Every actor that played James Bond snuck off between OO7 adventures to make other films. Arguably Roger Moore's best effort was 1974's GOLD , filmed between his debut as Bond, "Live and Let Die" and its follow up, "The Man with the Golden Gun". As the film opens and the main credits roll, it feels like Moore took much of the Bond crew with him to make it! The main title credits are by Maurice Binder, it's directed by Peter Hunt, who directed one of my Bond favorites, "On Her Majesty's Secret Service". John Glen, who would later direct many of Moore's Bond films, edited this one. The list goes on. The plot will also sound familiar to fans of both "Goldfinger" and "A View to a Kill"! Moore plays South African gold mine foreman Rod Slater, who unwittingly gets pulled into a plot by a wealthy cabal led by Farrell (John Gielgud) and Rod's boss Manfred Styner (Bradford Dillman) to flood a huge mine field, burying 30% of the world's gold supply and manipulating world financial markets. Styner's wife Terry (Susannah York) is the daughter of the mine's owner "Pops" Hirschfield, played by Ray Milland as the same grumpy old patriarch he played in 1972's "Frogs". Rod and Terry fall fall in love and Director Hunt spends a bit too much time on their affair, slowing down the film. You start to feel its two hour+ running time a bit. But Hunt has proven he's an excellent action director and anytime the film is focused on the mine operation, it moves nicely. The screenplay is by Wilbur Smith, the British, South African novelist who adapted his own novel here and wrote legendary action adventure novels like "Shout at the Devil" and "Dark of the Sun". His novels are pulpy, old-fashioned thrillers that provide fantastic summer reads. I started with his African Safari thriller "A Time to Die" and was hooked. Hunt and Moore teamed up two years after this film to direct and star in the film version of "Shout at the Devil" co-starring Lee Marvin. I've got to add that to my watch list. Moore is in full Bond mode but has fun playing an everyday man with a sense of humor and a nose for bullshit. Watching him square off with his boss, Dillman is enjoyable. Dillman can be charming when he plays a good guy. He was excellent in "Escape from the Planet of the Apes". He's a bit off-putting as a baddie, just as he was two years later as Dirty Harry's stick-up-his-ass boss in "The Enforcer". He's a bit too stiff. Moore and York have great chemistry and are clearly having fun together, it comes across on screen. As the film goes on, it gets better and better, including a rousing and suspenseful conclusion as Slater leads a rescue operation far below the surface. Elmer Bernstein's music score is pure 70's action and the film got an Oscar nomination for best song for its love theme "Wherever Love Takes Me" sung by Maureen McGovern. The song lost to "We May Never Love Like This Again" from "The Towering Inferno", ALSO sung by Maureen McGovern! Moore also made the enjoyable thriller "Ffolkes" in 1980, but I like this one a bit better. The best film made in the 70's by a Bond between adventures remains "The Anderson Tapes" from Sean Connery, but GOLD is a passable old gem, earning a B-.

David Chase, the creator of "The Sopranos" is a very private man. Only Academy Award winning, documentary filmmaker Alex Gibney (Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison of Belief") could get him to open up like he does in the excellent new HBO doc WISE GUY: DAVID CHASE AND THE SOPRANOS . For Soprano's fans, this two part doc offers up nearly three hours of fun, powerful and never before seen behind the scenes footage. Gibney's first brilliant choice is interviewing Chase in a perfect recreation of Dr. Melfi's office. About twenty minutes in, Chase gets pissed off that he's revealing so much about himself, his childhood in New Jersey and his domineering Mother and her very hard family from Italy. It's a fascinating moment. Tony Soprano's mother Olivia, the one who tried to have him whacked? VERY similar to Chase's mother, without the contract killer of course. The strange and funny happenings around the Bada Bing and deli? Most come from real life stories or experiences from Chase and his writing team. I never realized how New Jersey-centric the show was. Chase talks about his early days wanting to break into film, landing in TV and carving out a deal with a cable network called HBO that had never created a dramatic series before. Gary Shandling had certainly braved new cable territory with his superb comedy series, but an hour long drama? Would it work? That's hard to imagine now, right? HBO has become a bastion for series of the highest quality. "Game of Thrones", "Westworld", "Rome", "Boardwalk Empire", "Carnivale"...the list is, in retrospect, endless and impressive. We watch actual footage of the auditions of numerous actors and the ones that finally landed key parts that would become part of Sopranos history. Chase has huge respect for his actors, especially his leads, including Edie Falco, Lorraine Bracco, Michael Imperioli, so many more. James Gandolfini is a force all his own. Watching all the historic footage from the set, its clear that Gandolfini took a bit too much of Tony home with him. Gibney doesn't shy away from Gandolfini's alcohol abuse and difficulty on set as the seasons went on, but balances them perfectly with new interviews with the entire cast. I LOVED all the new interviews. Bracco, Falco, Drea de Matteo and Steven Van Zandt are terrific. Their fond memories really take you back to those early Soprano's years, when every Sunday night was an event you had to see and be ready to discuss at the water cooler Monday morning. I also loved Falco's comments on the powerful storytelling and the fact that the violence was so intense and sudden that it is a vital part of these characters, and that "we didn't need trigger warnings" because real life doesn't come with them either. Amen, Edie. Amen. Well said. Could you even make The Sopranos today? The nuances of Chase and his team's brilliant writing would likely be called racist, sexist and unacceptable in the early 2020's. These were despicable people portrayed in depth, a complicated prism of characterization too complicated for the "I'm offended!" woke clan. Well let me shout from the rooftops then, THE SOPRANOS is the best TV series of all-time. Gibney pays it the respect and the reverence it deserves, while mining new levels of discovery around its creators and development over the seasons. Like the series itself, Gibney's doc is must watch viewing for all Soprano's fans. I can't get the smile off my face, it gets a A. And best of all, Chase explains that ending of the last episode, explaining in full detail that cut to black

Our deal on Sunday mornings is to take turns picking a movie. My bride was up this week and chose IT ENDS WITH US . I went in thinking "basic chick flick" and while I suspect anyone searching for that genre will not be disappointed, it deserves more than that generic moniker. First of all, Blake Lively is terrific, far exceeding my expectations generated by previous films like "The Shallows" and "The Rhythm Section". She's believable, thoughtful and connected as Lily Bloom. As the film opens, she's returned home to console her mother Peggy, played by Amy Morton. It's the second scene in the movie and they already had my attention, mostly because I'll never forget the 7 hours that I spent watching Morton on Broadway as the original Barbara in "August Osage County". I saw the three and a half hour play twice in three months, and remember Morton vividly tearing up the stage. She's an incredibly talented powerhouse. As Peggy, she's critical of her daughter's career before we even know what it is. Peggy seems damaged. After the funeral, Amy returns to Boston, finds a quiet rooftop of a stunning condo building to hide on and cry. The rooftop door bursts open and she meets Ryle Kincaid. Justin Baldoni not only plays Ryle, but he also directed the film as well. Their ten minutes together on that roof establishes a bond and a possible road worth traveling. It's a clever introduction, or what Roger Ebert dubbed a "meet cute". The scene packs in a wild range of emotions in one interaction. But there's much more to that sequence that you know, layers of which continue to cleverly peel back for the rest of the film. Lily buys a vacant storefront and goes to work creating her flower shop. Neighborhood resident Alyssa (a terrific Jenny Slate from "On the Rocks" and SNL) drops into the shop and she and Lily bond. The film has plenty of surprises and I wont reveal any of them here, but I bet almost everyone in the theater had read the global bestseller by Colleen Hoover on which the film was based. I enjoyed the fact that every time I was ready to smugly assume where the story I was going, I was wrong. The relationships of families, the legacy of generations within a family, desperate attempts to fix past wrongs and the fragility of love and loss are all explored. It's very tricky to present flashbacks to inform the present, but Baldoni and his screenwriter Christy Hall have structured an elaborate, intertwined drama. We meet teenage Lily and young Atlas, the homeless boy who's squatting in the vacant house next door. We watch how kindness ripples out over the decades ahead before coming back when it's most needed. Alex Neustadter is very good as teenage Atlas and Brandon Sklenar (The Offer, Midway, HBO's Westworld) is terrific as Atlas all grown up, who also happens to live in Boston. Isabela Ferrer is an uncanny match for Lively as teenage Lily. She feels authentic in every moment of the role. I never felt "forced" to watch one timeline over the other, it flows so well. Watching ALL these lives intertwine, the older Lily and Ryle date among the upper echelon of Boston's wealthy and old friends reunite drives one hell of a story. When it takes a moment to teeter on the edge of decisions that will affect many lives, it's earned its power. Lively is a quiet powerhouse in the final 15 minutes. IT ENDS WITH US is the story of a woman finding herself, rising above and taking control. It's also a massive hit for Lively as both actress and producer, elevating her to the A list and nearly knocking her husband Ryan Reynolds blockbuster "Deadpool & Wolverine" out of the number one spot at the box office with an opening $50 million weekend. If you're like me and not one of the many millions who read the book, it's an impressive drama that will keep you guessing. The film adaption earns a very solid B. Has there ever been a more aptly titled theme song than Lewis Capaldi's "Love the Hell Out of You" ?

Harrowing and well acted, Lee Daniels new horror drama THE DELIVERANCE is as horrifying pre-possession as it is once Lucifer arrives on scene. Andra Day (The United States VS. Billie Holiday) stars as Ebony, a paycheck-to-paycheck Mom with three kids, barely scratching by while battling alcoholism. The first half hour detailing every day life in the house is startling. The way that Ebony talks to (at) her children made me cringe 100 times. Foul, nasty and unrelenting, Ebony is ferocious to anyone at arm's length. Oldest son Nate (Caleb McLaughlin from "Stranger Things" and "The Book of Clarence") is protective of his siblings and most observant of Ebony's failures, while getting routinely beaten up on the way home from school. Daughter Shante (Demi Singleton from "King Richard") is just trying to fit in and live the social life that the young teen years demand, while staying in close contact with their Father, who its said is "in the military" but I was left wondering if he was just gone. He seems to be a text away at all times. Youngest son Andre (Anthony B. Jenkins of "Never Let Go") is the first to notice something strange in their new home. He is intrigued by the basement and adopts a new imaginary friend, never good in this kind of movie. Glenn Close is Ebony's mom Alberta, who still dresses like she's 25, has lived life hard, but has found Jesus. Battling cancer, she's clearly a woman trying to put a lot of things right in her life. Her devotion and protective will for her grandchildren is without question. Circling the family is social worker Cynthia, ferociously played by Mo'Nique ("Precious", "Domino") as a woman who despises Ebony's weaknesses. This could have easily been a one-note character and performance, but through the film, Cynthia becomes our eyes and ears to the startling events surrounding the family. Director Lee Daniels ("Precious", TV's "Empire") seems like a fascinating choice to helm an "Exorcist" genre film, but his strength is creating a family you care about, a struggling Mother with a very complicated Mother of her own and the growing terror surrounding Andre. It's also a tribute to Daniels' storytelling that half way into the film, I was thinking that the real horror came from the terrors that Ebony was inflicting on her children through her addiction. He brings the best out of every actor in the cast. As a horror buff, I loved the way that Andre's possession affects his siblings. Fascinating and a new wrinkle. If you've seen the underappreciated "Exorcist III" with George C. Scott, you probably, like me, think that the scenes in the nursing home, with an old woman hearing voices on her radio as she scampers up a wall and across the ceiling were far more terrifying than the giant exorcism finale. Well, that applies here. While the finale is no doubt powerful and it might even top the exorcism in last year's "Exorcist: The Believer", it is the one scene with Andre strapped to a psych ward bed that gave me chills. Mo'Nique's flawless performance in that scene and its aftermath give it instant credibility. Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor's appearance as Reverend Bernice James is also strong. She's as far from what you'd expect as an Exorcist as possible. The way she's slowly introduced adds some mystery as well. There are some hokey pieces of the final confrontation that are sure to become instant memes. Demons sure seem to keep their talons on the pulse of contemporary humor, but Jenkins is excellent as Andre, his innocent wide-eyed terror compelling you to save him at all the right moments. For a bit of extra terror, this film was based on a widely documented true case in Gary, Indiana. Many members of the police, social worker staff and hospital teams backed up the events as shown in my scariest scene above. If that doesn't make the film more terrifying, I don't know what will. I've never seen a possession drama in which the family was so terrified of their unpredictable, alcoholic mother, battling her demons before the real Demon even arrived. It ratchets the tension up to a unique place in the genre, even as it dances around the fiery Hell's edge of predictability. THE DELIVERANCE gets a B-.

I always wondered what happened to Halle Berry's character Jinx, one of the few redeeming qualities of Pierce Brosnan's last Bond film, "Die Another Day". I think she just resurfaced in the new comedy espionage thriller, THE UNION . A little older, a little more jaded, but this is exactly who Jinx would be at this point. Berry looks fantastic and beats the hell out of all adversaries as Roxanne Hall, a key member of The Union, one of those seemingly endless shadow organizations that operate just below the surface. They are based out of a very cool London headquarters placed high in one of that city's many jaw dropping buildings. When an operation goes wrong, Roxanne inexplicably heads back to her hometown in New Jersey to kidnap her high school boyfriend, because "he's the perfect unknown guy for the job". Mark Wahlberg is effortlessly funny as Mike McKenna, one of those thermos toting, blue collar dudes that seem to stumble out of a Home Depot commercial, waking up after their latest one night stand, heading out to grab a homemade breakfast from their Ma (the excellent Lorraine Bracco from "Goodfellas" and "The Sopranos") before heading to dangle their feet off of a skyscraper. OK, there's nothing groundbreaking here. But that's not to say it isn't a lot of fun. Roxanne kidnaps Mike, whisks him off to London and begins training him in a two week crash course for his important role in saving Western Civilization. If you had time to stop and even think about this plot, it's as dumb as a tin lunchbox full of rocks. But you won't have time, as the movie throws an excellent cast at you, rope-a-doping you with one perfectly cast actor after another. JK Simmons (Whiplash, Spider-Man) is Simmons, the fast talking, one-liner dropping boss of the Union. His interactions with the standard CIA talking heads are laugh out loud funny. Mike Colter (Evil, Plane) is excellent as team member Nick Faraday. Imposing, smooth and dangerous, Colter's a blast. Jackie Earle Haley (Watchmen, The Bad News Bears) is the team member from hell as the Foreman, the sarcastic "Q" of the bunch. The action scenes are plentiful, shot on stunning European locations and keep you laughing in all the right ways. I found myself thinking about Peter Bogdanavich's classic "What's Up Doc?" and the duplicate suitcases in that film as the briefcase with all the superspy data bounced from rooftop to good guy to bad guy in some very fast & funny chase scenes. If I'm thinking about that 1972 classic in any reference, that's a good thing. But the biggest adversary that the film has isn't whatever super power gains access to "that file with the name and address of every government agent in the world" (again? how many times can people try to steal this same stuff?). The most lethal thing looming over the film is the absolute lack of chemistry between its two leads. Wahlberg is in his funniest, most action-packed, boy-from-Boston kicking ass mode and very enjoyable. Berry is a treat, engaged in the same kind of hand to hand, jaw dropping fights that she excelled in as Sofia in "John Wick 3", she also brings some moments of heart and consequence to the movie. They're both beyond fine, they're a lot of fun. But as a romantic couple, their chemistry is an absolute zero. Nada. Double O Zilch. As long as the bad guys are circling, bullets are flying with jet boats zooming by and helicopters overhead, you don't notice. But trap these two in a shipping container for a clandestine trip back to the states and things get a bit dull very quickly. I've seen wet matches with more spark. Enjoy the action, don't expect much in the way of chemistry between the leads and you'll find THE UNION a pleasant Friday night diversion. I would watch JK Simmons smart ass his way through a government agency's ranks any night of the week. The city of Boise has never been so effective a punch line. THE UNION twists and turns its way to a B-

I remember heading out on opening night with friends in 1982 to see the latest chapter of FRIDAY THE 13TH PART 3 3D in all its blood-dripping-off-the-screen glory. If you weren't part of the horror series fan base back in the early 80's, it would be easy to miss just how influential and huge these films were at the box office. It certainly had nothing to do with the acting. Its horrible. It was more about how creative the B-movie creators were going to get with Jason killing horny campers. This installment made $36 million on a $2m budget. Cash cow. It's also my favorite sequel to the original. Mindless, goofy and darkly fun as these things go. Jason has basically recovered from his many stab wounds and injuries faster than Superman. He's more excited than Norman Bates when a new batch of teenagers arrive on what must be the lowest rated campground in Yelp history. There's really no plot, just a bunch of jocks, stoners, nerds and bystanders that set themselves up to get slayed by the man in the mask. (This was the first film in which Jason wore the now legendary hockey gear) 3D was all the rage in the early 80's and this was one of the more successful films becuase they leveraged it well visually. When Jason shoots a harpoon in your eye, it comes right at your eye. Hatchets seem a little worse in the head when you can reach out and grab the handle and when Jason squeezes someone's head so tight their eye pops out, whoo hooo its practically in your lap. Henry Manfredini's music (chi-chi-chi, chaa-chaa-chaa) is still a hell of a lot of fun. I'd be remiss if I didnt award a golden turkey worst acting hall of fame award to Paul Kratka as Rick. He's horrific. I've seen first graders emote more feeling in line readings at an assembly. Robots express more emotion than his flat delivery. It's laugh out loud funny when you're not wincing. He never made another film. I'm shocked. Stupid fun, this guilty pleasure is perfect for Halloween viewing (without the kids) and gets a bloody B-

1980's FRIDAY THE 13TH kicked off the big slasher movie craze by making a fortune at the box office on a very small budget. I remember being barely into college and seeing this flick on a Friday night, surrounding by screaming coeds. What's hilarious now is seeing the scenes I thought were so gory in 1980 that are now less graphic than a typical week on The Walking Dead. A gaggle of young people gather at Camp Crystal Lake, sharing a love of the outdoors, a craving for weed and a shared horny attitude. There's a killer on the loose that seems to really dislike anytime anyone makes out, showers, brushes their teeth or turns on a generator, as all those acts result in their brutal murders. The flick is never suspenseful, never very scary but you have to give it a lot of credit for showing enough skin and scares to rope in an audience. This was Kevin Bacon's first movie and he is by far the best actor on screen. I am betting he regrets the baby blue speedo... Of course, being the best actor in this lot is not exactly an intimidating hurdle..... Badly edited, goofy but ya gotta love that "chi, chi, chi, ah, ah ah" scary music..... We'll give it a D but only because we need to leave ourselves room to move downward with the sequels, which get oh so much worse....

The year after the original box office smash hit scared up huge crowds in theatres, FRIDAY THE 13TH PART 2 was unleashed. It's hard to remember just how scary and graphic these films were in 1981. There is more graphic violence in any half hour of "The Walking Dead" than you'll find here, but you wont find any solid characters like you would on that show. A parade of stock characters and bad actors attend the camp NEXTDOOR to Camp Crystal Lake, allowing their nightmare neighbor Jason to drop by and demonstrate his ax, knife, spear and hatchet skills. You have the nerd, the jock, the shy girl, a guy in a wheelchair...you get the idea. One by one they manage to go into their cabins or the woods alone. Apparently they cant hear that spooky "chi-chi-chi, ahh-ahh-ahh" music, cause if they could, they be running like hell. Amy Steel is actually better than the film deserves as Ginny, the smartest heroine in the bunch. By the time she starts trying to use child psychology on Jason, you realize why she's the sole survivor....or is she??? Dumb, sexy, stupid and bloody, its not much worse than the original (faint praise) but the best sequel actually came the following year with the 3D third chapter. Part 2 gets a D-.

In 1984, one of the dumbest sequels ever made was unleashed donning a bloody hockey mask, FRIDAY THE 13TH: THE FINAL CHAPTER. Corey Feldman and Crispin Glover are among Jason's targets this time, providing the only distraction from buckets of fake blood and a goofy plot. The film opens with a surprisingly casual bunch of cops and ambulance drivers cleaning up the mess from the last (and by far the best) 3D installment, "Friday the 13th Part 3". Jason's body is loaded into an ambulance and whisked off to the morgue, where he's very quickly off the stretcher and butchering horny nurses and medical examiners. Why he comes back to life, or even how the hell he got out of the straps on the stretcher in the morgue freezer are never explained. Leave any intelligence at the door when entering. The horrific dialogue is only exceeded by the heinous acting and the complete lack of logic of any of the players. We meet another bunch of horny, especially foul mouthed characters on the way to the area around Camp Crystal Lake, even though the blood isn't even dried from the last batch. Crispin Glover (Back to the Future) brings his usual off-the-wall delivery to his role as Jimmy, who's even more worried about getting laid than everyone else in the station wagon. 80's kids will remember Peter Barton from "The Powers of Matthew Star", here he's the victim with the best hair and shortest shorts. The house they are all staying in is right across the driveway from a Mom, daughter and her son Tommy, played by Feldman. Feldman is, by light years, the best actor in the bunch as the annoying 13 year old little brother. His actions and reactions always seem like they are from planet Earth. Which is a vast improvement over the rest of these yahoos. After a girl watches her boyfriend get killed by Jason in the basement, she goes back down into the basement to check it out. Bear in mind the guy yelled "Run Trish run!" a dozen times. Maybe she was stopped in her tracks by the other line he repeats as he's attacked with sharp garden tools. "He's killing me! He's killing me!" Um, yeah, we can see that ya dolt. Some other great dialogue: That horny nurse yelling at the morgue doctor: "Axel, you are the Super Bowl of self-abuse!" Cops at the scene of the mass killing: Vincent: [ looks at Jason's body ] "This the guy that's been leaving the wet stuff?" Officer Jamison: "Yeah. This time he got seven kids and three bikers. This time they got him." Tommy's Mom and sister: Mrs. Jarvis: "Someone left the front door open again." Tommy: "We're in the country." Mrs. Jarvis: "Well, what happens if a psycho wanders in?" Trish: "He'd probably challenge him to a game of Zaxxon." Good lord, who wrote this crap? The ending is a lame allusion to the final moments of Hitchcock's "Psycho". The good? Tom Savini's 80's make up is gruesome and bathed in fake 80's blood but pretty fun for this kind of classic slasher era flick and Harry Manfredini's music score is fun and exactly like you remember...."chh chhh chhh..ahh ahh ahh....." The title is a lie. This is, of course, NOT the Final Chapter. After it grossed $33 million on a $2.6M budget for Paramount, we all knew Jason was coming back. It was followed the next year by "Friday the 13th: A New Beginning". As for chapter four, it's NEVER scary, ALWAYS stupid and REALLY horny, stabbing and hacking it's way to a dismal D-. Enjoy the original trailer with that fantastic deep voiced narrator that ruled trailers when we all grew up!

The summer after "THE FINAL CHAPTER" hit theaters, box office potential and greed found a way to bring Jason Voorhees back to life in FRIDAY THE 13TH PART V: A NEW BEGINNING . Corey Feldman was already filming "The Goonies" so he's relegated to the opening pre-credits scene as 12 year old Tommy Jarvis. He watches as two young men out for thrills dig up the grave of Jason and get the machete treatment. Is it a dream? Who knows. The screenplay is credited to three people, none of whom seem to be focused on anything but the horny parts of camp. Post main titles, Tommy now appears to be in his early twenties and he looks nothing like Corey Feldman. He's been in and out of mental hospitals the past decade and loves to play with knives. He's played by John Shepherd, whose credits include some TJ Hooker episodes and a bit part in "The Hunt for Red October". If I was him, I'd lean in on that submarine role. Tommy ends up at a "police yourself" no-rules halfway house in the woods. A local Hillbilly lady and her son arrive on a motorcycle, call em all "loonies" and then ride off into a cloud of smoke, Mamma and Junior, spewing profanities. The residents conveniently fall into all the traditional camps, the hot blonde chicks, one of whom seems to be Goth, the fat loser guy who always has food running down his face, Vic the crazy dude chopping wood with a very sharp axe..."Joey look out!!" The paramedics who joke about dismembered bodies, the two greaser guys whose car breaks down in the woods.... The greaser guys, Pete and Vinnie, seem to have wondered in from a profane 50's biker movie. What the hell are they doing in a film that takes place in the early 80's? Frank Mancuso made a fortune producing these films that consistently made a lot of money off of their small budgets. He has said that he hated the Writer/Director of this installment, Danny Steinmann, calling him a pervert and the film "soft core porn." It DID take nine tries to get an R rating and not an X for the film. Steinmann seems to have more of a penchant (and hunger) for B-movie nudity, language and R rated Hee Haw humor that he does any kind of creative kills. And we all know these slasher films thrive on how creative the kills are. On that score, beyond a road flare down the windpipe and a tree tourniquet, meh. The acting is horrible, the story is stupid and everyone always falls down and hurts their ankle right when Jason bursts through the door. Honestly, Part V just serves as more evidence they should have stopped after the original trilogy. But no, we have a long way to go..... Thanks to it's $2 million budget and $22 million at the box office, Part VI was only one year away. As for this mess, it's as bad as it gets. By the time the heroine was wielding a chainsaw and battling Jason in a hayloft, I had lost interest in Jason, Tommy and all the half naked coeds running around. This feels like JASON V PORKY'S. That alone earns it an F. The final ten minutes sees Steinmann and his trio of writers throwing everything and a guts-filled kitchen sink at the screen in hopes of creating something masterful. Bloody awful.

If I did believe you, and I'm not saying for a second that I do, but if I did, nobody else would. Relentless, mysterious and one hell of a puzzle, SALT defines "non-stop action thriller". Director Philip Noyce is the man behind "Clear and Present Danger", "Patriot Games" and "Dead Calm". He brings that same propulsive sense of intrigue to this tale of CIA agent Evelyn Salt. When new Russian defector Orlov (Daniel Olbrychski) casually reveals that she is actually an imbedded Russian spy intent on assassination, Salt (Angelina Jolie) breaks into action, escaping from CIA headquarters in just the first of many fast paced action scenes. Her boss Ted Winter (Liev Schreiber from "Spotlight" and "The Sum of All Fears") is startled. Is she escaping to prove herself innocent or complete her mission? The target of the assassination attempt is The President of Russia, in the USA for the funeral of our own VP. Like "The Day of the Jackal" on speed, the film tracks Salt as she juggles Mike, the husband she loves who is suddenly in everyone's crosshairs, Peabody, (Chiwetel Ejiofor of "American Gangster") the one senior American agent who seems to be hottest on her trail, and a never ending lineup of agencies right behind her. I loved WInter's complete devotion to not believing she's a mole or a long time, embedded double agent. As the evidence begins to mount and the casualties pile up in her wake, he begins to have doubts. SALT has it all. Thrilling car chases with Jolie doing a lot of her own stunts and putting Tom Cruise to shame in the "jumping from vehicle to vehicle" department? Check. Assaults on our President with Secret Service agents frantically moving him into never before seen bunkers? Check. Double crosses and surprise twists you never see coming? Check. One of the best chases through a subway and train since "The French Connection"? Checkmate. Set to a great score by James Newton Howard (Signs, The Dark Knight, King Kong) and shot by the legendary Robert Elswit (There Will Be Blood, Magnolia, Tomorrow Never Dies), this is an action flick with class. Jolie is excellent from start to finish, believable in every dramatic confrontation AND fight scene. Danging off bridges and leaping from every kind of transportation you can think of, she's a blast. SALT kept me guessing through its final scene, earning a memorable A. WHO IS SALT? I didn't know until the final moments.

With one of Paul Newman's most likeable and hilarious performances and a fast-paced, witty, action-packed screenplay by William Goldman, 1966's HARPER is as enjoyable today as it was nearly 60 years ago when it hit theaters. Goldman (Marathon Man, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, All the President's Men) is indisputably one of the best (I'll say ALL-TIME best) screenwriters on the planet. Adapting Ross McDonald's novel "The Moving Target" for the screen, he keeps all of the McDonald action and intrigue intact while adding a high sheen polish rarely equaled in spy thrillers. Harper is the anti-James Bond. Still in love with his ex-wife (Janet Leigh) and rarely having the time to fall into bed with any of the beautiful women populating the film, his focus is on the mystery. And its a doozy. Lauren Bacall (talk about sultry mystery!) is Elaine Sampson, a wealthy woman whose husband has disappeared the day before. She asks her family lawyer Albert Graves (Arthur Hill from "The Andromeda Strain", funnier than I've ever seen him) to hire someone to find her husband. Graves turns to Harper, who arrives at the sprawling Sampson estate and meets plenty of eccentric characters. Pamela Tiffin (State Fair) is Elaine's beautiful daughter Miranda. Stunning in that hour glass figure, big 60's hair style that defined Raquel Welch in the era, Miranda flirts with every man in sight while go-go dancing on the diving board in a bikini. Newman's observational facial expressions in the opening 15 minutes had me laughing out loud again & again. Miranda loves playboy Sampson Corporation pilot Allan Taggart (Robert Wagner), but he's not going to settle down anytime soon. Miranda, Allan and Harper fly off to search our missing man's last contacts for any clues. The film never slows down as Harper meets a wild array of suspects, including Shelley Winters as a fading movie star who loves her booze, Robert Webber as her platonic husband whose always got a gun on Harper, and Strother Martin (Slap Shot) as a religious nut with a mountaintop sect. Julie Harris (The Haunting) is a lounge singer with a dangerous habit. I almost forgot Harold Gould (The Sting) as a local sheriff at the end of a thousand Harper barbs and Martin West (Family Plot) as his comically inept deputy. At the time, this was a radical new take on a 40's film noir mystery, infused with 1960's elements and one of Newman's best roles. One of the most effortlessly cool actors on the big screen, Newman delivers in every scene, and he's in every scene! HARPER was a one of Newman's biggest hits around the world. As Goldman's first solo screenplay, it cemented him in the big leagues and led to an incredible legacy of great films. Sadly, we lost Goldman in 2018. Harper: "The bottom is loaded with nice people, Albert. Only cream and bastards rise." ---------------------------- Elaine: " Los Angeles is the big leagues for religious nuts." Harper: "That's because there's nothing to do at night." ----------------------------- Harper: "I think your husband was kidnapped. I think that note was dictated. Your husband keeps lousy company, Mrs. Sampson, as bad as there is in L.A. And that's as bad as there is." Elaine Sampson: "I knew it. Oh, he loves playing the family man, but he never fooled me. Water seeks its own level, and that should leave Ralph bathing somewhere in a sewer." Sit back and enjoy the very clever, groovy 60's ride. HARPER gets an A+