discharged, and used the G.I. Bill to study performance at the Actors' Lab in Hollywood.

One of the greatest blockbusters ever made -- and a couple of its sequels -- are headed to Netflix just in time for the fall season. Steven Spielberg's 1975 classic "Jaws" is headed to Netflix in September as part of the streamer's offerings for the month, alongside 1978's "Jaws 2" and 1983's "Jaws 3-D." That means subscribers will be able to watch the franchise nearly in its entirety, save for the fourth and final entry in the series, "Jaws: The Revenge." That may not be much of a loss though as it is widely regarded as the worst entry in the "Jaws" franchise.

Beginning September 1, the first three "Jaws" films will be available on Netflix. The films had a home on the streamer last year as well, but they were removed in December. In the streaming era as it exists, movies tend to bounce around on various services. Now, they're headed back to Netflix,...

Gene Roddenberry’s Star Trek is considered to be an innovative movement in the television show that revolutionized the space adventure genre in the 1960s. The series featured Leonard Nimoy playing one of the most iconic characters which forever became synonymous with his name, in Mr. Spock.

A still from Star Trek. Credits: CBS Photo Archive

Nimoy left a mark on the entire Star Trek franchise, and to think that someone else could be in the role of Mr. Spock just feels wrong. While things looked peaceful on the television, behind the scenes of the original series, things were heated between Nimoy and the series’ creator, Roddenberry.

Things often escalated so much that the two would often oppose each other on the set. As a result, their relationship strained so much that things got difficult between them, and it escalated to the point that forever severed their relationship.

Leonard Nimoy...

In honor of US Memorial Day, take a look at closing footage from director Joseph Sargent's 1998 TV movie "The Wall" and the segment titled "The Badge":

"...there are 58,183 names on the 'Vietnam Veterans Memorial'. The lives they touched tell their stories. This is the story of 3 brave men who never made it home, told in three short, unique segments.

"In 'The Pencil Holder', Edward James Olmos plays a tough 'Colonel' struggling to raise his young son on an American military base surrounded by the brutality of battle.

"In 'The Player', starring Frank Whaley & Michael DeLorenzo, a selfless squad leader must confront a hustler who's getting rich off the spoils of war..."

In 'The Badge', Ruby Dee - in a heart wrenching role - reveals the pain a grandmother feels as she sends her beloved grandson overseas”.

Click the images to enlarge…...

Netflix is bringing 1974 back to theaters thanks to rare archival prints, restorations, and select 35mm screenings of the curated “Milestone Movies” streaming collection.

The streaming platform debuts a slew of classic films across its trio of theaters in Los Angeles and New York City. The rarely screened archival prints for Martin Scorsese’s “Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore” and John Cassavetes’ “A Woman Under the Influence” are among the selected titles, as well as the premiere of the Dcp restoration of iconic Blaxploitation film “Foxy Brown” starring Pam Grier.

The screening series marks the 50th anniversaries of the 1974 films, which were unveiled as part of Netflix’s inaugural (and Criterion Channel-esque) curation channel “Milestone Movies: The Anniversary Collection,” which was unveiled in January 2024. Fifteen films will screen at the Paris Theater in New York from March 22 through 28, as 12 films screen at the Egyptian Theatre in Los Angeles from March 11 through...

In honor of 'Veterans Day'/'Remembrance Day', take a look at director Joseph Sargent's 1998 TV movie "The Wall" and the segment titled "The Badge":

"...there are 58,183 names on the 'Vietnam Veterans Memorial'. The lives they touched tell their stories. This is the story of 3 brave men who never made it home, told in three short, unique segments.

"In 'The Pencil Holder', Edward James Olmos plays a tough 'Colonel' struggling to raise his young son on an American military base surrounded by the brutality of battle. 

"In 'The Player', starring Frank Whaley & Michael DeLorenzo, a selfless squad leader must confront a hustler who's getting rich off the spoils of war..." 

"In 'The Badge', actress Ruby Dee reveals the pain a grandmother feels as she sends her beloved grandson overseas, then confronted by a long-haired vet, while searching for her grandson's name on the wall..."

Click the images to enlarge.

If you had to make a list of the top five people born to play an iconic character, there's a good chance that Leonard Nimoy would make that list. The actor brought Spock to life on "Star Trek" in a way that was uniquely his own. Tall, angular, and with an insane amount of presence, Nimoy introduced the world to Vulcans in such an impactful way that even people who have never seen a single "Star Trek" TV episode or movie could tell you that this fictional race of alien life has pointed ears and values logic over emotion. Heck, you might even be able to get every one of these non-fans to throw you a "live long and prosper" Vulcan salute.

You'd think that someone that was so successful at conveying an entirely new race of intelligent beings to the mass populace would find it easy to do. I...

Apple TV+’s hit limited series “Hijack” starring Idris Elba is a nail-biting thrill ride set in real-time. Over the years, there have been many types of hijack films. Besides planes, there have been suspenseful takeovers of ships, trains, subways and even trucks.

“The Taking of the Pelham One Two Three,” from 1974 — avoid the two remakes — is a superb thriller about four men who take over a New York subway car and hold the passengers, conductor and an undercover policeman hostage unless they get $1 million (remember that was a lot of money 49 years ago). If their demands aren’t met, they will start killing hostages. Directed by Joseph Sargent and adapted by Peter Stone from the best-selling novel by John Godey, “Taking” boasts a stellar cast at the top of their game including Walter Matthau, Robert Shaw, Hector Elizondo and Martin Balsam. David Shire penned the influential score.

A year...

From Oliver Stone’s Platoon to John Ford’s They Were Expendable, some of the greatest war movies ever made were the work of filmmakers who actually served in the military. The 400 Blows director François Truffaut famously said that it’s impossible to make an anti-war film (via the BBC), because the inherent spectacle of cinema means that any war movie will inevitably glamorize warfare. However, cinematic portrayals of war are a lot more accurate when they’re helmed by a director who’s actually fought in a warzone and lived through the horrors of war.

There are plenty of terrific filmmakers with a military background who drew on that background to create a realistic war movie. U.S. Army veteran Joseph Sargent directed a great biopic of General of the Army Douglas MacArthur. U.S. Army Air Forces veteran Robert Altman satirized the Korean War in his hit dark comedy M*A*S*H.

It was more than a little heartening to see Roger Corman paid tribute by Quentin Tarantino at Cannes’ closing night. By now the director-producer-mogul’s imprint on cinema is understood to eclipse, rough estimate, 99.5% of anybody who’s touched the medium, but on a night for celebrating what’s new, trend-following, and manicured it could’ve hardly been more necessary. Thus I’m further heartened seeing the Criterion Channel will host a retrospective of Corman’s Edgar Allan Poe adaptations running eight films and aptly titled “Grindhouse Gothic,” though I might save the selections for October.

Centerpiece, though, is a hip hop series including Bill Duke’s superb Deep Cover, Ghost Dog, and numerous documentaries––among them Beats, Rhymes & Life: The Travels of a Tribe Called Quest, making Michael Rapaport a Criterion-approved auteur. Ten films starring Kay Francis and 21 Eurothrillers round out series; streaming premieres include the Dardenne brothers’ Tori and Lokita,...

Nicolas Coster, the soap opera stalwart who starred on Another World, Santa Barbara and All My Children and appeared in such films as All the President’s Men, Reds and Stir Crazy, has died. He was 89.

Coster died Monday in a hospital in Florida, his daughter Dinneen Coster announced on Facebook.

“Please remember him as a great artist,” she wrote. “He was an actor’s actor! I will always be inspired by him and know how lucky I am to have such a great father!!

A familiar character actor who often portrayed officious types, Coster played chief of detectives J.E. Carson on The Misadventures of Sheriff Lobo and later recurred as the millionaire father of Lisa Whelchel’s Blair Warner on another 1980’s NBC sitcom, The Facts of Life.

He appeared often on Broadway, and in his 1961 debut, he understudied for Lawrence Olivier as Henry II in Becket. Two decades later,...

I honestly never expected Steven Spielberg in a Criterion Channel series––certainly not one that pairs him with Kogonada, anime, and Johnny Mnemonic––but so’s the power of artificial intelligence. Perhaps his greatest film (at this point I don’t need to tell you the title) plays with After Yang, Ghost in the Shell, and pre-Matrix Keanu in July’s aptly titled “AI” boasting also Spike Jonze’s Her, Carpenter’s Dark Star, and Computer Chess. Much more analog is a British Noir collection obviously carrying the likes of Odd Man Out, Night and the City, and The Small Back Room, further filled by Joseph Losey’s Time Without Pity and Basil Dearden’s It Always Rains on Sunday. (No two ways about it: these movies have great titles.) An Elvis retrospective brings six features, and the consensus best (Don Siegel’s Flaming Star) comes September 1.

While Isabella Rossellini...

Steven Spielberg sent a letter to The Last of Us co-creator praising the show. The HBO video game adaptation has received widespread acclaim for bringing the story of Joel (Pedro Pascal) and Ellie (Bella Ramsey) to life in live-action, along with the many characters they met along their journey. The Last of Us episode 3, which was written by co-creator Craig Mazin and directed by Peter Hoar, is especially acclaimed for chronicling Bill (Nick Offerman) and Frank's (Murray Bartlett) decades-long love story amid the apocalypse.

In a new edition of The Hollywood Reporter's Director Roundtable, Hoar revealed that the legendary Steven Spielberg wrote a letter praising The Last of Us. The letter was addressed to Mazin, who shared it with Hoar, Offerman, Bartlett, and cinematographer Eben Bolter. As a result, the "whole group of middle-aged men started squealing," Hoar recalls. Read what he shared below:

Well, I didn’t get it directly,...

In honor of US Memorial Day, take a look at closing footage from director Joseph Sargent's 1998 TV movie "The Wall" and the segment titled "The Badge":

"...there are 58,183 names on the 'Vietnam Veterans Memorial'. The lives they touched tell their stories. This is the story of 3 brave men who never made it home, told in three short, unique segments.

"In 'The Pencil Holder', Edward James Olmos plays a tough 'Colonel' struggling to raise his young son on an American military base surrounded by the brutality of battle. 

"In 'The Badge', Ruby Dee - in a heart wrenching role - reveals the pain a grandmother feels as she sends her beloved grandson overseas. 

"In 'The Player', starring Frank Whaley & Michael DeLorenzo, a selfless squad leader must confront a hustler who's getting rich off the spoils of war..."

Click the images to enlarge...

If the 1950s was the decade in which science fiction cinema began to mature and evolve, and the 1960s was the era where it started to experiment and stretch in new directions, then the 1970s was the period when the genre more or less went batshit insane.

The movies of the era continued to touch on socially and globally relevant themes, a trend that began 20 years earlier, while also continuing the literary pedigree and even more progressive concerns of the decade prior. But they did so in ever weirder ways, taking big swings (and often steep plunges as well) as many of the films of the decade aimed high but lacked the resources to match their ambitions.

Still, even the clunkier efforts of the ‘70s had their charms, and the creative success stories touched nerves in ways that the films of the previous decades hadn’t quite achieved. But almost...

I’ve loved gangster movies since I was four years old and saw Humphrey Bogart and Sylvia Sidney in Dead End (1937) on TV, and Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway in Bonnie and Clyde (1967) at the movies (My dad pinched a lobby card for me). Every Friday night, a local NYC station ran old crime flicks on a slot called “Tough Guys.” Bogart, James Cagney, Edward G. Robinson, and George Raft were the faces over the title. Today that might be Al Pacino, Robert De Niro, Wesley Snipes, and James Gandolfini.

The gangster and crime genre produced some of the most influential films in cinema history. Mervyn LeRoy’s Little Caesar (1931), William A. Wellman’s The Public Enemy (1931), and Howard Hawks’ Scarface (1932), get a lot of credit for breaking ground in topics beyond criminality, shattering sexual taboos as well as the boundaries of acceptable visual violence. High Sierra (1941) and White Heat...

Oscar-nominated Cinematographer Wilmer C. Butler, whose work included a series of landmark films such as The Conversation (1974), Jaws (1975) and One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (1975), has died. He was 101. The American Society of Cinematographers confirmed Butler’s passing.

Butler was the ASC’s most senior member, and he had a resume to match. He worked with directors such as Philip Kaufman, Francis Ford Coppola, William Friedkin, Richard Donner, Jack Nicholson, Sylvester Stallone, Ivan Reitman, Tobe Hooper, Joseph Sargent, Mike Nichols, John Cassavetes and Steven Spielberg.

Friedkin convinced Butler to be the cinematographer on The People vs. Paul Crump, a documentary about a prisoner slated for execution in Illinois. The project got Crump’s death sentence commuted.

He got his start in features with Philip Kaufman’s 1967 film Fearless Frank. Two years later, Friedkin introduced Butler to Francis Ford Coppola, with whom he shot The Rain People before going on to...

A new episode of The Arrow in the Head Show has just arrived online, and in this one hosts John “The Arrow” Fallon and Lance Vlcek are looking back at one of the least popular sequels ever made: the 1987 release Jaws: The Revenge (watch it Here). Some viewers think Jaws: The Revenge is so bad that it makes for entertaining viewing. Others think it’s so bad, it’s almost unwatchable. What do The Arrow and Lance think about it? Check out the video embedded above to find out!

Directed by Joseph Sargent from a script written by Michael de Guzman, Jaws: The Revenge has the following synopsis: The family of widow Ellen Brody has long been plagued by shark attacks, and this unfortunate association continues when her son is the victim of a massive Great White. In mourning, Ellen goes to visit her other son, Michael, in the Bahamas,...

Gordon Pinsent, the admired Canadian actor who starred opposite Julie Christie as a husband losing his wife to Alzheimer’s disease in Sarah Polley’s Away From Her, died Saturday, his family announced. He was 92.

A household name in his country, Pinsent also appeared on the big screen in Norman Jewison’s The Thomas Crown Affair (1968), Lasse Hallström’s The Shipping News (2001), Michael McGowan’s Saint Ralph (2004) and Don McKellar’s The Grand Seduction (2013).

On television, he played Possum Lake resident Hap Shaughnessy, a teller of tall tales, on the Canadian comedy The Red Green Show from 1991-2004 and was Chicago-based Royal Canadian Mounted Police sergeant Bob Fraser on the CTV/CBS series Due South from 1994-99.

And he served as the distinctive voice of Babar the Elephant in film and TV from 1989 through 2015.

In Away From Her (2006), which marked Polley’s directorial debut — she also received an Oscar nomination...

(Welcome to The Daily Stream, an ongoing series in which the /Film team shares what they've been watching, why it's worth checking out, and where you can stream it.)

The Movie: "The Taking of Pelham One Two Three" (1974)

Where You Can Stream It: HBO Max, Tubi

The Pitch: Four criminals board a downtown 6 train in New York City. They all use monikers based on different colors and are led by a former British Army Colonel with the pseudonym Mr. Blue (Robert Shaw). They round up the 18 passengers on the train and hold them, hostage, in the first car. Their demand? A million dollars to be delivered to the train within one hour. If the money does not make it to them in that time, they will execute one hostage every minute until they get it. Their only communication to the outside is the train radio that patches them to...

A superb thriller is now better than ever on 4K. We’ve always known why it rewards viewings: it’s both thrilling and funny. When Robert Shaw, Martin Balsam and Hector Elizondo hijack a subway train, Walter Matthau must scramble to collect a ransom while trying to figure out how they’ll make their escape. Peter Stone’s dialogue is delightful — the loud & mouthy ’70s New Yorkers are hilariously abrasive — and lovable. “Who wants to know?!!!” Includes a Blu-ray disc and a new commentary.

The Taking of Pelham One Two Three 4K

4K Ultra HD + Blu-ray

Kl Studio Classics

1974 / Color B&w / 2:35 widescreen / 104 min. / Street Date December 20, 2022 / available through Kino Lorber / 39.95

Starring Walter Matthau, Robert Shaw, Martin Balsam, Hector Elizondo, Earl Hindman, James Broderick, Dick O’Neill, Lee Wallace, Tom Pedi, Jerry Stiller, Rudy Bond, Kenneth McMillan, Doris Roberts, Julius Harris,Robert Weil.

Cinematography Owen Roizman

Original Music David Shire...

In honor of 'Veterans Day'/'Remembrance Day', take a look at director Joseph Sargent's 1998 TV movie "The Wall" and the segment titled "The Badge":

"...there are 58,183 names on the 'Vietnam Veterans Memorial'. The lives they touched tell their stories. This is the story of 3 brave men who never made it home, told in three short, unique segments.

"In 'The Pencil Holder', Edward James Olmos plays a tough 'Colonel' struggling to raise his young son on an American military base surrounded by the brutality of battle. 

"In 'The Player', starring Frank Whaley & Michael DeLorenzo, a selfless squad leader must confront a hustler who's getting rich off the spoils of war..." 

"In 'The Badge', actress Ruby Dee reveals the pain a grandmother feels as she sends her beloved grandson overseas, then confronted by a long-haired vet (M. Stevens), while searching for her grandson's name on the wall..."

Click the images to enlarge.

Last last year Sam Inglis led a team of HeyUGuys writers to compile a list of the films of 2021 that were cruelly overlooked. As we’re halfway through 2022 the time has come to draw up another list of films, but this time there’s a different criteria at hand.

These are the films that we have discovered, so far, in 2022. These are the films, from any year, that we have watched for the first time, and wanted to share with you. Here there are cinematic classics along with obscure ‘90s action thrillers, character studies and slasher flicks galore – there is no other list quite like it around.

We hope you’ll find new favourites from the list here, and be inspired to look further afield for your own movie discoveries.

Daniel Goodwin Recommends Colossus: The Forbin Project

At a time when Sci-Fi films were evolving from silly flying saucer B-movies into subversive,...

When the petition to get James Hong a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame began, the response was immediate and overwhelming. Recognizing the groundbreaking body of work from the 93-year-old actor, who has more than 650 credits to his name, actor-producer Daniel Dae Kim started a crowdfunding campaign in 2020 to raise the 55,000 necessary for the star. The goal was met within four days.

The only person who didn’t respond right away was Hong himself. “In actuality, I didn’t hear a thing,” Hong says with a laugh. “Somehow the internet wasn’t quite working or I didn’t get the email. The next thing I hear, they had the money already.”

Hong, who will receive his star in a ceremony on May 10, is still somewhat overwhelmed by the honor. “I want to thank all the fans and friends who donated their money. It boggles my mind to think that...

Though there have been deaf characters in movies for decades they were rarely played by hearing impaired actors. Hollywood was looking for big names for their movies and overlooked performers who were deaf. Case in point: Did you know that Loretta Young played deaf characters in both 1939’s “The Story of Alexander Graham Bell” and 1944’s “And Now Tomorrow”? And hearing actors Jane Wyman and Patty Duke won Oscars playing deaf characters. It wasn’t until 1986’s “Children of a Lesser God” that a deaf actress, Marlee Matlin, won an Oscar for playing a deaf character.

Change has been slow since then, but this past year has been encouraging. Paul Raci received an Oscar nomination this year as a Vietnam Vet who became hearing impaired in the conflict runs a shelter for recovering hearing impaired substance abuse addicts in “Sound of Metal.” Teenage deaf performer Millicent Simmonds returned this year...

Next month’s Criterion Channel selection is here, and as 2021 winds down further cements their status as our single greatest streaming service. Off the top I took note of their eight-film Jia Zhangke retro as well as the streaming premieres of Center Stage and Malni. And, yes, Margaret has been on HBO Max for a while, but we can hope Criterion Channel’s addition—as part of the 63(!)-film “New York Stories”—opens doors to a more deserving home-video treatment.

Aki Kaurismäki’s Finland Trilogy, Bruno Dumont’s Joan of Arc duology, and Criterion’s editions of Irma Vep and Flowers of Shanghai also mark major inclusions—just a few years ago the thought of Hou’s masterpiece streaming in HD was absurd.

I could implore you not to sleep on The Hottest August and Point Blank and Variety and In the Cut or, look, so many Ernst Lubitsch movies,...

In honor of US Memorial Day, Sneak Peek closing footage from director Joseph Sargent's 1998 TV movie "The Wall" and the segment titled "The Badge":

"...there are 58,183 names on the 'Vietnam Veterans Memorial'. The lives they touched tell their stories. This is the story of 3 brave men who never made it home, told in three short, unique segments.

"In 'The Pencil Holder', Edward James Olmos plays a tough 'Colonel' struggling to raise his young son on an American military base surrounded by the brutality of battle. 

"In 'The Badge', Ruby Dee - in a heart wrenching role - reveals the pain a grandmother feels as she sends her beloved grandson overseas. 

"In 'The Player', starring Frank Whaley & Michael DeLorenzo, a selfless squad leader must confront a hustler who's getting rich off the spoils of war..."

Click the images to enlarge...

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By Todd Garbarini

In January 1998 I attended a book signing in New York City emceed by author Russell Banks and film director Atom Egoyan. They were on hand to autograph copies of Mr. Banks’s 1991 novel, The Sweet Hereafter, which had been made into a 1997 film of the same name by Mr. Egoyan. Despite varying greatly, the novel and the film both concern the aftereffects of life in a small town in the Adirondacks when fourteen children die following an accident involving their school bus when it careens off a slippery, snow-covered road and sinks into the frozen waters of a nearby body of water. Mr. Egoyan claimed that he was inspired to make the film because, he felt, something terrible will happen to everyone at some point in his or her life, and they will need to find a way to move on.

Dorothea G. Petrie, who won Emmys for producing “Love Is Never Silent” and ‘Caroline?,” died peacefully at her home in Los Angeles on Tuesday, her family announced. She was 95.

Petrie began her career in New York as an actress and talent agent before putting it on hold to raise four children. She ended her hiatus in 1979 by writing the story for, and producing, the CBS film “Orphan Train,” starring Jill Eikenberry. She went on to produce “Angel Dusted” starring Jean Stapleton for NBC, “License to Kill” with Denzel Washington for CBS and “Picking Up the Pieces” starring Margot Kidder for CBS.

In 1986, she won an Emmy for producing NBC’s Hallmark Hall of Fame presentation “Love is Never Silent,” which also won an Emmy for director Joseph Sargent and nominations for stars Mare Winningham and Phillis Frelich. Petrie next produced “Foxfire,” the eight-time Emmy nominated film for Hallmark and CBS.

Dorothea G. Petrie, who won an Emmy award for the Hallmark drama Love is Never Silent, died at her home in Los Angeles on Tuesday, November 24 at age 95. Her family confirmed the death, which they said was by natural causes.

Petrie began her career in New York as an actress and talent agent before putting it on hold to raise four children. She ended her hiatus in 1979 by writing the story and producing the CBS film Orphan Train, starring Jill Eikenberry. She went on to produce Angel Dusted starring Jean Stapleton for NBC, License to Kill with a young Denzel Washington for CBS, and Picking Up the Pieces starring Margot Kidder for CBS.

In 1986, she won an Emmy for producing NBC’s Hallmark Hall of Fame presentation Love is Never Silent, which also won an Emmy for director Joseph Sargent and nominations for stars Mare Winningham and Phillis Frelich. Petrie next produced Foxfire,...

In honor of 'US Veterans Day' ('Remembrance Day' in Canada), take a look at director Joseph Sargent's 1998 TV movie "The Wall" and the segment titled "The Badge":

"...there are 58,183 names on the 'Vietnam Veterans Memorial'. The lives they touched tell their stories. This is the story of 3 brave men who never made it home, told in three short, unique segments.

"In 'The Pencil Holder', Edward James Olmos plays a tough 'Colonel' struggling to raise his young son on an American military base surrounded by the brutality of battle. 

"In 'The Badge', Ruby Dee - in a heart wrenching role - reveals the pain a grandmother feels as she sends her beloved grandson overseas. 

"In 'The Player', starring Frank Whaley & Michael DeLorenzo, a selfless squad leader must confront a hustler who's getting rich off the spoils of war..."

Click the images to enlarge and Sneak...

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“Next Stop… Hijack!”

By Raymond Benson

There were many motion pictures made in the 1960s, 70s, and 80s that depict New York City as a less than desirable place to be. A hell on earth full of crime, grime, sin, debauchery, drugs, gangs, and corruption. You know the titles—The Out of Towners, Midnight Cowboy, Joe, Taxi Driver…

While the portrayal may very well have been true, to a certain extent, this reviewer lived in Manhattan over a decade during the relevant years and found it to be the most exciting, vibrant, culturally potent, and beautifully stimulating environment. Not only that, the #6 Irt train is one this reviewer rode almost daily, so the stops, the milieu, and the atmosphere were dead-on familiarities. As some of us like to say today in the age when 42nd Street and Times Square have been “Disney-ized,” we...

Heady. Intellectual. Gassy. These are some of the terms applied to the wave of brain-based sci-fi started by 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), and lasting until the arrival of more action led material, namely Star Wars (1977). Coming hot on the heels of Kubrick’s epic was Colossus: The Forbin Project (1970), an awkwardly titled yet fascinating and suspenseful look at the perils of AI sentience. Damn you, computers. All the way to cyberhell.

Released by Universal in April, Colossus actually received good notices from critics who appreciated the film’s attempts at suspense crossed with intelligent discourse on the wages of war; audiences simply shrugged and moved on, denying the film the sequel it deserved. Oh well - Colossus standing alone is apropos considering the events that transpire.

We open on a Colorado mountainside, as Dr. Charles Forbin (Eric Braeden - The Young and the Restless) triple checks the gargantuan banks of...

In honor of Us Memorial Day, Sneak Peek director Joseph Sargent's 1998 TV movie "The Wall" and the segment titled "The Badge":

"...there are 58,183 names on the 'Vietnam Veterans Memorial'. The lives they touched tell their stories. This is the story of 3 brave men who never made it home, told in three short, unique segments.

"In 'The Pencil Holder', Edward James Olmos plays a tough 'Colonel' struggling to raise his young son on an American military base surrounded by the brutality of battle. 

"In 'The Player', starring Frank Whaley & Michael DeLorenzo, a selfless squad leader must confront a hustler who's getting rich off the spoils of war..."

"In 'The Badge', Ruby Dee - in a heart wrenching role - reveals the pain a grandmother feels as she sends her beloved grandson overseas." 

Click the images to enlarge and Sneak Peek "The Wall"...

Else Blangsted, a Holocaust survivor who went on to a 35-year career as a film music editor who worked with some of the industry’s most successful directors, producers and composers – Robert Redford, Steven Spielberg, Quincy Jones, Dave Grusin, Sydney Pollack, among others – died Friday, May 1, from natural causes at her home in Los Angeles. She was 99.

Blangsted’s death, which occurred just three weeks short of her 100th birthday, was confirmed by her cousin, the Oscar–winning filmmaker and producer Deborah Oppenheimer.

Though she occasionally worked in TV throughout the years – Hazel, Dennis the Menace, Apple’s Way and the 1976 miniseries Helter Skelter, among others – it was in film that Blangsted left her most indelible professional mark. A partial roster of her film credits, spanning 1955’s Picnic to 1990’s The Bonfire of the Vanities, includes On Golden Pond, The Great Santini, Ordinary People, The Color Purple, The Goonies, In Cold Blood,...

Take a look at closing footage from director Joseph Sargent's 1998 TV movie "The Wall" and the segment titled "The Badge":

"...there are 58,183 names on the 'Vietnam Veterans Memorial'. The lives they touched tell their stories. This is the story of 3 brave men who never made it home, told in three short, unique segments.

"In 'The Pencil Holder', Edward James Olmos plays a tough 'Colonel' struggling to raise his young son on an American military base surrounded by the brutality of battle. 

"In 'The Badge', Ruby Dee - in a heart wrenching role - reveals the pain a grandmother feels as she sends her beloved grandson overseas. 

"In 'The Player', starring Frank Whaley & Michael DeLorenzo, a selfless squad leader must confront a hustler who's getting rich off the spoils of war..."

Click the images to enlarge and Sneak Peek "The Wall"...

In honor of Us Memorial Day, Sneak Peek closing footage from director Joseph Sargent's 1998 TV movie "The Wall" and the segment titled "The Badge":

"...there are 58,183 names on the 'Vietnam Veterans Memorial'. The lives they touched tell their stories. This is the story of 3 brave men who never made it home, told in three short, unique segments.

"In 'The Pencil Holder', Edward James Olmos plays a tough 'Colonel' struggling to raise his young son on an American military base surrounded by the brutality of battle. 

"In 'The Player', starring Frank Whaley & Michael DeLorenzo, a selfless squad leader must confront a hustler who's getting rich off the spoils of war.

"In 'The Badge', a grandmother (Ruby Dee) reveals her pain...

"...as she sends her beloved grandson overseas." 

Click the images to enlarge and Sneak Peek "The Wall"...

There must be thousands of old TV movies that would reward viewing if they were being screened anywhere... although the odds of finding anything good at random are even more slight than when you go trawling through old cinema releases without a guide. The much-discredited auteur theory can come to the rescue: a show with a director known for other interesting work has a far higher chance of rewarding attention.TV was Joseph Sargent's bread and butter, from relatively highbrow stuff to The Man from Uncle, but he also made several decent cinema films, including at least one masterpiece, The Taking of Pelham 123. When I found a DVD entitled Hiroshima with his name spelled incorrectly on the back, I decided to take a chance on it, and indeed the film, originally it seems a mini-series from 1989 called Day One, has a lot going for it. What immediately cheered me,...

Jim Knipfel Mar 4, 2019

We look at some of the lesser-remembered but influential evil artificial intelligence computer movies, Colossus and Demon Seed.

The ugly turns taken by assorted historical vectors in the late 1960s and early ‘70s—a string of high-profile assassinations, race riots, Manson, the Weather Underground, Vietnam, Nixon, a broader awareness of impending environmental collapse—made the 1970s a particular golden era for dystopian cinema. All the above mentioned forces and more gave us the likes of Soylent Green, No Blade of Grass, Thx-1138, Frogs, The Omega Man, and countless other visions of our doomed future. In and amongst all our other inescapable anxieties and paranoias was an increasing awareness of the role computers were playing in our daily lives.

Technoparanoid fears of dehumanization and power-mad machines can of course be traced back to the silent era in cinema, and much earlier than that in literature and legend, but...

Jean-Marc Vallee might get a twin win at Saturday’s Directors Guild of America Awards. With 82/25 odds in our predictions, the “Sharp Objects” director is the favorite to take home the TV movie/miniseries prize for the second year in a row, but he ought to watch out for Ben Stiller (“Escape at Dannemora”).

Vallee prevailed last year for “Big Little Lies,” and like with that series, he helmed every episode of “Sharp Objects” as well. He’d be the third person to win this category twice after Lamont Johnson and Jay Roach.

Mick Jackson holds the record with four victories, for “Indictment: The McMartin Trial” (1995), “Tuesdays with Morrie” (1999), “Live with Baghdad” (2002) and “Temple Grandin” (2010). Joseph Sargent has three DGA Awards, for “The Marcus-Nelson Murders” (1973), “Something the Lord Made” (2004) and, in a tie with George C. Wolfe for “Lackawanna Blues,” “Warm Springs” (2005).

See SAG Awards: See the complete list of winners

Unlike last year,...

Before TV movies were dissed with the phrase ‘disease of the month,’ this 1973 film surprised and moved audiences with the realistic story of a young mother facing a fatal illness. It’s directed by the great Joseph Sargent and graced with the music of John Denver, but its impact rests upon the remarkable, affecting performance of actress Cristina Raines, then just twenty years old.

Sunshine

Blu-ray

Redwind Productions

1973 / Color / 1:33 flat / 124 min. / Street Date 2018 / Signature Release / 33.95

Starring: Cristina Raines, Cliff De Young, Meg Foster, Brenda Vaccaro, Bill Mumy, Alan Fudge, Corey Fischer, James Hong, Bill Stout, Noble Willingham.

Cinematography: Bill Butler

Film Editor: Buddy Small, Richard M. Sprague

Original Music: Hal Mooney

Songs by John Denver

Written by Carol Sobieski suggested by the journal of Jacquelyn Helton

Produced by George Ekstein

Directed by Joseph Sargent

“What can you say about a twenty-five-year-old girl who died?” That’s the first line...

Every so often the stars align in such a way as to allow a perfectly inert and “nonproductive” weekend spent in the company of four, or five, or maybe even six movies, the sort of cine-bliss-out designed to decompress the mind and spirit after a particularly insistent week of breadwinning. Back in the salad days, when all thoughts were ostensibly devoted to expanding one’s horizons, this sort of motion picture marathon was known as a typical college weekend. But similar opportunities come far less frequently 40 years later, and when they do, they’re usually accompanied by at least four or five loads of laundry demanding to be sorted and folded. Thanks to the largely unplumbed depths of my DVR queue, I stumbled into one such marathon last Friday night, and it was a doozy, an entirely unplanned, thematically linked four-picture blast that would have been a honest-to-God B-movie treasure...

Stars: Lance Henriksen, Veronica Cartwright, Cristina Raines, Joe Lambie, Anthony James, Richard Masur, Lee Ving, Moon Unit Zappa, Emilio Estevez | Written by Christopher Crowe, Jeffrey Bloom | Directed by Joseph Sargent

While it may be hard to believe that less than a decade ago Nightmares was one of The most sought after, most-requested titles for re-release, after watching this 80s anthology it’s easy to see why. Very much part of the 70s and early 80s portmenteau film vogue, which gave us the likes of Trilogy of Terror, Creepshow and its sequel, The Twilght Zone and Cats Eye, Nightmares features four stories that riff on pre-existing themes:

Terror in Topanga is a take on the “killer is in the house” trope; whilst The Bishop of Battle plays on the perils of obsession and the early-80s belief that video games were “evil”. The Benediction is a quasi-religious version of Richard Matheson...

This nearly forgotten Sci-fi masterpiece should have been a monster hit. For some reason Universal didn’t think that a computer menace was commercial — the year after 2001. The superior drama sells a tough concept: the government activates a defense computer programmed to keep the peace. It does exactly that, but by holding the world hostage while it makes itself a God above mankind.

Colossus: The Forbin Project

Region B Blu-ray

Medium Rare UK

1970 / Color / 2:35 widescreen / 99 min. / Street Date March 27, 2017 / Available from Amazon UK £6.99

Starring: Eric Braeden, Susan Clark, Gordon Pinsent, William Schallert, Leonid Rostoff, Georg Stanford Brown, Willard Sage, Alex Rodine, Martin Brooks, Marion Ross, Dolph Sweet, Robert Cornthwaite, James Hong, Paul Frees, Robert Quarry.

Cinematography: Gene Polito

Film Editor: Folmar Blangsted

Visual Effects: Albert Whitlock, Don Record

Original Music: Michel Colombier

Written by James Bridges, from a novel by D.F. Jones

Produced by Stanley Chase

Directed by Joseph Sargent...

New Yorkers of two centuries ago surely complained loudly about rampant street crime, but in the 1960s the media really ramped up the reportage paranoia. Had a new age of senseless violence begun? A New York play about terror on the subway is the source for this nail-biter with a powerful cast, featuring an ensemble of sharp new faces and undervalued veterans.

The Incident

Blu-ray

Twilight Time

1967 / B&W / 1:85 widescreen / 99 min. / Street Date February 20, 2018 / Available from the Twilight Time Movies Store / 29.95

Starring: Tony Musante, Martin Sheen, Beau Bridges, Jack Gilford, Thelma Ritter, Brock Peters, Ruby Dee, Ed McMahon, Diana Van der Vlis, Mike Kellin, Jan Sterling, Gary Merrill, Robert Fields, Robert Bannard, Victor Arnold, Donna Mills.

Cinematography: Gerald Hirschfeld

Film Editor: Armond Lebowitz

Production design: Manny Gerard

Original Music: Terry Knight, Charles Fox

Written by Nicholas E. Baehr

Produced by Edward Meadow, Monroe Sachson

Directed by Larry Peerce

Various pundits...

It’s the loose-censored early 1970s, and screen bandits shootin’ up the American movie landscape are no longer suffering the once-mandated automatic moral retribution. Walter Matthau launched himself into the genre with this excellent Don Siegel on-the-run epic, about an old-fashioned independent bandit who accidentally rips off the mob for a million. It’s great, wicked fun.

Charley Varrick

Region B Blu-ray

Indicator

1973 / Color / 1:85 widescreen / 111 min. / Charley Varrick the Last of the Independents; Kill Charley Varrick / Street Date January 22, 2018 / available from Powerhouse Films UK / £14.99

Starring: Walter Matthau, Joe Don Baker, Andrew Robinson, John Vernon, Felicia Farr, Sheree North, Jacqueline Scott, William Schallert, Norman Fell, Benson Fong, Woodrow Parfrey, Rudy Diaz, Charles Matthau, Tom Tully, Albert Popwell

Cinematography: Michael Butler

Film Editor: Frank Morriss

Original Music: Lalo Schifrin

Written by Dean Riesner, Howard Rodman from the novel The Looters by John Reese

Produced by Jennings Lang, Don Siegel

Directed by...

In honor of Us Veterans Day, Sneak Peek closing footage from director Joseph Sargent's 1998 TV movie "The Wall" and the segment titled "The Badge":

"...there are 58,183 names on the 'Vietnam Veterans Memorial'. The lives they touched tell their stories. This is the story of 3 brave men who never made it home, told in three short, unique segments.

"In 'The Pencil Holder', Edward James Olmos plays a tough 'Colonel' struggling to raise his young son on an American military base surrounded by the brutality of battle. 

"In 'The Badge', Ruby Dee - in a heart wrenching role - reveals the pain a grandmother feels as she sends her beloved grandson overseas. 

"In 'The Player', starring Frank Whaley & Michael DeLorenzo, a selfless squad leader must confront a hustler who's getting rich off the spoils of war..."

Click the images to enlarge and Sneak Peek "The Wall"...

In honor of the 30th anniversary of Joseph Sargent’s 1987 sequel Jaws: The Revenge, I thought it would be fun to revisit the much-maligned movie with the intent of finding something redeemable about it. With its famously rushed production, head-scratching plot, questionable special effects, and a surprisingly low body count, it’s no wonder to many […]...