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Monty Python and the Holy Grail

One of the questions I am frequently asked by e-mail is "What is your favorite comedy?" In a horse race that's almost too close to call, I have decided upon A Fish Called Wanda, followed closely by The Life of Brian, then Monty Python and the Holy...

Run Time: 1:31
U.S. Release Date: -
MPAA Rating: "PG" (Sexual Situations, Profanity)
Genre: COMEDY
Director: Terry Gilliam, Terry Jones
Cast: John Cleese, Eric Idle, Michael Palin, ...
Pride & Prejudice

Pre-Victorian writer Jane Austen, who died in 1817, has had more books adapted for film in the last twelve months than prolific contemporary authors Michael Crichton and John Grisham. In a very real sense, the movie world is undergoing an "Austen ...

Run Time: 4:40
U.S. Release Date: 1996-01-14
MPAA Rating: "NR" (Nothing Objectionable)
Genre: DRAMA/ROMANCE
Director: Simon Langton
Cast: Jennifer Ehle, Polly Maberly, Barbara Leigh-Hunt, ...
Dr. Strangelove

When you consider the history of motion pictures, certain watershed films leap to mind -- productions which have left their mark on the craft. Without a doubt, one of those is Stanley Kubrik's 1964 masterpiece, Dr. Strangelove (or, as it's subtitl...

Run Time: 1:33
U.S. Release Date: -
MPAA Rating: "NR" (Sexual Situations, Mature Themes)
Genre: COMEDY
Director: Stanley Kubrick
Cast: Peter Sellers, George C. Scott, Sterling Hayden, ...
Close Encounters of the Third Kind

In late 1977, everyone seemed to believe this. Although UFOs have been a popular subject for speculation, rumination, and investigation for more than 50 years, at no time was the phenomenon more popular than during the 1970s. Along with the Loch ...

Run Time: 2:15
U.S. Release Date: 1977-12-14
MPAA Rating: "PG" (Mature Themes)
Genre: Science Fiction
Director: Steven Spielberg
Cast: Richard Dreyfuss, François Truffaut, Teri Garr, ...
Raiders of the Lost Ark

Spoilers Ahoy!: The assumption is that everyone reading this review has seen Raiders of the Lost Ark. The review discusses in frank detail things about the ending, so, if you haven't seen the film and don't want its secrets spoiled, watch the mov...

Run Time: 1:55
U.S. Release Date: 1981-06-12
MPAA Rating: "PG" (Violence)
Genre: ACTION/ADVENTURE
Director: Steven Spielberg
Cast: Harrison Ford, John Rhys-Davies, Karen Allen, ...
United 93

It is not an easy thing to walk into a theater and willingly open oneself to being transported back to the blackest day (at least thus far) of the 21st century. There are those who believe this movie should not be released, that it is "too soon." ...

Run Time: 1:28
U.S. Release Date: 2006-04-28
MPAA Rating: "R" (Violence, Profanity)
Genre: DRAMA
Director: Paul Greengrass
Cast: Cheyenne Jackson, Jamie Harding, Omar Berdouni, ...
Xiu Xiu: The Sent Down Girl

Certain historical periods provide rich and varied soil for the cultivation of motion picture storylines. The twilight of the Roman Empire is one. The American Civil War is another. World War II marks a third. And a fourth is the Chinese "Cultu...

Run Time: 1:40
U.S. Release Date: 1999-05-07
MPAA Rating: "NR" (Sexual Situations, Nudity, Violence)
Genre: DRAMA
Director: Joan Chen
Cast: Lu Lu, Lopsang
Monty Python's the Life of Brian

Each of the three "official" Monty Python movies has its own distinguishing quality. The first, 1975's Monty Python and The Holy Grail, is arguably the funniest and (in some ways) the silliest. The last, 1983's The Meaning of Life, is the most un...

Run Time: 1:34
U.S. Release Date: 1979-08-17
MPAA Rating: "R" (Profanity, Nudity, Sexual Situations)
Genre: COMEDY
Director: Terry Jones
Cast: John Cleese, Eric Idle, Michael Palin, ...
Rear Window

For several years now, the Alfred Hitchcock canon available in video stores has been incomplete. While most of the Master of Suspense's great works have been easily obtainable, Rear Window has been conspicuous by its absence. (This became a sourc...

Run Time: 1:53
U.S. Release Date: -
MPAA Rating: "PG" (Violence)
Genre: THRILLER
Director: Alfred Hitchcock
Cast: James Stewart, Grace Kelley, Wendell Corey, ...
Sleuth

Sleuth, a 1972 "thinking person's thriller," is a rich, engaging motion picture with surprises lurking in the shadows behind every narrative corner. The film opens with a shot of Michael Caine making his way through a hedge labyrinth in search...

Run Time: 2:18
U.S. Release Date: -
MPAA Rating: "PG" (Violence)
Genre: THRILLER
Director: Joseph L. Mankiewicz
Cast: Laurence Olivier, Michael Caine