John Huston was only one of five directors on this expensive, all-star 1967 spoof of Ian Fleming's 007 lore. David Niven is the aging Sir James Bond, called out of retirement to take on the organized threat of SMERSH and pass on the secret-agent mantle to his idiot son (Woody Allen). An amazing cast (Orson Welles, Peter Sellers, Deborah Kerr, etc. ) is wonderful to look at, but the film is not as funny as it should be, and the romping starts to look mannered after awhile. The musical score by Burt Bacharach, however, is a keeper. -Tom Keogh.

Director David Lean's masterful 1957 realization of Pierre Boulle's novel remains a benchmark for war films, and a deeply absorbing movie by any standard-like most of Lean's canon, The Bridge on the River Kwai achieves a richness in theme, narrative, and characterization that transcends genre. The story centers on a Japanese prison camp isolated deep in the jungles of Southeast Asia, where the remorseless Colonel Saito (Sessue Hayakawa) has been charged with building a vitally important railway bridge. His clash of wills with a British prisoner, the charismatic Colonel Nicholson (Alec Guinness), escalates into a duel of honor, Nicholson defying his captor's demands to win concessions for his troops. How the two officers reach a compromise, and Nicholson becomes obsessed with building that bridge, provides the story's thematic spine; the parallel movement of a team of commandos dispatched to stop the project, led by a British major (Jack Hawkins) and guided by an American escapee (William Holden), supplies the story's suspense and forward momentum. Shot on location in Sri Lanka, Kwai moves with a careful, even deliberate pace that survivors of latter-day, high-concept blockbusters might find lulling-Lean doesn't pander to attention deficit disorders with an explosion every 15 minutes. Instead, he guides us toward the intersection of the two plots, accruing remarkable character details through extraordinary performances. Hayakawa's cruel camp commander is gradually revealed as a victim of his own sense of honor, Holden's callow opportunist proves heroic without softening his nihilistic edge, and Guinness (who won a Best Actor Oscar, one of the production's seven wins) disappears as only he can into Nicholson's brittle, duty-driven, delusional psychosis. His final glimpse of self-knowledge remains an astonishing moment-story, character, and image coalescing with explosive impact. Like Lean's Lawrence of Arabia, The Bridge on the River Kwai has been beautifully restored and released in a highly recommended widescreen version that preserves its original aspect ratio. -Sam Sutherland Director David Lean's masterful 1957 realization of Pierre Boulle's novel remains a benchmark for war films, and a deeply absorbing movie by any standard-like most of Lean's canon, The Bridge on the River Kwai achieves a richness in theme, narrative, and characterization that transcends genre. [+]

Volunteers from all branches of the Allied forces made up the Australian 2 Special Force Unit, which carried out a total of 284 missions during World War II. Tight, suspenseful Attack Force Z effectively dramatizes one such sortie. Five tough commandos attempt to rescue the survivors of a downed American plane on a Japanese-held island in the southwest Pacific. Their leader is Captain P. G. Kelly, played by a youthful Mel Gibson. It's Kelly's first time in charge, and his fellow commandos, especially renegade Lieutenant J. A. Veitch (John Phillip Law, the cute Soviet sailor in The Russians Are Coming! The Russians Are Coming!), won't let him forget it. Kelly and Veitch's conflict raises both the mission's and the movie's tension quotient. [+]

Buried like a bone in a snowdrift, Balto never achieved the theatrical success it should have, but it's worth digging up. The film is structured on the true tale of a lead sled dog, Balto, that brought a diphtheria antitoxin to the small town of Nome, Alaska. The film balances comedy, villany, and drama very well and the voice work is above average. Safe family viewing, as even the villain's comeuppance manages a civilized resolution. The only problem is that the film never explains why these events in Alaska inspired New Yorkers to build a statue to the dog in Central Park. Maybe Balto eventually got mugged there. -Keith Simanton.

Chuck Norris fans will find Lone Wolf McQuade to be one of his best. Playing a rebellious Texas Ranger, Norris single-handedly wipes out an entire gang of horse thieves-and that's just the opening scene. From there the plot involves arms smuggling, McQuade's daughter being kidnapped, and a dwarf in an electric wheelchair. But the movie's real trump card is a face-off between Norris and David Carradine of the TV show Kung Fu, who plays a badass villain with a penchant for argyle sweaters (though truth be told, Norris's wardrobe is very 1980s as well). Barbara Carrera makes a suitable bad girl/love interest and science fiction fans will enjoy some familiar faces (Robert Beltran, who would later be part of Star Trek: Voyager, and William Sanderson, a supporting actor from Blade Runner). All in all, an action-packed romp with a reverent, almost mythological view of the Texas Rangers. -Bret Fetzer.