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The surviving cast of Sixteen Candles have gone in many different directions since the release of the 1984 teen movie. Many members of the main cast are still acting, including prominent Brat Pack members Molly Ringwald and Anthony Michael Hall. Michael Schoeffling, who played love interest Jake Ryan, notably left Hollywood behind in the early 1990s.

The cast of Sixteen Candles has gone in many different directions since the movie premiered in 1984. The project was the directorial debut of iconic director John Hughes, who had previously written screenplays for movies including Vacation, Mr. Mom, and National Lampoon's Class Reunion. In addition to introducing one of the most iconic directors of the 1980s, the movie was a seminal Brat Pack movie, helping introduce several of the young actors who would dominate teen media for years to come.

Because the Brat Pack movie was filmed more than four decades before the time of writing,...

Rod Serling's "The Twilight Zone" features several stories about haunted towns, extraterrestrial invasions, and every strange thing that occurs within the titular liminal space, where belief and superstition meet. (Remember when an entire town of actors was seemingly frozen in place?) In the show's 134th episode, "You Drive," a sentient car hounds a guilty man to mete out justice — in this instance, technology and human inventions are not symbols of doom, but demonstrate self-awareness and morals that some of their inventors or users lack. Although the writing in this episode comes off as muddled or shallow at times, "You Drive" remains memorable for pulling off an impressive feat: Creating the illusion of a self-driving car following a guilty man around.

Before we delve into the mechanics of the sequence, here's a recap the broad strokes of the story. Oliver Pope (Edward Andrews), an anxious, self-absorbed government official driving a 1956 Ford Fairlane Club Sedan,...

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Sony Pictures hopes audiences are all aboard for Bullet Train, David Leitch’s action comedy starring Brad Pitt, Sandra Bullock and Brian Tyree Henry that hits theaters Aug. 5.

Trains have a history of transfixing Hollywood, dating back to 19th century silent-film footage of the vehicle that was so realistic, it reportedly caused audiences to flee in fear. But one project that didn’t captivate viewers as expected was the NBC drama series Supertrain.

Launched in February 1979 with stars Edward Andrews and Robert Alda, the show centered on a luxurious, nuclear-powered train and followed in the footsteps of ABC’s popular Love Boat by focusing on passengers’ personal lives — which involved murder, abduction, mystery and romance — amid the cross-country voyage. Skyrocketing costs for the lavish train sets led the network to spend at least 7 million (28.6 million today) on the pilot, making it the most...

By Lee Pfeiffer

Kino Lorber has released the 1964 comedy "The Brass Bottle" on Blu-ray. The film appears to have been the inspiration for the hit TV series "I Dream of Jeannie" which starred Barbara Eden as the sultry title character. Some cinephiles argue that the film and TV series have nothing to do with one another, but it seems to me that if you make a movie with Barbara Eden and a genie from a brass bottle, than it's more than a coincidence that a TV series starring Eden featuring a genie and a brass bottle soon appears. It is true that Eden does appear as the female lead in the feature film, but in a very down-to-earth role as Sylvia, the fiancee of aspiring-but-unsuccessful architect Harold Ventimore (Tony Randall). Sorry, guys, no navel-gazing to be had here.The premise of the plot is as old as the pyramids: Harold...

The Brass Bottle

Blu ray

Kino Lorber

1964/ Color / 1.85:1 / 89 Minutes

Starring Tony Randall, Burl Ives, Barbara Eden

Directed by Harry Keller

Possessed of a commanding baritone and an even more elegant delivery, Tony Randall was a natural for radio, cutting his teeth as program announcer for Wtag in Worcester before landing the role of a two-fisted detective in the early ’40s with I Love a Mystery. It was a voice—silky but full of import—ideal for Shakespeare in the Park yet the actor’s nervous-nelly demeanor would make him a standard bearer for light comedy. After flaunting his versatility in Broadway’s Inherit the Wind and television’s Mr. Peepers, Randall laid down an actor’s gauntlet with his gender-bending, shape-shifting turn as a mysterious carny barker in 7 Faces of Dr. Lao. Based on Charles G. Finney’s 1935 satire—a cynical diatribe transformed into a cozy fantasy by George...

John Hughes’ breakthrough writing-directing hit still carries a glow that defuses its rougher edges, making it one of the best of ’80s Teen comedies. Even the savvy Soraya Roberts cuts it some slack, thanks to the authentic presence and fine performance of Molly Ringwald. Hughes’ amusing script comes up with at least ten moments that would have made Preston Sturges laugh, and his perfect casting for personalities young and old makes his direction look inspired. With great turns by Anthony Michael Hall, Haviland Morris, Debbie Pollack, Gedde Watanabe, Paul Dooley, and Michael Schoeffling.

Sixteen Candles

Special Collector’s Edition Blu-ray

Arrow Video

1984 / Color / 1:85 widescreen / 94, 92 min. / Street Date April 14, 2020 / Available from Arrow Video / 18.99

Starring: Molly Ringwald, Anthony Michael Hall, Justin Henry, Michael Schoeffling, Haviland Morris, Gedde Watanabe, Paul Dooley, Carlin Glynn, Blanche Baker, Edward Andrews, Carole Cook, Max Showalter, John Cusack, Debbie Pollack, Joan Cusack, Brian Doyle-Murray, Jami Gertz, John Kapelos,...

A never ending mission to save the world featuring Ron Perlman, Peter Ramsey, James Adomian, Will Menaker, and Blaire Bercy from the Hollywood Food Coalition.

Please support the Hollywood Food Coalition. Text “Give” to 323.402.5704 or visit https://hofoco.org/donate!

Show Notes: Movies Referenced In This Episode

Karado: The Kung Fu Flash a.k.a. Karado: The Kung Fu Cat a.k.a. The Super Kung Fu Kid (1974)

Sullivan’s Travels (1941)

The Best Years Of Our Lives (1946)

Mr. Smith Goes To Washington (1939)

Nobody’s Fool (1994)

The Hustler (1961)

Elmer Gantry (1960)

Mean Dog Blues (1978)

Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse (2018)

Mona Lisa (1986)

The Crying Game (1992)

The Hairdresser’s Husband (1990)

Ridicule (1996)

Man on the Train (2002)

The Girl on the Bridge (1999)

Pale Flower (1964)

Out of the Past (1947)

The Lunchbox (2013)

Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace (1999)

The Last Boy Scout (1991)

Raw Deal (1986)

Commando (1985)

The Masque of the Red Death (1964)

The Last Man On Earth (1964)

Invasion of the Body Snatchers...

The exclusive 4K Ultra-hd club welcomes a worthy new member, Joe Dante’s evergreen horror comedy (and Christmas delight) about a cute furry critter and its 2nd-generation horde of scaly, impish demons. These aren’t Gremlins from the Kremlin, but homegrown domestic terrorist monsters, and Dante contrasts their killer antics with a sentimental parody of small town America. No CGI … You will believe that the animatronic rascals can multiply like rabbits, break dance, and run amuck!

Gremlins

4K Ultra HD + Blu-ray + Digital Code

Warner Bros. Home Entertainment

1984 / Color / 1:85 widescreen / 106 min. / Street Date October 1, 2019 / 41.99

Starring: Zach Galligan, Phoebe Cates, Hoyt Axton, Keye Luke, Frances Lee McCain, Dick Miller, Jackie Joseph, Judge Reinhold, Polly Holliday, Belinda Balaski, Edward Andrews, Don Steele, Scott Brady, Corey Feldman, Harry Carey Jr., Chuck Jones, Glynn Turman, Jerry Goldsmith, William Schallert, Steven Spielberg, Kenneth Tobey.

Cinematography: John Hora

Film Editor: Tina Hirsch

Original Music: Jerry Goldsmith...

Great news for fans of Doris Day! The Glass Bottom Boat is currently available on Blu-ray from Warner Archives. Ordering information can be found Here

Doris Day entered her eighth consecutive year as a top-10 box-office star when she boarded The Glass Bottom Boat, a hilarious blending of romantic comedy and the era’s burgeoning spy-movie genre. Day plays Jennifer, a girl Friday at a hush-hush aeronautics think tank. When colleagues suspect she’s an espionage agent, Jennifer chaotically sets out to clear her name. Looney Tunes alumnus Frank Tashlin directs with a cartoonist’s sensibility – or zany insensibility – embracing everything from spy guises to push-button chaos in a futuristic kitchen. With top comedians Arthur Godfrey, Paul Lynde, Edward Andrews, John McGiver, Dom DeLuise and Dick Martin in tow, The Glass Bottom Boat is loaded top to bottom with see-through fun.

Frank Tashlin directs Doris Day as “the drip-dry spy...

It’s wacky, daffy and incredibly square, yet Frank Tashlin’s late career Doris Day romp has a certain gotta-watch interest factor: the male cast of clowns performs the sexist comedy well, and Ms. Day’s fantastic screen personality brightens everything. Space-age executive lothario Rod Taylor hires Doris just for romantic purposes, while Arthur Godfrey, John McGiver, Dom DeLuise, Edward Andrews, Paul Lynde and Dick Martin execute dated slapstick amid ‘futuristic’ gadgets from the days of Buck Rogers.

The Glass Bottom Boat

Blu-ray

Warner Archive Collection

1966 / Color / 2:35 widescreen / 110 min. / Street Date March 26, 2019 / available through the WBshop / 21.99

Starring: Doris Day, Rod Taylor, Arthur Godfrey, John McGiver, Dom DeLuise,

Ellen Corby, Edward Andrews, Eric Fleming, Paul Lynde, Dick Martin.

Cinematography: Leon Shamroy

Film Editor: John McSweeney

Original Music: Frank DeVol

Written by Everett Freeman

Produced by Everett Freeman and Martin Melcher

Directed by Frank Tashlin

The great director Frank Tashlin is...

By Lee Pfeiffer

Don Knotts came to fame with his trademark comedy style of portraying a meek, excessively nervous character. He was Woody Allen before Woody Allen was Woody Allen. Knotts honed his skills on Steve Allen's show in the 1950s, with his "man on the street" Nervous Nellie routine sending audiences into fits of laughter. He co-starred with fellow up-and-comer Andy Griffith in the hit Broadway production of "No Time for Sergeants" and the subsequent film version. When Griffith landed his own TV series in 1960 in which he played the sheriff of fictional small town Mayberry, Knotts imposed upon him to write a small, occasional part he could play as Barney Fife, Griffith's inept but loyal sheriff. Griffith complied and the role made Knotts an icon of American comedy, allowing him to win an astonishing five Emmys for playing the same character. Five years into the series, Knotts...

Need a break from violence, misery, and injustice? Or maybe just the network TV news? Billy Wilder’s last great comic romance is an Italian vacation soaked in music, food, scenery and sunshine. It’s the best movie ever about Love and Funerals.

Avanti!

Blu-ray

Kl Studio Classics

1972 / Color/ 1:85 widescreen / 140 min. / Street Date October 10, 2017 / available through Kino Lorber / 29.95

Starring: Jack Lemmon, Juliet Mills, Clive Revill, Edward Andrews, Harry Ray, Guidarino Guidi, Franco Acampora, Sergio Bruni, Ty Hardin.

Cinematography: Luigi Kuveiller

Film Editor: Ralph Winters

Art direction: Ferdinando Scarfiotti

Music Arranger: Carlo Rustichelli

Italian standards by Gino Paoli, Giuseppi Capaldo, Vittoriao Fassone, Don Backy, Detto Mariano, Sergio Brui, Salvatore Cardillo, Umberto Bertini, Paolo Marchetti.

Written by I.A.L Diamond and Billy Wilder from a play by Samuel L. Taylor

Produced and Directed by Billy Wilder

When Billy Wilder was reaching advanced old age, good friends rallied to make sure...

Louisa Mellor Sep 24, 2017

The second story in the Electric Dreams anthology series takes us into space with mixed results…

This review contains spoilers.

See related 35 films we want to watch in 2017

1.2 Impossible Planet

Like trousers with an elasticated waist, sci-fi is naturally forgiving of flab. As a genre, it stretches comfortably over excess and accommodates unattractive lumps. Tale full of high-reaching themes but no convincing characters? Stick a robot in it, give everyone tosser haircuts and job done. Have a ponderous philosophical point to make but can’t quite join up your story elements? Set it on a spaceship, call it literary sci-fi and nobody will notice.

They will notice, of course, because what’s being described above is bad sci-fi. Disappointingly, Impossible Planet, the second instalment in the Philip K. Dick’s Electric Dreams anthology series, is closer to that than the good stuff. It’s overfamiliar, alternately lifeless and stagey in performance,...

Exclusive: Spike TV has ordered It Was Him, a six-part documentary series from Objective Media Group. The project, which examines convicted killer Ed Edwards, will fall under a new Spike Serialized franchise for limited-run non-scripted series the network is launching, which also will include the previously announced Time: The Kalief Browder Story and The John McAfee Project. The docu series under the Spike Serialized umbrella will take an in-depth look into subjects…...

"To Tell the Truth," one of the greatest television game shows with a timeless conceit, is purportedly coming back to air. Fremantle is heading up a new primetime version of the series that puts "an update of the familiar format with a surprising new twist that adds action and suspense and raises the stakes." I'm all for it! "To Tell the Truth" is -- with the possible exception of "What's My Line?" -- the best panel game in TV history: Four celebrities interrogate three contestants who all claim to be the same person, and then the celebrities vote on which candidate is telling the truth. It's the show that's most responsible for putting Kitty Carlisle and Peggy Cass into our cultural lexicon, and it's what Eminem is referencing when he famously asked, "Will the real Slim Shady please stand up?" Gordon Elliott and Alex Trebek hosted an early '90s version,...

Shirley Jones Movies: Innocent virgins and sex workers galore (photo: Shirley Jones and Burt Lancaster in ‘Elmer Gantry’) (See previous post: “Shirley Jones: From Book to Movies.”) I haven’t watched The Cheyenne Social Club (1970), a comedy Western directed by Gene Kelly, and starring 62-year-old James Stewart as a cowpoke who inherits an establishment that turns out to be a popular house of prostitution. Henry Fonda plays Stewart’s partner. And I’m sure Shirley Jones, as one of the sex workers, looks lovely in the film. Hopefully, director Kelly gave this likable, talented actress the chance to do more than just stand around looking pretty. But then again … For all purposes, The Cheyenne Social Club ended Shirley Jones’ film stardom; that same year she turned to TV and The Partridge Family. Jones would return to films only nine years later, as one of several stars (among them Michael Caine,...

Humphrey Bogart movies: ‘The Maltese Falcon,’ ‘High Sierra’ (Image: Most famous Humphrey Bogart quote: ‘The stuff that dreams are made of’ from ‘The Maltese Falcon’) (See previous post: “Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall Movies.”) Besides 1948, 1941 was another great year for Humphrey Bogart — one also featuring a movie with the word “Sierra” in the title. Indeed, that was when Bogart became a major star thanks to Raoul Walsh’s High Sierra and John Huston’s The Maltese Falcon. In the former, Bogart plays an ex-con who falls in love with top-billed Ida Lupino — though both are outacted by ingénue-with-a-heart-of-tin Joan Leslie. In the latter, Bogart plays Dashiel Hammett’s private detective Sam Spade, trying to discover the fate of the titular object; along the way, he is outacted by just about every other cast member, from Mary Astor’s is-she-for-real dame-in-distress to Best Supporting Actor Academy Award nominee Sydney Greenstreet. John Huston...

The Phenix City Story

Directed by Phil Karlson

Written by Daniel Mainwaring and Crane Wilbur

U.S.A., 1955

When a neighbourhood, a town, a city, a state or a country is ostensibly run by the wicked and the corrupt, what does it take for the populace to rise up and fight its oppressors? When the patience of the majority runs thin, when their minds are finally set on uprooting the seeds of vice which have infected their institutions and culture, the results can be shockingly effective. Simply ask the former leaders of Lybia and Tunisia, both ousted in a matter of few weeks in early 2011. The stories feel are the more appalling when they occur closer to home however. Even small town America is not exempt from such tyrannical rule, as is seen in Phil Karlson’s provocative 1955 film, The Phenix City Story (yes, that’s P-h-e-n-i-x).

Phenix, Alabama is the setting,...

Not to be confused with the Ryan Gosling movie directed by Nicolas Winding Refn, this episode may actually be the grandfather of Christine and all other sentient car movies. The Twilight Zone, Episode #134: "You Drive" (original air date Jan. 3, 1964) The Plot: Driving home from work one day, distracted businessman Oliver Pope (Edward Andrews) accidentally hits a bicycle-riding boy. Panicked, he flees the scene. At home, he pretends that everything is Ok, though his wife Lillian (Helen Westcott) can see that he is upset. Then they hear their car, parked in the attached garage, sounding its horn, as though it had something to say ... The Goods: What a way to welcome a new year! The first Tz episode of 1964 gets things...

Film Noir Classic Collection: Vol. 5, has dusted off eight films of the celebrated genre and adapted them to DVD format. Collections like these, which bring older films to newer light, are godsends regardless (to a degree) of which films are selected, because as timeless as some of these stories and performances might be, the barrier of being stuck in an old format can bury them forever. And these stories deserve to be told. If you watch a few well made noir thrillers you will no doubt see the seeds that were planted in the heads of crime-thriller filmmakers the likes of Martin Scorsese or Michael Mann. Though there are better films in the noir genre that this collection could have culminated, there are also a lot worse. Any fan of noir films or old mysteries and thrillers will be pleased at what this box set has to offer.

Desperate (1947)

Directed...