May 21
One of the best action movies of all time is Die Hard, a down and dirty adaptation of Roderick Thorp’s novel Nothing Lasts Forever. The 1988 flick hatched a franchise that endures to this day, but there’s nothing quite like the original. Directed by John McTiernan, Die Hard is the epitome of taking the right path from tension to action to reach decisive fulfilment in the climax.
When Alfred Hitchcock reached America to make movies, he thought he was going to be crafting a version of Titanic. He met producer David O. Selznick upon arrival and was taken to a giant ship to be told that this was going to be his first film in Hollywood. A series of events sunk that idea and the British director set about adapting Daphne du Maurier’s novel Rebecca.
A remarkably entertaining and clever zombie movie, Warm Bodies far exceeds expectations with its wit and natural charm. Directed by Jonathan Levine and based on the Isaac Marion novel of the same name, this 2013 romantic comedy has the brains and brawn to land as a formidable entry in more than a few crowded genres. It’s part teen romance, part zombie horror, part social commentary.
Somewhere in Parker is a pretty decent Out of Sight-style film with energetic characters, eccentric plot developments and sunbaked sex appeal. But Taylor Hackford’s 2013 movie winds up being so long-winded and charred that it’s impossible to recommend even when it does strike the right ferocious notes.
It was early in 1934 when Alfred Hitchcock was installed at the Gaumont-British offices at Shepherd’s Bush. The move ended his time with British International Pictures and commenced a period that produced a series of classic British pictures.
