Basil Fawlty is quite possibly the rudest hotel manager in all of Britain, if not the entire world. As he insults his guests, mocks his wife, caters to the upper class, manhandles the incompetent Spanish bellboy, impinges on the maid, and always manages to screw everything up. "Fawlty Towers" is the irreverent and hilarious work of John Cleese, Monty Python member, who both starred and cowrote the show with his then wife and costar Connie Booth. Cleese's performance is hilariously manic and physical and I was often taken aback by the outrageousness of the 12 episode of the series as Basil tries to make a Waldorf Salad without a cook, not offend his guests on German Night, and successfully dispose of a corpse taking up space in an occupied room. "Fawlty Towers" is an extremely funny series that must have set the bar for television comedy of its time.

In vaudeville's heyday Al Lewis and Willy Clark were a top act, performing their routine thousands of times over a number of years. Offstage, however was a different story and the two men cannot stand each other not speaking since the duo broke up. Now Willy's nephew, an aspiring agent, has gotten them a lucrative gig on a television special highlighting the history of comedy. Now all he has to do is reunite the cantankerous old codgers and make sure they don't kill each other before the broadcast. Written for the screen by Neil Simon from his stage play, "The Sunshine Boys" is a barrage of bad jokes, with an occasional zinger, given an incredible assist by stars Walter Matthau and George Burns. Matthau plays an exaggeration of the usual curmudgeon we've grown accustomed to and his performance here is fun, both physical and over the top. Burns is incredible in his first starring role in 36 years and one that won him an Academy Award. The ending of the film is also nicely realized and unexpected. There are moments is "The Sunshine Boys" that are laugh out loud funny and many that make you shake your head at their tackiness. But at the top stand two titans of comedy and the cinema, even if the material isn't always at their level.

On Valentine's Day in the year 1900, girls from a boarding school go on an all day retreat to an area made of up of volcanic rock. After reciting poetry and laying about, four of the girls decide to climb the rock, seemingly drawn by an unspoken possession. One girl runs back, and the other three, along with a teacher whose disappearance is never explained, are never seen from again. The disappearances cause a media stir and have a devastating affect not only on the girl's college, its students, and cruel headmaster, but also on two young men who were present that unfortunate and mysterious day. Picnic at Hanging Rock was master Aussie director Peter Weir's first film to reach an international audience, and it is a lyrical and haunting film. Like fellow countryman and director Nicolas Roeg's Walkabout, it deals with teenagers dealing with their sexual longings while alone in the wilderness. Weir's film is successful because of its atmospheric tone and beautiful visuals, but also because it never provides answers, only suggestions as to what happened to the girls. Benefiting from the same strategy that aided Fargo, the movie presents itself as a true story, when it was really based on a book by Joan Lindsay which was only inspired by true events. Picnic at Hanging Rock is an eerie film made by a true director who knows that not all horror films must deal with blood, guts, and cheap scares.

On Election Day 1968, a Los Angeles hairdresser (Warren Beatty) tries to secure a bank loan for his own salon while pleasing his girlfriend (Goldie Hawn) and the wife (Lee Grant), mistress (Julie Christie), and daughter (Carrie Fisher) of a prospective investor (Jack Warden). Directed by the great 70s director Hal Ashby and written by Chinatown scribe Robert Towne and Beatty, contains a slew of great performances from a spectacular cast with the underappreciated character actor Warden tremendous here as well as Grant in an Oscar winning performance. Shampoo is a muddled movie that strives to be a satire, lamenting the loss of 1960s innocence as well as the Nixon administration which would have been timely as the movie was released shortly after the Watergate scandal. Although I feel it falls short as satire, the film really comes together nicely in its final third and ends with a wonderfully realized finale. This, along with the performances, make the film worth seeing.