86% (3) 2001: A Space Odyssey 149 min, G, [Adventure, Sci-Fi] [Stanley Kubrick] [12 May 1968]Ratings & Reviews: IMDb Reviews: 83%, Rotten Tomatoes: 93%, Metacritic: 82%, External Reviews
Awards: Won 1 Oscar. Another 13 wins & 10 nominations.
Actors: Daniel Richter, Gary Lockwood, Keir Dullea, William Sylvester
Writer: Stanley Kubrick (screenplay), Arthur C. Clarke (screenplay)
External Links: Wikipedia Rotten Tomatoes IMDb Website Language: English, Russian Country: UK, USA
Plot: "2001" is a story of evolution. Sometime in the distant past, someone or something nudged evolution by placing a monolith on Earth (presumably elsewhere throughout the universe as well). Evolution then enabled humankind to reach the moon's surface, where yet another monolith is found, one that signals the monolith placers that humankind has evolved that far. Now a race begins between computers (HAL) and human (Bowman) to reach the monolith placers. The winner will achieve the next step in evolution, whatever that may be.
Rotten Tomatoes: A mind-bending sci-fi symphony, Stanley Kubrick's landmark 1968 epic pushed the limits of narrative and special effects toward a meditation on technology and humanity. Based on Arthur C. Clarke's story The Sentinel, Kubrick and Clarke's screenplay is structured in four movements. At the "Dawn of Man," a group of hominids encounters a mysterious black monolith alien to their surroundings. To the strains of Strauss's 1896 Also sprach Zarathustra, a hominid invents the first weapon, using a bone to kill prey. As the hominid tosses the bone in the air, Kubrick cuts to a 21st century spacecraft hovering over the Earth, skipping ahead millions of years in technological development. U.S. scientist Dr. Heywood Floyd (William Sylvester) travels to the moon to check out the discovery of a strange object on the moon's surface: a black monolith. As the sun's rays strike the stone, however, it emits a piercing, deafening sound that fills the investigators' headphones and stops them in their path. Cutting ahead 18 months, impassive astronauts David Bowman (Keir Dullea) and Frank Poole (Gary Lockwood) head toward Jupiter on the spaceship Discovery, their only company three hibernating astronauts and the vocal, man-made HAL 9000 computer running the entire ship. When the all-too-human HAL malfunctions, however, he tries to murder the astronauts to cover his error, forcing Bowman to defend himself the only way he can. Free of HAL, and finally informed of the voyage's purpose by a recording from Floyd, Bowman journeys to "Jupiter and Beyond the Infinite," through the psychedelic slit-scan star-gate to an 18th century room, and the completion of the monolith's evolutionary mission.With assistance from special-effects expert Douglas Trumbull, Kubrick spent over two years meticulously creating the most "realistic" depictions of outer space ever seen, greatly advancing cinematic technology for a story expressing grave doubts about technology itself. Despite some initial critical reservations that it was too long and too dull, 2001 became one of the most popular films of 1968, underlining the generation gap between young moviegoers who wanted to see something new and challenging and oldsters who "didn't get it." Provocatively billed as "the ultimate trip," 2001 quickly caught on with a counterculture youth audience open to a contemplative (i.e. chemically enhanced) viewing experience of a film suggesting that the way to enlightenment was to free one's mind of the U.S. military-industrial-technological complex. ~ Lucia Bozzola, Rovi
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39% (2) It Happened at the World's Fair 105 min, Not Rated, [Comedy, Musical, Romance] [Norman Taurog] [03 Apr 1963]Ratings & Reviews: IMDb Reviews: 61%, Rotten Tomatoes: 17%, External Reviews
Actors: Elvis Presley, Gary Lockwood, Joan O'Brien, Vicky Tiu
Writer: Si Rose, Seaman Jacobs
External Links: Wikipedia Rotten Tomatoes IMDb Language: English, Chinese Country: USA
Plot: Mike and Danny fly a crop duster, but because of Danny's gambling debts, a local sheriff seizes it. Trying to earn money, they hitch-hike to the World's Fair in Seattle. While Danny tries to earn money playing poker, Mike takes care of a small girl, Sue-Lin, whose Uncle Walter has disappeared. Being a ladies' man, he also finds the time to court a young nurse, Diane.
Rotten Tomatoes: This Elvis Presley vehicle is close to a lemon, even for his die-hard fans. Elvis is Mike Edwards, a pilot of a small plane who has a faithful sidekick, Danny (Gary Lockewood), and a penchant for singing. The story, such as it is, takes place in-between a total of ten different songs, the most memorable being "One Broken Heart for Sale". Mike is tough on the outside but he is willing to take up a good cause when he finds Sue Lin (Vicky Tiu) temporarily abandoned at the Seattle Worlds Fair. Aside from Sue Lin, he also finds an attractive nurse who is not abandoned but might still need attention.
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38% (2) The Magic Sword 80 min, APPROVED, [Adventure, Drama, Fantasy] [Bert I. Gordon] [01 Apr 1962]Ratings & Reviews: IMDb Reviews: 43%, Rotten Tomatoes: 33%, External Reviews
Actors: Anne Helm, Basil Rathbone, Estelle Winwood, Gary Lockwood
Writer: Bert I. Gordon (story), Bernard C. Schoenfeld (screenplay)
External Links: Rotten Tomatoes IMDb Language: English Country: USA
Plot: George, the son of the sorceress Sybil, has been watching the beautiful Princess Helene from afar and is very much in love with her. When she is kidnapped by the evil wizard Lodac, the king her father announces that she will be given in marriage to whoever rescues her. The first to volunteer is Sir Branton who expects to undertake the task alone. George, over his mother's objections, also decides to save her and is accompanied by six ancient knights. The journey is perilous with Lodac placing a series of challenges before them. Many in the group do not survive but George must eventually face Lodac's greatest challenge - his dragon.
Rotten Tomatoes: This medieval adventure fantasy has Saint George (Gary Lockwood) as the hero battling the forces of evil. He incurs the wrath of the villainous Lodac (Basil Rathbone) who uses all his dark powers to stop our hero. George fights a giant ogre, a two headed dragon, witches and rescues the fair Princess Helene (Anne Helm) from becoming dragon food.
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69% (1) Firecreek 104 min, Approved, [Drama, Romance, Western] [Vincent McEveety] [01 Jan 1968]Ratings & Reviews: IMDb Reviews: 69%, External Reviews
Actors: Gary Lockwood, Henry Fonda, Inger Stevens, James Stewart
Writer: Calvin Clements Sr.
External Links: Rotten Tomatoes IMDb Language: English Country: USA
Plot: Farmer and family man Johnny Cobb moonlights as a $2 a month sheriff in the quiet little town of Firecreek. When a gang of freebooters passes through, their leader Larkin, who is suffering from a minor wound, decides to spend the night. The gang members prove to be vicious, sadistic sociopaths who take advantage of the frightened townspeople, humiliating them for their own perverse amusement. Although Larkin disapproves of their behavior, his leadership role is tenuous, and he is reluctant to test it by exercising control over his men. The mild-mannered Cobb also seems hesitant to challenge the gang's antisocial behavior. Things come to a head when Meli, an Indian woman with a mixed race child, is sexually attacked by one of vicious psychopaths. Arthur, a mentally-challenged stable boy, comes to her aid and accidentally kills him. Cobb locks up Arthur pending a trial, but when the sheriff visits his pregnant wife, the gang breaks into the jail and lynches the boy. Cobb now realizes the time has come to act.
Rotten Tomatoes: Jimmy Stewart and Henry Fonda headline this western in which an old lawman (Stewart) attempts to keep his town safe from a band of recent returnees from the Missouri range wars and their villainous leader (Fonda), who threaten to destroy it with their drunken revelry. The old sheriff usually avoids the town, preferring to live on the outskirts of town with his pregnant wife. He is a bit of a pacifist, and when he sees what the outlaws are doing to the peaceful little village, he decides he must intervene, as no one in town seems to have the grit to fight back. At first the lawman attempts to reason with the outlaws. He fails at this, and even more violence ensues, forcing the sheriff to use a stronger form of persuasion.
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61% (1) They Came to Rob Las Vegas 124 min, R, [Crime, Drama] [Antonio Isasi-Isasmendi] [01 Jan 1969]Ratings & Reviews: IMDb Reviews: 61%, External Reviews
Awards: 7 wins.
Actors: Elke Sommer, Gary Lockwood, Jack Palance, Lee J. Cobb
Writer: Antonio Isasi-Isasmendi (screenplay), Lluís Josep Comerón (screenplay), Jorge Illa (screenplay), Jo Eisinger (screenplay), Antonio Isasi-Isasmendi (dialogue), Lluís Josep Comerón (dialogue), Jorge Illa (dialogue), Jo Eisinger (dialogue), André Lay (novel)
External Links: Rotten Tomatoes IMDb Language: Spanish Country: Spain, Italy, France, West Germany
Plot: A Las Vegas casino blackjack dealer plots a complex plan to rob an armored car with $7 million in casino cash while it's en route to Los Angeles. He gets help from criminal associates of his late brother, who was killed in an unsuccessful robbery attempt, as well as his beautiful girlfriend, who is the personal secretary to the corrupt owner of the casino. However, an ambitions investigator for the U.S. Treasury Department is also tracking the armored car, suspecting that it's being used to launder unreported profits for organized crime.
Rotten Tomatoes: Casino dealer Tony Vincenzo knows how to figure the odds, and he figures the job he's planned is close to a sure thing. He knows about the route and the security measures taken to protect an armored car hauling cash from Las Vegas to Los Angeles. He knows no one will find the car after he's detoured it off the road and into a specially constructed subterranean desert vault. And yet he doesn't know enough.
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