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In July 1985, the biggest movie in the country was “Back to the Future.” The number one song was “A View to a Kill” by Duran Duran, from the James Bond movie of the same name. A large number of the movies listed in the top 10 the weekend of July 19, even beyond the obvious “Back to the Future,” offer a murderer’s row of movies we still talk about today: “Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome,” “Cocoon,” “Rambo: First Blood Part II,” “St. Elmo’s Fire.” Just for good measure, “E.T.” was re-released into theaters that weekend.

Do you know what’s difficult? It’s difficult to have a brand-new, wide release film and have it finish 14th at the box office. Want to know what’s even more difficult? To have a brand-new, wide release film finish 14th at the box office, and then, 40 years later, for it to still be culturally...

One of Kevin Costner's most iconic films finds another streaming platform to call home.

1987's The Untouchables has officially made the move to Paramount+ as its new streaming home. Directed by Brian De Palma from a script written by David Mamet, The Untouchables stars Costner as a fictionalized version of real-life Prohibition Agent Eliot Ness alongside an all-star ensemble cast, including Robert De Niro as infamous Chicago gangster Al Capone.

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The Untouchables also starred Sean Connery as Jimmy Malone, Andy García as Oscar Wallace, Billy Drago as Frank Nitti, Richard Bradford as Chief Mike Dorsett, and Patricia Clarkson as Catherine Ness. Upon its release, The Untouchables was met with largley positive reviews from critics, cementing...

One of the most acclaimed films in Kevin Costner's distinguished career is arriving on a new streaming platform. The award-winning actor and director's gangster epic, The Untouchables, shoots up a new streaming home on Prime Video.

Prime Video confirmed that The Untouchables is availabble to stream as of Dec. 1, allowing audiences a chance to watch (or rewatch) the Brian De Palma-helmed flick this holiday season. The star-studded film's Prime Video release is coming a few months after it debuted on Paramount+.

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Released in 1987 and loosely based on Elliot Ness and Oscar Fraley's eponymous 1957 book, The Untouchables chronicles Ness (Costner) and his titular team as they scheme to take down the nefarious Al Capone (Robert De Niro...

Kino Lorber strikes again and brings the 1990 Mike Figgis thriller, Internal Affairs, to Ultra HD 4K Blu-ray this December. The film stars Richard Gere, Andy Garcia, Laurie Metcalf, Nancy Travis, and Richard Bradford. Blu-ray.com reports that the movie is set to hit retailers on December 17 with a two-disc release that includes a bevy of new goodies, including a new 4K restoration.

In 2019, it was reported that Paramount was intending to remake the movie with Todd Garner, who recently worked with the studio on the family film Playing With Fire, producing under his Broken Road Productions banner. Since then, no updates have been revealed. However, our Arrow strongly recommended the 1990 film, saying, “If you’ve never seen Internal Affairs, stop what you’re doing right now, find it somewhere, and give it a whirl. You owe it to yourself to chow down on a slice of Evil Gere with a...

Gangster movies often tell the stories of real criminals or claim to have their basis in fact, although some experts question the validity of these depictions. As an insanely violent genre that showcases the most extreme sides of criminality, its not surprising that some filmmakers exaggerate for dramatic effect. However, thats not to say gangster movies shouldnt be held accountable, and its important that if something claims to be a true story, the movie should stand up against cold, hard facts.

Some of the greatest gangster movies of all time have been criticized for accuracy issues. Timeless classics by directors like Martin Scorsese and Francis Ford Coppola have had their fair share of historical detractors who took issues with different scenes, performances, or narrative choices. This can also be an issue for fictional films, as even if the characters were not supposed to be real, they were usually set within...

Film enthusiasts can rejoice as the iconic 1987 gangster film The Untouchables is set to premiere on Paramount+ on August 1. Directed by Brian De Palma and produced by Art Linson, this American crime classic was penned by renowned playwright David Mamet. The star-studded cast features Kevin Costner, Charles Martin Smith, Andy Garca, Robert De Niro, and Sean Connery.

Set in 1930 Chicago, The Untouchables follows the relentless efforts of federal agent Eliot Ness, played by Costner, as he assembles a dedicated team to bring down notorious crime boss Al Capone, portrayed by De Niro. Although inspired by real events and the 1957 book by Ness and Oscar Fraley, the film takes creative liberties, crafting a thrilling narrative that captivated audiences worldwide. The film grossed $106.2 million globally and received widespread acclaim from critics.

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John Nichols, who wrote more than a dozen novels including The Milagro Beanfield War and The Sterile Cuckoo — both of which were turned into films by top directors — died Wednesday in Taos, Nm. He was 83.

Nichols, whose works often told stories of small-town New Mexico and social injustice, also co-wrote the screenplay for Milagro Beanfield War. Focused on a battle between mostly Latino farmers and local politicians and real estate developers, it became a 1988 film produced and directed by Robert Redford. The pic starring Ruben Blades, Richard Bradford and Sonia Braga won an Oscar for Dave Grusin’s jazzy score. Watch a trailer below.

Nichols’ 1965 debut novel The Sterile Cuckoo was adapted four years later into a film by Alan J. Pakula. It starred Liza Minnelli in her Oscar-nominated role as Pookie, a zany but honest woman who falls for a young man (Wendell Burton) just before he leaves for college.

The 1992 horror comedy slasher Dr. Giggles (watch it Here) is getting a Blu-ray release courtesy of Scream Factory on March 21st – and copies can be pre-ordered at This Link!

Dr. Giggles was directed by Manny Coto, who rewrote the original screenplay by Graeme Whifler so extensively that Whifler was able to take the original script and get another movie out of it.. Dr. Giggles ended up with the following synopsis: It has been 35 years since the small town of Moorehigh discovered why Dr. Rendell kept losing his patients: he was ripping their hearts out in a twisted attempt to save his ailing wife. The townspeople stoned Rendell to death, but they never found the young son with the hideous giggle who helped his deranged father perform the operations. Now, over three decades later, Dr. Rendell’s son returns to gain revenge on Moorehigh’s residents, and he’s not shy about making house calls.

This big screen, big star crowd-pleaser is a whopping entertainment yet too disjointed to satisfy as a gangster movie. It can ignore history to make its points, but what is gained by killing off the only characters we really love? Audiences didn’t feel shortchanged: Sean Connery and Robert De Niro deliver strong characterizations and Ennio Morricone’s music is ideal. Brian De Palma’s visual instincts are at full strength too; the show is marvelous to look at. It’s a real winner, at least when its not running in knee-jerk Scarface overkill mode.

The Untouchables 4K

4K Ultra HD + Digital

Paramount

1987 / Color / 2:40 widescreen / 119 min. / Street Date May 31, 2022 / Available from Amazon / 25.99

Starring: Kevin Costner, Sean Connery, Charles Martin Smith, Andy Garcia, Robert De Niro, Richard Bradford, Jack Kehoe, Brad Sullivan, Billy Drago, Patricia Clarkson, Steven Goldstein, Del Close, Clifton James.

Cinematography: Stephen H. Burum

Art Director: William A.

Horton Foote strikes again, with a warm and thoughtful tale of life as it was lived in East Texas in 1950. Geraldine Page won an Oscar for her unguarded portrait of Carrie Watts, a woman who has outlived her peers and been uprooted from an ideal hometown of her youth. Her trip to recover her life becomes a bittersweet acknowledgment that some things just need to be accepted with as much grace as can be mustered.

The Trip to Bountiful

Blu-ray

Kl Studio Classics

1985 / Color / 1:85 widescreen / 108 min. / Street Date September 25, 2018 / available through Kino Lorber / 29.95

Starring: Geraldine Page, John Heard, Carlin Glynn, Richard Bradford, Rebecca De Mornay.

Cinematography: Fred Murphy

Film Editor: Jay Freund

Original Music: Norman Kasow, J.A.C. Redford

Written by Horton Foote from his play

Produced by Dennis Bishop, Horton Foote, Sam Grogg, Sterling Van Wagenen, George Yaneff

Directed by Peter Masterson

They say ‘you can’t go home...

Costa-Gavras’ superlative political thriller begins with a skeptical attitude, but soon pulls viewers into the depth and breadth of a monstrous political crime aided and abetted by our own U.S. government. Sissy Spacek and Jack Lemmon headline a strong cast, in a story that our State Department called a pack of lies — until the truth became undeniable.

Missing

Region B Blu-ray

Powerhouse Indicator

1982 / Color / 1:85 widescreen / 122 min. / / Street Date August 27, 2018 / available from Powerhouse Films UK / £18.47

Starring: Jack Lemmon, Sissy Spacek, Melanie Mayron, John Shea, Charles Cioffi, David Clennon, Richard Venture, Jerry Hardin, Richard Bradford, Joe Regalbuto.

Cinematography: Ricardo Aronovich

Film Editor: Françoise Bonnot

Original Music: Vangelis

Written by Costa-Gavras, Donald Stewart from a book by Thomas Hauser

Produced by Edward Lewis, Mildred Lewis

Directed by Costa-Gavras

Costa-Gavras’ 1981 Missing has by now topped the Greek-French director’s list of powerful political thrillers: ‘Z’, State of Siege, The Confession. Still considered a highly controversial title,...

A big welcome to UK disc purveyors Indicator, or Powerhouse, or how does Powerhouse Indicator sound? Savant’s first review from the new label is a favorite from the Columbia library. The extras are the lure: they company has snagged long-form, in-depth interviews with James Fox and director Arthur Penn. Everybody’s written about The Chase but here Penn tells his side of the story.

The Chase (1966)

Blu-ray + DVD

Powerhouse: Indicator

1966 / Color / 2:35 widescreen / 134 min. / Street Date September 25, 2017 / Available from Amazon UK / £14.99

Starring: Marlon Brando, Jane Fonda, Robert Redford, E.G. Marshall,

Angie Dickinson, Janice Rule, Miriam Hopkins, Martha Hyer, Richard Bradford,

Robert Duvall, James Fox, Diana Hyland, Henry Hull, Jocelyn Brando, Clifton James, Steve Ihnat

Cinematography: Joseph Lashelle

Production Designer: Richard Day

Art Direction: Robert Luthardt

Film Editor: Gene Milford

Original Music: John Barry

Written by Lillian Hellman from the novel by Horton Foote

Produced by Sam Spiegel

Directed by Arthur Penn

Yes,...

Sure. Billie Jean is not a superhero in the spandex, cape, superpowers sense. And she is not based on a pre-existing comic book character. But she is a strong female warrior, who is truly a hero in her own right. And the movie The Legend of Billie Jean serves as the perfect template for what has come since in the realm of female superhero movies, none-of-them, dare we even say Wonder Woman, quite able to live up to the excitement and adventure on display here in all its raw, 80s form. Even so, it often gets overlooked whenever the subject of female led movies comes up, specifically those of the superhero kind. It barely ever registers a blip. Though it had a familiar superhero in the lead by way of Helen Slater, who played Supergirl just one year before.

It's almost like the writers of The Legend of Billie Jean,...

Horton Foote, Lillian Hellman and Arthur Penn's All-Star vision of an Ugly America found few friends in 1965; now its overstated scenes of social injustice and violence are daily events. Marlon Brando leads a terrific cast -- Robert Redford, Jane Fonda, Angie Dickinson, Robert Duvall! -- to endure the worst Saturday ever to hit one cursed Texas township. The Chase (1966) Blu-ray Twilight Time 1966 / Color / 2:35 widescreen / 134 min. / Street Date October 11, 2016 / Available from the Twilight Time Movies Store / 29.95 Starring Marlon Brando, Jane Fonda, Robert Redford, E.G. Marshall, Angie Dickinson, Janice Rule, Miriam Hopkins, Martha Hyer, Richard Bradford, Robert Duvall, James Fox, Diana Hyland, Henry Hull, Jocelyn Brando, Clifton James, Steve Ihnat Cinematography Joseph Lashelle Production Designer Richard Day Art Direction Robert Luthardt Film Editor Gene Milford Original Music John Barry Written by Lillian Hellman from the novel by Horton Foote Produced by Sam Spiegel Directed by Arthur Penn

Reviewed by Glenn Erickson...

Arthur Penn’s notorious, arguably ‘revisionist’ Western The Missouri Breaks makes it to Blu-ray courtesy of Kino Lorber, with packaging that keeps the film’s initial infamous discrepancies alive and well with star Marlon Brando’s name retaining top billing. Though it would be Brando’s last sizeable role, the film’s main protagonist is really Jack Nicholson as a matter-of-fact horse thief who runs up against a prosperous man who holds himself above the law by failing to recognize that the rest of the country’s outlying frontiers have them.

The term revisionist is problematic in reference to Penn’s film, though it attempts to make us sympathize with a villain positioned against a civilized businessman who’s nearly as irredeemable. Two wrongs don’t make a right, so if anything, Penn’s adaptation of Thomas McGuane’s script is anarchist at best. Plagued with a troubled production thanks...

Mill Creek released several noteworthy Blu-ray releases on Tuesday, most of which were re-issues, but The Legend of Billie Jean makes its high-def debut. Those of you that are familiar with this film, or its practically non-existent home video presence, will realize immediately how big of a deal it is to have this film released to the Blu-ray format. The Legend of Billie Jean has always been an eighties favorite of mine. A lot of really cool movies came out during the decade, but this one always stood out. It could be that it got away with being as dark as it is, even with a PG-13 rating, or it could be it is one of Helen Slater’s few, and very best roles. I know, I know, Supergirl, The Secret of My Success, blahblahblahblah, but I genuinely consider this to be the seminal Helen Slater role. It doesn’t...

Horton Foote's The Trip to Bountiful illustrates that you can't go home again. Since it was first performed in 1953, the play remains a favorite for stage performance. Indeed, a recent Broadway revival starred a cast of Cicely Tyson, Vanessa Williams and Cuba Gooding, Jr. and was even made into a TV movie for Lifetime earlier this year.

But for many years, Foote resisted the idea of bringing his play to the silver screen. Director Peter Masterson was able to convince the Texan writer. Esteemed actress Geraldine Page (Sweet Bird of Youth, Hondo) went on to win an Oscar for her lead role of Carrie Watts in the resulting 1985 movie.

Mrs. Watts, a 60-year-old widow, lives in a one-bedroom apartment in Houston with her son Ludie (John Heard, Home Alone, My Fellow Americans) and daughter-in-law Jessie Mae (Carlin Glynn, Sixteen Candles, Three Days of the Condor). She fondly remembers days...

The sad passing of actress Alexandra Bastedo earlier this month saw many recalling and celebrating her work on '60s spy-fi series The Champions - just one entry in the canon of cult programme makers Itc Entertainment.

Though it also branched out into film production - with the likes of 1976's The Eagle Has Landed and 1982's The Dark Crystal - Itc was best known throughout the 1960s and '70s for its raft of cult TV programming, with shows like The Champions making an indelible screen icon of Bastedo and others like her.

These shows are now world-renowned - The Saint, The Prisoner, Thunderbirds - but the team behind them still go sadly unsung.

This week, the Week in Geek is looking to redress the balance with a fond tribute to Itc Entertainment - one of the UK's very best, most influential production teams.

Sherlock: The Problem of the Vanishing Detective

Doctor Who,...

At long last the forgotten 1985 gem finally gets a release and on Bluray!

The Legend Of Billie Jean Debuts On DVD

Manufacture-on-Demand Service Releases the Cult Classic

Available on DVD for the First Time November 1st

Synopsis

When local rich kid Hubie Pyatt (Barry Tubb) steals and wrecks Binx Davy’s beloved motor scooter, Binx’s older sister, Billie Jean (Helen Slater, City Slickers), demands the $608 it costs to fix it. Binx shoots Mr. Pyatt (Richard Bradford) by accident and he and Billie Jean flee town, accompanied by Billie Jean’s girlfriends, Ophelia (Martha Gehman) and Putter (Yeardley Smith,… More...

The Trip To Bountiful (1985) Direction: Peter Masterson Cast: Geraldine Page, John Heard, Carlin Glynn, Rebecca De Mornay, Richard Bradford, Kevin Cooney Screenplay: Horton Foote; from his play Oscar Movies Geraldine Page, The Trip to Bountiful By Dan Schneider of Cosmoetica: Greatness in one medium does not assure greatness in another. One need only look at Peter Masterson's 1985 film version of Horton Foote's play The Trip to Bountiful to realize this. Yes, there are great elements to be found in the film's direction, acting, and writing. In fact, Foote’s adaptation of his won play is outstanding in the way it suggests surfaces barely lifted up, as it did in films like Tender Mercies and To Kill a Mockingbird. On the other hand, The Trip to Bountiful offers no great cinematography and virtually nothing that indelibly stamps it as a visual feast. And despite its reliance on Foote's script,...

DVD Playhouse December 2010

By

Allen Gardner

America Lost And Found: The Bbs Story (Criterion) Perhaps the best DVD box set released this year, this ultimate cinefile stocking stuffer offered up by Criterion, the Rolls-Royce of home video labels, features seven seminal works from the late ‘60s-early ‘70s that were brought to life by cutting edge producers Bert Schneider, Steve Blauner and director/producer Bob Rafelson, the principals of Bbs Productions. In chronological order: Head (1968) star the Monkees, the manufactured (by Rafelson, et al), American answer to the Beatles who, like it or not, did make an impact on popular culture, particularly in this utterly surreal piece of cinematic anarchy (co-written by Jack Nicholson, who has a cameo), which was largely dismissed upon its initial release, but is now regarded as a counterculture classic. Easy Rider (1969) is arguably regarded as the seminal ‘60s picture, about two hippie drug dealers (director Dennis Hopper...

Angelina Jolie is reportedly upset about a new unauthorised book about her, and Jonathan Margolis, author of several celeb biographies, is beginning to see why

There can't be many people who feel a pang of empathy for Angelina Jolie, who, along with her PR team, is reportedly upset about an unauthorised biography of her by Andrew Morton.

The assiduous Morton's book, apparently pieced together from interviews with unnamed sources – oh, and Jolie's childhood nanny – is a veritable juice-a-thon. In it, so it's being said in the States, we learn that Jolie once had a fling with Leonardo DiCaprio, that she was raised for two years by nannies in a Los Angeles serviced apartment, and that she has a tattoo on her bottom in honour of her former husband, Billy Bob Thornton, written in the helvetica font.

Well, as a red-blooded hack of over 30 years' standing (some of this standing outside...