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Review: The Great Escape (1963)

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You couldn't ask for a movie with a higher pedigree of talent in front of the camera and behind the scenes. 1963's The Great Escape  is populated wall-to-wall with actors that I enjoy: Steve McQueen ( Bullit ), James Garner ( Support Your Local Sheriff ), Charles Bronson ( Mr. Majestyk ), Donald Pleasance ( Halloween ), James Coburn ( In Like Flint ) and Richard Attenborough ( Jurassic Park ) lead an all-star cast of current A-listers (and some that would be). Handling directing duties is John Sturges, a director who helmed more than his fair share of classics, including  Last Train from Gun Hill  (1959), The Magnificent Seven (1960), and The Eagle Has Landed (1976) .  So it's with something close to guilt that I admit in this review that I don't love The Great Escape.   I know I should. All the elements for success are there, from real-life heroism, underdogs that the audience can (and should) root for, even triumphs and tragedies as played out agains...
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Review: Song Sung Blue (2025)

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Every time I watch a movie that's based on real events or real people, my defenses go up. Biopics, seemingly by their very nature, are often fictions, making superheroes out of people who are far more interesting in reality because their lives aren't sanitized or sanctified by screenwriters. Somewhere in the middle of Song Sung Blue , I decided I was being served up a string of tall tales. Surely nobody went through as much triumph and tragedy as the real Mike and Claire Sardina, better known by their stage name, Lightning and Thunder. When the end credits rolled and I saw that the film was based on a 2008 documentary of the same name, I knew I needed to see that  film to unravel just how much of the story I'd just been told was actually real.  As it turns out, many of the events presented in the movie really happened. Sure, the Neil Diamond tribute act called Lightning and Thunder never soared quite to the heights that the Hollywood film would have us believe, and it goes ...
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Review: Mr. Majestyk (1974)

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Mr. Majestyk is my kind of movie.   Charles Bronson takes center stage in this tale of vigilante justice and revenge set against the backdrop of the gorgeous Colorado landscape. Add in a screenplay written by the great Elmore Leonard, whose outstanding short stories and novels have been adapted into the films 3:10 to Yuma, Get Shorty, Jackie Brown, Out of Sight, and even the television series Justified , and you've got a recipe for gritty, 1970s greatness.  Charles Bronson plays the titular character, Vince Majestyk, a rural farmer who raises melons. His one desire is to get his latest crop harvested and brought to market. Turns out, he's got a lot invested in this, and as his backstory unfolds, we realize the melons represent more than just agriculture. Like the anti-hero out of a noir film, Majestyk has been tripped up by life and is trying his best to rise above the bad hand that he was dealt. When he chooses to hire a group of Hispanic migrants, led by Linda Cristal ( The ...
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