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Super Grover unmasked–Simm, Maslany, Fillion headline Saturday panels in San Diego, now online

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July 27, 2014

Nerd HQ offered up a great variety of panels from the best of TV Saturday. Here are some great panels to check out. After four years of 45 minute panels offered just yards from San Diego Comic-Con, many of these have become a source for stand-up comedy from the actors. See for yourself.

First up what may be the best panel idea ever, the voices and muppets themselves, from Sesame Street, Grover, Cookie Monster, Bert, and Murray. And Grover reveals the true identity of Super Grover. This one can’t be missed.

A Conversation with Sesame Street

Intruders TV Series Panel with John Simm, Mira Sorvino & Glen Morgan

Orphan Black Panel with Tatiana Maslany and Other Cast Members

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The Big Finale–looking at the end of a series

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April 3, 2014

It always pays to be wary of grandiose statements and definitive pronouncements. When I first watched Forrest Gump in the theater, one-third of the way through the movie it occurred to me I might be watching the greatest production of all time, and walking out of the theater I carried that thought with me. But time changes things. Now I see it as a fun film, but it’s not at the top of any of my “best of” lists. Professor Schofield advised that you can’t really objectively analyze something, an art movement, a political figure, a fad–anything worth analyzing–unless several years had transpired and you could have the value of time and distance, contemplation and reflection, to look back with.

So it is with a bit of reservation that I am asserting that the series finale to How I Met Your Mother that aired Monday night should top any list of great finales. The writers, producers, and actors simply got it just right. Exactly right. Airing the first episode of season one just before the finale aired really showcased how this ending was exactly what viewers deserved after nine seasons of sticking with the show. Consider all the series finales that were promoted over the years, and despite the biggest of viewing audiences, you might find that most last hoorahs miss the mark, try too hard, or just do something that didn’t reflect the best of the series.

The granddaddy of all finales was the 1983 M*A*S*H extended episode “Goodbye, Farewell, and Amen.” Although some elements were right, like a bounty of typical and appropriate sad goodbyes, Captain Benjamin Franklin “Hawkeye” Pierce, (one of the best characters of all time) after more than a decade of using laughter to beat the odds and help his unit survive the Korean War, cracks at the very end. NBC’s comedy spy series Chuck made a similar mistake, wiping the memory of Chuck’s hard-earned love interest Sarah after we cheered him on all those years, requiring the story to basically start over from scratch in some far off place after the series wrapped. Another less than satisfying but at least appropriate-to-the-series finale was the end of the monumental 20th year of the original Law & Order. We basically got to see a fairly typical episode of the series, which certainly fit the seriousness of the show’s drama. But we also got a goodbye scene and were left on a positive note with “Lieut’s” good news about her hard-fought illness.

Before that, you might have seen the last episode of The Mary Tyler Moore Show on Nick at Nite or other classic rerun network if you weren’t old enough to catch it in its initial run. The TV network that was the subject of the series fires everyone including Mary at the end, except Ted Knight’s character Ted Baxter. The annoying guy that we loved for being annoying gets to stay. A funny series with a funny end, as well as the requisite bittersweet goodbye scene. A similarly funny sitcom, Psych, wrapped its eighth and final season last month, tying up all its remaining loose ends. Psych took a different path, taking its angst-inducing character, Detective-then-Chief Lassiter, and with a redemption of sorts, switched up his role in the last two seasons to become a guy viewers could cheer on.

Another comedy, Newhart, gave us a completely bizarre ending for an otherwise enjoyable comedy series. Yet it was saved literally in the last two minutes by a brilliantly concocted stunt–bring back Bob’s wife from his original series, The Bob Newhart Show, the lovely Suzanne Pleshette, revealing the whole series was just a dream. It’s a gimmick that didn’t work for a series like the original Dallas (recall Bobby Ewing died then came back to life with a “poof”), but for a comedy wrap-up, it couldn’t have been better timed.

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House, M.D., In Plain Sight, Awake wrap with strong series finales

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May 26, 2012

They are three very different series, one an 11 season megahit, one a five season struggling hit, and the other a one-season series that missed its audience and hardly had a chance at all. Fox’s House, M.D. finished its eleventh season Monday with a Hugh Laurie retrospective (where actors Hugh Laurie and Robert Sean Leonard end by trashing the production set) and a textbook finale episode. USA Network’s In Plain Sight pulled itself together in the final two seasons and ended with a satisfying conclusion earlier this month–the best finale of the three series reviewed here. NBC’s one season series Awake, a series inexplicably cut short when NBC continues other much weaker, tired programming, provided a rare opportunity to wrap a cancelled series, bookending a stunningly well written series with a clean finish in Thursday night’s finale.

If you haven’t seen these finales you’d do yourself a favor to stop, watch them online or elsewhere, and come back, as there be spoilers ahead here.

House, M.D. had some powerhouse seasons and a superb cast that was ever-changing. That change took the series to a new level. With Doctors Chase (Jesse Spencer), Cameron (Jennifer Morrison), and Foreman (Omar Epps) one-upping each other over the first seasons, and an ongoing “will they or won’t they” storyline between Hugh Laurie’s Dr. Greg House and Cuddy (Lisa Edelstein), it took the break-up of the team and a room full of candidates for House’s team to really show the series’ potential. Enter Doctors Taub (Peter Jacobson), Kutner (Kal Penn), and the Doctors we knew as Cutthroat Bitch (Anne Dudek) and Thirteen (Olivia Wilde) in competition for House’s praise and a place on staff. Only when the writers finally gave in and put House and Cuddy together did the show fall apart, but then a minor character named Martha Masters played by Amber Tamblyn turned the show around and it sailed in for a strong finish this season as we got to see House with his ideal wife, Dominika, played by Karolina Wydra.

But the writers always returned to what really gave the series heart–House’s friend Wilson (Robert Sean Leonard)–and creator David Shore all but admitted the inspiration for House in the finale’s retrospective. As we’d always expected the House/Holmes (pronounce it “Homes” if you need to) and Wilson/Watson was intentional, including the House/Holmes brilliant analytical mind and antisocial nature, and to highlight it further the season finale mirrored the famous Sherlock Holmes case, “The Reichenbach Fall.” Ultimately House, M.D. was a weekly buddy series, and the creators gave us the last scene we all needed. A big plus for the finale was the return of past cast members, except the glaringly missing Cuddy, with even Kal Penn’s Kutner returning from the dead for an appearance. And we knew that Doctor Chase would ultimately come out on top in the battle to replace House. Taking the chair of House’s desk leaves us with the thought that the “show will go on” if not on TV then, by analogy, in real life.

In Plain Sight started almost unsure of what it wanted to be with star Mary McCormack playing an ever-irritable witness relocation program U.S. Marshal who was the bad end of a relationship with cool and (almost) decent boyfriend Raph (Cristian de la Fuente). Then we began to understand her more as we met her disaster of a family, mom Jinx (Leslie Ann Warren) and sister Brandi (Nichole Hiltz). Jinx and Brandi got so bad at points you felt bad for the actresses having to play these roles. But Mary had the best support team you could wish on a person: partner Marshal Marshall Mann (played by Frederick Weller) (a strange character name that worked anyway) who was smart and full of brainy curiosities, and boss Stan McQueen (Paul Ben-Victor), a gruff but perfect-for-Mary leader of the Albuquerque federal office. Creative differences almost lost the audience at the end of season two, but a re-focus on Mary prompted the series to pick itself up in time for actress Mary McCormack’s real-life pregnancy that the producers smartly just adapted for her character in season four, one of the best seasons of writing an acting for any actress on any television series.

As for the finale, the “will they or won’t they” angst we saw botched by allowing House and Cuddy get together, kept us guessing until almost the last scene for Mary Shannon and Marshall Mann. When Marshall finally professes his love for Mary in the finale you could hear a collective sigh of relief across the viewing audience. But it wasn’t what the passing viewer might think–it was true to both characters and simply a perfect climax to the relationship between these two partners, resulting in Marshall taking over the Albuquerque office where he could finally take care of Mary and still marry his fiancée Detective Chaffee (Rachel Boston), while Mary ends up with a new beau and boss Stan gets promoted to the Washington, DC office with new girlfriend Lia (Tia Carrere in the final season’s most refreshing new role). As satisfying endings go, In Plain Sight simply was a winner.

As standalone episodes, the Awake finale packed a rollercoaster of action, twists, and emotion, with all the important plot threads nicely tied up. The only problem with Awake likely was that it aired in a primetime slot on a major network. On any other network–Fox, CW, USA, AMC–Awake would have found its audience and been a smash hit. But NBC’s typical viewer does not like the clever supernatural drama as NBC has proven with prior cancellations year after year. Awake was exciting, and included a cast of brilliant actors headlined by British actor Jason Isaacs, who, like fellow Brit Hugh Laurie, offered up a pitch perfect American accent. Preparing for the worst, the creators readied a season finale that could stand strong as a series finale should the show get cancelled, and low viewership resulted in just that end. Isaacs’ character Detective Britten never got any rest in season one–every time he awakened he was in a different reality–and it seemed as if Isaacs himself had a heavy burden playing this challenging character in an Emmy-worthy performance. In fact, if Emmys nominees were being considered right now, you could bet Laurie, McCormack, and Isaacs would be strong contenders.

Awake’s finale allowed the supporting cast to shine–Detective Freeman (Steve Harris), Detective Vega (Wilmer Valderrama), and Dr. Evans (Cherry Jones) and Dr. Lee (BD Wong) only scratched the surface of what future seasons could have revealed. Missed opportunities, such as what was to happen between Detective Britten and Tara (Michaela McManus), will never be known. Although we will never learn the “why” of the series, the unravelling of the car crash that got Britten into the entire mess gave viewers what we wanted in the end–a way for Britten to undo the past, or at least move forward as if the crash never ruined his life.

Sadly, we likely will never see the one-season Awake characters again other than on DVD, but House, M.D. and In Plain Sight will likely visit us again and again forever in syndication. The good news is that these great actors are now freed up to give us something else. What will Hugh Laurie, Robert Sean Leonard, Mary McCormack, Peter Jacobson, Jesse Spencer and Jason Isaacs do next?

C.J. Bunce

Editor

borg.com

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It’s Never Lupus: House returns to Fox Mondays

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October 13, 2011

Review by Elizabeth C. Bunce

To tell you the truth, I really wasn’t looking forward to House M.D. this season, so much so that I actually forgot to watch the season premiere. After the departure of Amber Tamblyn and last year’s bizarre, Clockwork Orange musical dream sequence, I was pretty sure that House’s antics had lost both their power to shock his co-workers, and to entertain audiences.

Well, after getting caught up on the first two episodes of Season 8, I’m happy to announce that I was wrong. But you can understand where I was coming from; after all, if House in rehab wasn’t that interesting, and House in a mental institution wasn’t that interesting, and House in a relationship with Cuddy wasn’t that interesting, how was House in prison going to be any different? It was, and I’m almost sorry Hugh Laurie’s going to be back at Princeton Plainsboro for the rest of the season.

With “Twenty Vicodin,” the writers clearly capitalized on what has always been one of the show’s top assets: fresh cast members. From House’s spooky, silent, hulking cellmate (Michael Bailey Smith (Charmed, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Star Trek Voyager) as Sullivan), to the dilettante prison physician (new series regular Odette Annable (Monk, Cloverfield, Life on Mars (U.S.)), as Dr. Jessica Adams), “Twenty Vicodin” was peppered with engaging characters to challenge House. The plot hinges on House’s efforts to earn parole (after crashing his car into Cuddy’s house in last season’s finale) by keeping his nose clean on his last five days in prison. That requires him to stockpile and hand over the eponymous twenty vicodin to prison gangleader Mendelson (Jude Ciccolella, Life, Medium, Monk, Burn Notice, Law and Order, Star Trek: Nemesis); avoid pissing off fellow inmates; really avoid pissing off the infirmary supervisor; and somehow simultaneously (of course) solve a medical mystery. Fellow inmate Nick (Sebastian Sozzi, Law and Order) has mysterious symptoms, and House must circumvent every prison regulation in place to diagnose him. And by the way? It’s not lupus.

Episode 2, “Transplant” doesn’t quite pick up where “Twenty Vicodin” left off, because while House did save the guy’s life, he also annoyed enough folks in prison to get another 8 months tacked onto his sentence. Enter new Dean of Medicine Dr. Foreman (Omar Epps), in a fairly inevitable if ho-hum choice with an offer: come back to Princeton Plainsboro to diagnose a “dream patient”– a pair of already-harvested lungs slated for a transplant to Dr. Wilson’s (Robert Sean Leonard) dying cancer patient. The medical puzzle in this episode is House at its best–intriguing, impossible, desperate, and totally innovative. With his original team long gone (is it mean to say “Yay!”?), House must work with disgraced neurology intern Dr. Chi Park (Charlene Yi), who is not quite Amber Tamblyn, but held her own as well as any House fellow can be expected to. We’re definitely looking forward to watching her character grow this season.

But the heart of “Transplant,” as it always is, was Wilson, carrying the emotional plotline for both the lungs and for House’s return to the hospital. House’s and Wilson’s relationship has always been the sort of subtle backbone to the series, explored in varying depths through the years, but with this episode you got the sense that everyone finally got that, and that we may see that relationship explored in even greater depths this season. Robert Sean Leonard’s performance was top-notch, particularly in the painfully satisfying scene of Wilson finally telling House that he just doesn’t care anymore. You truly had the sense that he meant it; he just seemed done. We also had a sense that just maybe House might have finally changed, too, expressed in the beautifully-written and deceptively simple line, “We save the lungs. Wilson needs them.” Of course, they’re House and Wilson and this is episodic TV, so too much can’t change between them, and it was nice to see them heading off into the sunset together for a steak.

After these promising first two episodes, can Season 8 keep up the momentum? I have to admit, the teasers don’t look promising. More Princeton Plainsboro, more old team. I’m tempted to yawn, but my DVR is still firmly tuned to Fox Mondays at 8/7.

Tags: Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Burn Notice, Elizabeth C. Bunce, House, House M.D., Hugh Laurie, Life, Monk, Star Trek Nemesis, Star Trek Voyager

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Opening weekend review: Cowboys & Aliens never quite comes together

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July 31, 2011

Despite an interesting premise and a good cast, Cowboys & Aliens never quite comes together. How could a team-up like Jon Favreau, Ron Howard, Brian Grazer, and Steven Spielberg not get this right? Unfortunately, the movie is “just okay.” It’s an example of what happens when you buy an idea without a great story to back it up. And it’s what happens when it takes six A- list writers to craft a screenplay, based on a work that itself isn’t very interesting.

Cowboys & Aliens lacks most of the elements of good science fiction and qualifies as a western only because of the bundle of cliched characters, a beautiful desert hills setting, and all the horses. That said, it may find an audience with those who have never seen a good western or appreciate a good science fiction story. It could be dismissed as “another summer blockbuster romp, sure to please general audiences.” With the fun premise, the stellar cast, producer Spielberg and director Favreau, it may get favorable initial box office returns, but it fails to live up to its potential to rival all the summer movies released this year. It should be better than all the sequels released this summer. But it’s not. In comparison, it doesn’t quite match up to past summer hits like Independence Day or Men in Black.

It’s not as fun as a movie with the title Cowboys & Aliens should be. I wasn’t looking for humorous by any means, but there was not one point in the packed movie house where the crowd had any reason to laugh, cheer, or gasp. The story lacked tension and energy. From scene to scene the characters didn’t convincingly indicate the gravity of their would-be, desperate situations. And we were never quite pulled into the world in any gripping way–you keep waiting for something to happen, then the movie is over.

Fortunately the film has no relation to the graphic novel created by Scott Rosenberg and written by Fred Van Lente and Andrew Foley. The graphic novel is a simple analog of alien imperialism over humans as a reflection of European imperialism over the native Americans, and that’s about it. Not enough to turn into a good comic book, let alone a good movie. Add to that the six screenplay contributers (including Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman who wrote the iffy 2009 Star Trek script) who couldn’t pull a complete story out of a good idea, and proved yet again that a story written by committee rarely works. It is frustrating that an idea as fun as mixing aliens into the 1800s Old West is so hard to make awesome. Even kids mixing toy soldiers and science fiction figures could come up with a fun story.

The best of the film is the cast. As for the lead cast, Olivia Wilde’s character Ella was the stand-out. She seemed to do the best she could with her role and, as with her with roles in Tron: Legacy and House, M.D. , she is fun to watch. And Daniel Craig delivered an excellent performance as the western movie drifter with the secret past, Jake Lonergan. But his character was put into too many strange circumstances, and we never got to see how a man in the 1880s would react to aliens vs someone in the 2010s. Daniel Craig’s past roles have been so good, this one probably falls toward the bottom of the list. Audiences are starving to see the next Han Solo or Indiana Jones role for Harrison Ford. Billed as Ford’s “Rooster Cogburn” performance, Ford’s, Colonel Dolarhyde (a really bad name, by the way) is a one-note character. The audience wants to like this performance, but we don’t know how we’re supposed to feel about this character. At one point we’re told he’s tough and we feel he’s meant to be the traditional man in the black hat, but everything else indicates otherwise, and we don’t have enough back story to know what to think.

As for the supporting cast, Clancy Brown (Starship Troopers, Medium, Leverage, Law and Order, Lost, Enterprise) shows how great a supporting actor he is as the town’s preacher. Keith Carradine also delivers a believable performance as the sheriff. But as with Favreau’s Iron Man 2, another annoying Sam Rockwell performance almost reduces his scenes to cringe-worthy.

One more positive thing–I loved the “arm gun”. It’s not in the graphic novel, so it’s a great addition and helps make Daniel Craig’s every move as cool as he is as James Bond.

The movie might have been more exciting if they hardly showed us the aliens at all (like the shark in Jaws). When they appear, it is too much too often, and the aliens were a mix of creatures we had seen before, lifeless like the bugs from Starship Troopers, grotesque like Kuato from Total Recall, and the scenes are shot just like the aliens in the Alien movies. The creatures should be terrifying, to the point that the humans should be running for their lives screaming–especially for people who have no concept of space travel or extraterrestrials. They just aren’t.

The soundtrack starts with a good clip but ultimately relies too much on what sounded like a modern electric guitar ballad instead of a full orchestral sound–an epic, grandiose score you’d expect from a western, which might have helped save the film.

Not that my standards for a video rental should be any different than for a movie in the theater, but this may play better on video or late-night cable. I wouldn’t mind seeing a few of the western scenes again, just not enough to buy another movie ticket. The opening, for example, gets off to the right start, with Craig’s character executing a fight scene dive straight from Rio Bravo.

Unfortunately, this one left me wishing for a real good western or good sci-fi movie.

Cowboys & Aliens is in theaters. 2.5 of 5 stars.

C.J. Bunce

Editor

borg.com

Tags: Brian Grazer, Clancy Brown, Cowboys and Aliens, Daniel Craig, Harrison Ford, House, Independence Day, James Bond, Jaws, Jon Favreau, Keith Carradine, Men in Black, Olivia Wilde, Ron Howard, Steven Spielberg, Total Recall, Tron, westerns

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Waiting for Cowboys and Aliens, Part 1: Best western movies

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July 16, 2011

After a year of advertising, Cowboys and Aliens finally arrives in theaters June 29. With a sci-fi western starring the coolest James Bond ever (Daniel Craig) and our favorite scoundrel/spice smuggler Han Solo (Harrison Ford), our current favorite actress on-the-rise, Olivia Wilde (Quorra in Tron: Legacy, Thirteen in House M.D.), and the coolest director cranking out hits, Jon Favreau (Iron Man, Elf), this movie is going to really have to screw it up to not be the biggest blockbuster of the year–even competing against Green Lantern, Thor, Captain America, another Harry Potter movie, another Pirates of the Caribbean movie, another Planet of the Apes movie, another X-Men movie and another Transformers movie.

And what do you look forward to the most? The first big western in years? Harrison Ford finally in a genre movie again? Daniel Craig playing another cool as ice character? That Boba Fett-style gauntlet blaster? Favreau is on a roll with his recent films, and the trailer looks like it came out of a Philip K. Dick short story. So while we’re waiting, eagerly, for Cowboys and Aliens to premiere, let’s run down a list of the all-time best westerns and alien movies. We’ll start with the westerns and in two days we’ll look at the best alien movies.

1. STAGECOACH (1939). The best western director, John Ford, shooting in the best western location, Monument Valley, with the best western movie star, John Wayne. A character study more than a standard shoot ’em up, the relationship of people trapped and how fear affects a small group dynamic and how each deals with an unseen threat just around the next turn. Heroics and prejudice and good guys and bad guys. Cowboys and Aliens is an obvious play on Cowboys and Indians, and this film follows a stagecoach ride under a threat of Geronimo and his posse–a real story of cowboys vs Indians in frontier America. The source of the modern cool customer Han Solo-type, Wayne plays a tough but valiant Ringo Kid.

2. FORT APACHE (1948). Horse soldiers of the frontier, a mix of dying and dealing with command and authority, another John Ford and John Wayne partnership with a tough as nails Henry Fonda and the Ford/Wayne ensemble B-team of Victor McLaglen and Ward Bond. Co-starring the no longer just a kid actor Shirley Temple. This must have been what it was like to spend your years living out of a military fort. Wayne grows in acting skill, develops his own persona and defines his swaggering hero with the confident and cocky Captain York.

3. HIGH NOON (1952). The rarity of a true hero in the face of real danger with no help from anyone. Gary Cooper’s Marshal Kane must decide whether he is a runner or whether he must take a stand. With Thomas Mitchel and a brilliant but frustrating Grace Kelly as the new Mrs. Kane. Those who don’t like High Noon are usually frustrated with everyone but Cooper. That’s because you’re supposed to be frustrated–sometimes people just don’t do the right thing until someone comes along and shows them the way. Most of the film doesn’t make you feel good. That’s why High Noon is not a garden variety western but a stand-out masterpiece.

4. HIGH PLAINS DRIFTER (1973). Clint Eastwood directs himself in his best western role as the mysterious stranger. I’m a big fan of genre bending and like Cowboys and Aliens bridges sci-fi and westerns, here we see a natural bridging of western meets ghost story. Or does it? Paint the town red? Right on. Seek a little revenge? You bet. Where Eastwood’s other westerns seem to blur together, Drifter stands out as a film that seems to go a little crazy from the desert heat.

5. THE MAN WHO SHOT LIBERTY VALANCE (1962). More John Ford directing John Wayne? Yep, it’s because they were that good together. And here we add on Jimmy Stewart as honest, frustrated but determined lawman turned senator, Ransom Stoddard. Stewart’s Stoddard is a bit of High Noon’s Gary Cooper, but without the skill and edge. Liberty is played by an oily, vile Lee Marvin in one of his best film roles. And believe it or not, John Wayne again builds on his performance as the swaggering early Han Solo-type, including even a plotline pretty much stolen for the original Star Wars. Whose steak did Liberty kick to the floor? That was my steak, Valance. Who shot Liberty Valance? Watch and find out.

6. MY DARLING CLEMENTINE (1946). Yep, another John Ford directed masterpiece, again with Henry Fonda along with Ward Bond, but minus Wayne. Walter Brennan is top-notch here playing the mouth flapper that made him famous. The story is the most well known legend of the west: the gunfight at the OK Corral. Fonda plays Wyatt Earp, Victor Mature plays Doc Holliday. Even if you know the story, Ford shows us how the streets of Tombstone were painted in blood more than a century ago. Others have tried but no version of the story comes close to this classic.

7. SHANE (1953). Alan Ladd and Jean Arthur are perfect here, with real-life cowboy Ben Johnson along for the ride. Neither a farmer nor rancher, Ladd’s Shane has his own code and his code is about being kind and reserved, despite his gunslinger past. Like Wayne in Stagecoach, Cooper in High Noon, Stewart in Liberty Valance, and Eastwood in Drifter, Shane’s loner with the hidden past is sewn from the same cloth. Not cool in a modern way, but in an example-setting way, Shane shows a young boy what kind of a man to grow up to be. Like the triumph of the human spirit in several other great westerns, Shane is about looking out for the other guy.

8. SILVERADO (1985). My favorite western. Lawrence Kasdan’s masterpiece that reintroduced the western genre and proved that you can make a western today every bit as good as decades ago. The best ensemble western ever, yet it honestly pulls bits and pieces from all the other classics. Kevin Kline’s Paden is an everyman just trying to get by, pulled into something he wants no part of. Scott Glenn and Kevin Costner are brothers on their way to California who stop off on one last visit to their sister. Too bad that the man who runs Silverado now is the son of the guy Glenn’s character went to jail for killing, and he just won’t let it go. Enter Brian Dennehy as the sheriff and the Old West’s most perfect bartender named Stella, played by Linda Hunt. “Cobb can’t hurt me if he’s dead.” With Danny Glover, Patricia Arquette and John Cleese. Where’s the dog, Paden?

9. THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN (1960). John Sturges directs an all-star cast in the best remake of Akira Kurosawa’s Seven Samurai. Yul Brynner, Steve McQueen, Robert Vaughn and Charles Bronson are each skilled with their own special powers. They must team up to complete a simple task–and selecting the team for the job is just plain fun. Charles Coburn is solid as the expert in knife throwing. A rollicking, exciting western. Sturges’ line-up of heroes and familiar images of an up-and-coming western town is classic Old West.

10. BUTCH CASSIDY AND THE SUNDANCE KID (1969). Paul Newman, Robert Redford and Katherine Ross star in the other most famous story of the west. Bank robbers and the best ever buddy movie. The trio play off each other so naturally you really miss these people after the movie is over. Great fun, with popular music of the day. “Raindrops Keep Fallin’ On My Head” as a pop song behind Newman and Ross’s bicycle ride reflects a carefree spirit that must have accompanied the actual risky band of gunslingers. The film stands strong today and on multiple viewings Newman and Redford only seem to get better.

HONORABLE MENTION: RIO BRAVO (John Wayne in a low-key performance, with some classic gunfight scenes, including a slick dive and rifle throw and catch scene you’ll have to rewind and watch again and again), BEND IN THE RIVER (Jimmy Stewart and the best western scenery outside of Monument Valley), ANGEL AND THE BADMAN (John Wayne’s quiet anti-hero/hero and the innocent Gail Russell have chemistry and somehow manage to come off as made for each other).

MUSICAL WESTERNS YOU SHOULD NOT MISS: OKLAHOMA! (“the farmer and the cowman can be friends”), PAINT YOUR WAGON (Clint Eastwood and Lee Marvin singing a good musical under backdrop of the sudden growth of a western town)

Delve further into the genre and check out these other actors from classic westerns: Gene Autry, Dale Evans, Glenn Ford, Gabby Hayes, Tom Mix, Audie Murphy, Roy Rogers, Randolph Scott, and the Sons of the Pioneers.

C.J. Bunce
Editor
borg