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As far as sci-fi films go, there is before Star Wars and after; the film forever altered the landscape and the box office with an old fashioned sense of adventure long relegated to Hollywood’s past. But what about during Star Wars? After all, Twentieth Century Fox was pushing their bet towards another property for prosperity: the post-apocalyptic Damnation Alley, an adaptation of the hit 1969 novel by Roger Zelazny. We all know which brought in the Fox funds, and it certainly wasn’t this goofy Stagecoach tribute (as opposed to Sw’s The Hidden Fortress one). But as The Little Fox That Didn’t, Damnation Alley was this kid’s sci-fi horror boogie; seven and alone, just me and The Landmaster military Rv that costars.

There’s no need to call child services; growing up in a small town, I saw many a film solo - that darkened screen was my closest friend.

Paul Raci, 72, has already won several critics organization’s awards including from the National Society of Film Critics for his performance as Joe, a recovering alcoholic who lost his hearing in the Vietnam War. Joe runs a house for recovering deaf addicts that Ruben (Riz Ahmed), a drug addict who lost his hearing playing drums, goes to live. Raci ranks in the top five contenders for Best Supporting Actor at the Oscars according to our exclusive odds.

And there’s a good reason wh: the actor gives such a natural, forceful performance as the no-nonsense Joe-his parents were deaf. He’s also fluent in American Sign Language and has appeared in some dozen productions of the Los Angeles-based Deaf West Theater and is lead performer of the Asl Black Sabbath tribute band Hands of Doom. And just as Joe, Raci is also a Vietnam Vet.

Character actors have won Oscars

Paul Greengrass’ western drama “New of the World” starring Tom Hanks and Helena Zengel is gaining traction during this pandemic awards season despite the fact that sagebrush sagas often get short shrift at the Oscars. Only three traditional Westerns — 1931’s “Cimarron,” 1990’s “Dances with Wolves” and 1992’s “Unforgiven” — and one contemporary Western (2007’s “No Country for Old Men”) have won the Best Picture Oscar.

Among the oaters to be nominated for the top prize at the Academy Awards: John Ford’s 1939 “Stagecoach,” William A. Wellman’s 1943 “The Ox-Bow Incident,” Fred Zinnemann’s 1952’s “High Noon” (Gary Cooper won the Oscar for Best Actor), George Stevens’ 1953 “Shane”; 1960’s “The Alamo;” 1962’s “How the West Was Won”; and George Roy Hill’s 1969’s “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.”

But some of the most acclaimed, treasure and influential Westerns have been all but ignored. Here’s a look at some of the

Giuseppe Tornatore’s romantic ode to the movies charmed America, convincing theater-goers that little Italian kids are the cutest in the world. Little Salvatore Cascio grows up in a projection booth under the life-tutelage of kindly Philippe Noiret. Arrow presents the theatrical version of this Best Foreign Picture Oscar winner in 4K Ultra HD. The (greatly) extended version is on a second Blu-ray — it plays like a different movie entirely.

Cinema Paradiso

4K Ultra HD + Blu-ray

Arrow Academy

1988 / Color / 1:85 widescreen / 174, 155, 124 min. / Nuovo cinema Paradiso / Street Date December 8, 2020 / 49.95

Starring: Philippe Noiret, Antonella Attili, Salvatore Cascio, Marco Leonardi, Jacques Perrin, Agnese Nano, Brigitte Fossey, Pupella Maggio, Leopoldo Trieste.

Cinematography: Blasco Giurato

Film Editor: Mario Morra

Original Music: Ennio Morricone, Andrea Morricone

Produced by Mino Barbera, Franco Cristaldi, Giovanna Romagnoli

Written and Directed by Giuseppe Tornatore

Every so often there comes along a European movie that so captures American audiences, one would

It’s been three decades since Ringo Starr founded his All Starr supergroup and took the stage with some of rock and roll’s biggest luminaries, creating an exceptional legacy of performances of some of the greatest hits of all time culled from Starr’s extraordinary catalog as a solo artist and as Beatle, as well as the All Starr Band members’ substantive songbook.

In celebration of this milestone, and just in time for the holiday season, a new limited-edition retrospective hardcover book titled “Ringo Rocks: 30 Years Of The All Starrs,” will be sold online exclusively beginning Wednesday, December 16 at juliensauctions.com.

This not to be missed commemorative photo memoir features some never-before-seen photos of the All Starr Band’s 30 record-setting years in the spotlight and life on the road, compiled by Henry Diltz and Jill Jarrett (who have followed Ringo Starr’s All Starr career since 1989), as well as

Kelsea Ballerini has recruited Shania Twain to join her on an updated version of her hit “Hole in the Bottle,” a track off the country singer’s 2020 album Kelsea.

Ballerini said of the collaboration in a statement, “They say don’t meet your heroes…unless your hero is Shania Twain…then meet her, know her, and make music with her. She’s inspired me in every way and has become a mentor and friend and added some major sass and spice to ‘Hole in the Bottle’ the way only Shania could.

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“A Good Starting Point—Part Two”

By Raymond Benson

With the publication of Jeremy Arnold’s new lavishly illustrated and intelligently written TCM (Turner Classic Movies) coffee-table paperback, The Essentials, Volume 2: 52 More Must-See Movies and Why They Matter, I find myself going back to my review of the original Volume 1 of The Essentials and am tempted to repeat much of what was said there.

“The Essentials” is a weekly Saturday night event on TCM in which a guest host introduces a picture he or she believes is an Essential, i.e., a title “film lovers need to know,” as film historian Ben Mankiewicz explains in the forward. The number 52 is used because there are 52 weeks in a year. Unlike in Volume One, the new book contains an Appendix listing all the Essentials that TCM has aired, indicating the ones chosen for both

A music scholar has discovered which baseball film inspired John Lennon’s “Grow Old With Me,” solving the decades-old mystery about the origin of one of the singer’s final songs prior to his 1980 murder.

The opening lyric in “Grow Old With Me” quotes Robert Browning’s 1864 poem “Rabbi ben Ezra“: “Grow old along with me / The best is yet to be.” Lennon had admitted that he was inspired to write the song after watching a baseball movie on television during a trip to Bermuda, but the actual film

John Wayne, known as “The Duke” to his fans, starred in upwards of 150 movies throughout his 50-year career. While he had hits in a wide range of genres, he is best known as the macho hero at the heart of some classic westerns. Wayne made a slew of low-grade oaters throughout the 1930s. It wasn’t until John Ford‘s “Stagecoach” (1939), an Oscar-winning adventure epic that took the genre to new artistic heights, that he finally achieved stardom.

In all, the Duke and “Pappy” Ford, as his crew called the famously cantankerous director, made 14 films together. Among these are such other spurs and saddles classics as “She Wore a Yellow Ribbon” (1949), “The Searchers” (1956) and “The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance” (1962). All of these feature on our list of John Wayne’s best westerns ranked.

Despite being a top box office draw for decades, Wayne was only nominated for two acting

The John Wick producer talks about some of the movies that made her.

Show Notes: Movies Referenced In This Episode

Jurassic Park (1993)

Sicario (2015)

Sicario: Day of the Soldado (2018)

Wind River (2017)

John Wick (2014)

The Town (2010)

Clash of the Titans (2010)

Hotel Mumbai (2018)

A Private War (2018)

Moana (2016)

A History Of Violence (2005)

Spaceballs (1987)

Young Frankenstein (1974)

Star Wars (1977)

Blazing Saddles (1974)

High Anxiety (1977)

High Fidelity (2000)

History of the World, Part 1 (1981)

Don’t Tell Mom The Babysitter’s Dead (1991)

Back To The Future (1985)

The Goonies (1985)

Cat’s Eye (1985)

Splash (1984)

Big (1988)

Bill And Ted Face The Music (2020)

The French Connection (1971)

Pretty Woman (1990)

Steel Magnolias (1989)

Parenthood (1989)

Beaches (1988)

The Wild Bunch (1969)

Heat (1995)

Cocktail (1988)

Gremlins (1984)

The Lost Boys (1987)

The Lost Boys: The Tribe (2008)

The Lost Boys: The Thirst (2010)

Sixteen Candles (1984)

Curly Sue (1991)

Stagecoach (1939)

The Breakfast Club (1985)

Some Kind Of Wonderful (1987)

National Lampoon’s Vacation (1983)

Frozen (2013)

The Little Mermaid (1989)

Beauty And The Beast (1991)

Raising Arizona (1987)

Baby Boom (1987)

I Confess (1953)

Avatar (2009)

Titanic (1997)

The Fast And The Furious

For “Drunk History” co-creator and host Derek Waters, it’s pretty bittersweet to still be campaigning for an Emmy now that his show has been canceled. Comedy Central, which is mostly getting out of the live-action comedy business, announced earlier this month that it had rescinded a Season 7 order for “Drunk History,” and Waters admits it still isn’t clear what happens next.

“It sounds a little dramatic, but it’s like a funeral without any music,” he told Variety‘s Awards HQ. “I would love to finish what I started. It would just be nice to end on your own terms, to say goodbye and not just be like, ‘that’s it.'”

Waters, who created the show with fellow executive producer Jeremy Konner, said he still hasn’t been given an “actual answer why it happened … no one’s called me. I have no idea. I have no verification of it.

Legendary stuntman Buddy Joe Hooker joins Josh and Joe to discuss the movies that made him.

Show Notes: Movies Referenced In This Episode

Harold And Maude (1971)

White Lightning (1974)

Blazing Saddles (1974)

White Line Fever (1975)

Bound For Glory (1976)

Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977)

The Outsider (1980)

Freebie And The Bean (1978)

Sharky’s Machine (1981)

First Blood (1982)

Night Shift (1982)

Rumble Fish (1983)

Against All Odds (1984)

To Live And Die In L.A. (1985)

F/X (1986)

Tucker The Man And His Dream (1988)

Sea of Love (1989)

Miami Blues (1990)

Thelma & Louise (1991)

Demolition Man (1993)

The Crow (1994)

Waterworld (1995)

From Dusk Till Dawn(1996)

Grosse Point Blank (1997)

Django Unchained (2012)

Kiss Meets The Phantom Of The Park (1978)

Once Upon A Time In Hollywood (2019)

Seven Samurai (1954)

Kagemusha (1980)

Ran (1985)

The Fugitive (1993)

Mad Max: Fury Road (2015)

The Bourne Identity (2002)

Casino Royale (2006)

Quantum of Solace (2008)

The Fast And The Furious (2001)

The Strongest Man In The World (1975)

The War of the Worlds (1953)

Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)

Bullitt (1968)

Robbery (1967)

S.O.B. (1981)

Vanishing Point

Although its heyday ended a long time ago, the Western genre is responsible for some of cinema’s greatest works. Sergio Leone’s The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly is the genre’s peak, deconstructing the Western while providing a perfect example of one.

Related: 15 Best Quotes From The Good, The Bad And The Ugly

While The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly is arguably the finest Western out there, there are plenty of other strong candidates for its title. There are some really great Westerns, so here are a few honorable mentions that didn’t quite make the cut, but are masterpieces of the genre: High Noon, Stagecoach, Rio Bravo, The Wild Bunch, and The Magnificent Seven.

The Notebook Primer introduces readers to some of the most important figures, films, genres, and movements in film history.Above: The Great Train RobberyThe western has been around since nearly the advent of cinema. Some of Thomas Edison’s earliest films incorporated standard conventions of the genre, established in preceding works of popular fiction, and other key tropes were solidified in Edwin S. Porter’s pioneering The Great Train Robbery (1903). Primarily originating on the East Coast, American motion picture production soon made its general migration west where the geographic consequences only amplified the form, enticing the likes of producers and directors including Thomas Ince and Cecil B. DeMille. The western swiftly flourished as an exuberant, manifold survey of idealized, often exaggerated themes concerning heroism, progress, and the myth of the American dream. The genre became a beloved compendium of cultural dichotomies, iconic symbols, locations, and character types, evincing countless variations alongside the tried and true.

With HBO Max having launched in May and NBCUniversal’s Peacock looking to enter living rooms in July, the number of streaming platforms for consumers to choose from continues to multiply. It can be easy to get lost in that shuffle and forget that there are a vast number of films that are already available to watch online without any cost of admission at all. Services like YouTube and Tubi have quietly accrued brimming libraries with the only cost being an occasional ad break and a sturdy internet connection. These include classics that have entered the public domain, like Orson Welles’ “The Stranger” and Stanley Donen’s “Charade.” Some newer films are simply available through licensing agreements, parts of a cycle of free content to get to before they expire and are replaced by other films.

As these libraries continue to fluctuate, it’s easy to lose track of what

Alice in Wonderland

Blu ray

Kino Lorber

1933 / 1.33:1/ 76 min.

Starring Charlotte Henry, W.C. Fields, Gary Cooper

Cinematography by Bert Glennon, Henry Sharp

Directed by Norman Z. McLeod

Written by Harvey Kurtzman with art by Jack Davis, Mad‘s 1954 parody of Alice in Wonderland stands as a succinct critique of Paramount Pictures’s 1933 adaptation. The film stars crowd pleasing performers like Cary Grant and W.C. Fields yet manages to be one of the most uniquely disturbing studio pictures ever made.

Directed by Norman Z. McLeod and written by Joseph L. Mankiewicz and William Cameron Menzies, the movie began production in 1932, the centennial of Lewis Carroll’s birth. Carroll’s classic was ripe for Paramount – the studio on Melrose was ground zero for absurdist humor in the early ’30s. McLeod had just wrapped the Marx Brothers’ sublime Horse Feathers while the Mankiewicz-scripted Million Dollar Legs was released the same year – both

John Wayne would’ve celebrated his 113th birthday on May 26, 2020. The Oscar-winning actor, better known as “The Duke” to his fans, starred in over 165 movies throughout his career, oftentimes playing the swaggering, macho hero of westerns and war epics. But how many of his titles remain classics? Let’s take a look back at 25 of his greatest films, ranked worst to best.

Born in 1907 as Marion Robert Morrison, Wayne worked his way up from bit player to leading man, appearing in a number of poverty row, Z-grade westerns throughout the 1930s. He shot to stardom with his role in John Ford‘s “Stagecoach” (1939), which brought new shades of nuance and artistry to the Cowboys and Indians genre. It also kicked off a lucrative, decades-long partnership between the director and star, who would make over two dozen films together, including “The Quiet Man” (1952), “The Searchers” (1956) and “The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance

Right now, in this galaxy… featuring Lloyd Kaufman, Brad Simpson, Gilbert Hernandez, Grant Moninger and Blaire Bercy.

Please support the Hollywood Food Coalition. Text “Give” to 323.402.5704 or visit https://hofoco.org/donate!

Show Notes: Movies Referenced In This Episode

Mondo Keazunt (1955)

The Human Tornado (1976)

Gigot (1962)

The Hustler (1961)

How to Commit Marriage (1969)

The Magnificent Ambersons (1942)

Citizen Kane (1941)

Touch of Evil (1958)

The Last Man On Earth (1963)

Night of the Living Dead (1968)

The Omega Man (1971)

I Am Legend (2007)

Panic In Year Zero! (1962)

Dogtooth (2009)

The Entity (1983)

Shelf Life (1993)

The Killers (1964)

The Next Voice You Hear… (1950)

Donovan’s Brain (1953)

Talk About A Stranger (1952)

Julius Caesar (1950)

They Saved Hitler’s Brain (1968)

The Exterminating Angel (1962)

The Jerk (1979)

Kings Row (1942)

Santa Fe Trail (1940

Bedtime For Bonzo (1951)

The Heart Is A Lonely Hunter (19468)

Point Blank (1967)

House of Wax (1953)

Black Shampoo (1976)

A History Of Violence (2005)

Return To Oz (1985)

Death Wish 4: The Crackdown (1987)

The Anderson Tapes (1971)

Psycho (1960)

Two Evil Eyes (1990)

The Taking of Pelham One Two Three

Make way for the parade! Featuring Brian Trenchard-Smith, Eli Roth, Katt Shea, Thomas Jane, our very own Don Barrett and Blaire Bercy from the Hollywood Food Coalition.

Please support the Hollywood Food Coalition. Text “Give” to 323.402.5704 or visit https://hofoco.org/donate!

Show Notes: Movies Referenced In This Episode

Screams of a Winter Night (1979)

Goodbye Bruce Lee: His Last Game Of Death (1975)

I Think We’re Alone Now (2018)

The Rhythm Section (2020)

Atomic Blonde (2017)

The Spy Who Came In From The Cold (1965)

The Ipcress File (1965)

Funeral In Berlin (1966)

Extraction (2020)

Kung Fu Hustle (2004)

The Mermaid (2016)

Oklahoma! (1955)

Singin’ In The Rain (1953)

Nightcrawler (2014)

I Think We’re Alone Now (2008)

Ghetto Freaks a.k.a. Sign of Aquarius (1970)

Hostel (2005)

Cabin Fever (2002)

Final Cut: Ladies And Gentlemen (2012)

The Movie Orgy (1968)

Gremlins (1984)

The Goonies (1985)

Hell of the Living Dead a.k.a. Night of the Zombies (1980)

Troll 2 (1990)

In The Land Of The Cannibals a.k.a. Land of

With the 2020 Stagecoach Music Festival postponed until October, the fest’s organizers and Sirius Xm teamed up this past weekend — Stagecoach’s original date — to present a series of livestreamed at-home performances. Chief among them was Eric Church, who delivered a moving rendition of his song “Holdin’ My Own,” off 2015’s Mr. Misunderstood.

Church has been a steady presence during the coronavirus pandemic and quarantine. He debuted the resilient new song “Never Break Heart” during the Acm’s Our Country special and posted a powerful spoken-word message last week that