RIP Gene Wilder: The five greatest roles of a comedic genius

Gene Wilder is one of those great comic actors who so many of us really associate with our childhoods. When I was first really getting into comedy, developing my own voice and my own taste -- Wilder was a big touchstone for me. So it is with a heavy heart that I write this amid the news that he has passed away at age 83.

Wilder never made that many movies, and he has been largely missing from the Hollywood landscape for the last several decades. But for a brief period, largely during the 1970s, he was one of the most popular comedy stars in the world -- and his frizzy haired, manic persona is unlike any other in movie history.

As sad as the news of his death is, at the very least, it provides an opportunity for film buffs to reassess his career and for younger audiences -- who may either only know him for his iconic role as Willy Wonka, or don't know him at all -- it's a chance to rediscover a truly unique talent.

There's a lot people may not realize about Wilder. He was a great comedy writer (he was behind many of the best jokes in Young Frankenstein, for instance), he was an ideal comedy partner (although he and Richard Pryor reportedly never got along in real life -- they had exceptional chemistry) and he had a big heart -- as evidenced by his exemplary love for Gilda Radner, who battled and eventually succumbed to cancer while married to him.

I will always have a soft spot for Wilder. Here are his five greatest film performance (with one honorable mention):

Honorable mention: Bonnie & Clyde (1967)

A very young Gene Wilder has a small but pivotal cameo role in this classic gangster movie. He plays one half of a fairly bougie middle class couple who have their car stolen by outlaw bank robbers while they're in it. At first they befriend the crooks, and get a cheap thrill out of mingling with them, but when Wilder reveals his profession -- undertaker -- the scene gets deadly serious. His role in The Producers (which came out the following year) may be more famous, but this one holds up better.

Willy Wonka & The Chocolate Factory (1971)

This will probably be the part for which Wilder is best remembered, and it's easy to see why. It's a real tour de force that has yet to be topped (cough, Johnny Depp, cough). He is by turns menacing, mirthful and magical -- perfectly capturing the mercurial character created by Roald Dahl in his book. Wilder's lovely singing voice imbues the musical numbers with real whimsy, and his sarcastic line readings make this children's film sublime for adults.

Blazing Saddles (1974)

Wilder is one of the highlights of this raucous, political incorrect Western parody. Curiously, he was not the first choice for his role as a former gunfighter gone to seed, but he is perfect in it. Some of his off the wall lines are delivered with such a sly touch that "The Waco Kid" winds up being the least dated thing about this blockbuster comedy. His monologue about facing down a would-be gunman who turns out to be a child is still one of my all-time favorites.



Young Frankenstein (1974)

Wilder was the star of the show in his other big, Mel Brooks-directed hit of 1974. Despite being deliriously over-the-top throughout, Wilder's brilliance in this film is borne out of his commitment to taking himself and the material seriously, no matter how silly it is. As Dr. Frankenstein (emphasis on the steen) he is marvelous and he motivates career best work out of dream cast, which includes Peter Boyle, Madeline Kahn and Teri Garr.

Silver Streak (1976)

A fast-paced who-done-it with lots of homages to Alfred Hitchcock, features Wilder in an against-type romantic role. It also eventually becomes his first pairing with his unlikely comedy soul mate, Richard Pryor. This film breaks cliches by making their partnership an equal one, with each actor pushing the other outside of their comfort zone in funny and surprising ways. Meanwhile, the movie itself is a real throwback mystery that is a lot fun from start to finish.

Stir Crazy (1980)

Wilder's second pairing with Richard Pryor (directed by Sidney Poitier) is still my favorite. He and Pryor play too lovable losers who get imprisoned for a crime they didn't commit -- and despite that set-up, laughs ensue. Endless comedies have ripped off their opposites attract, mixed race dynamic, but few captured the genuine affection and bemusement these two could convey on screen. In a strange way, their on-screen friendship was groundbreaking, and man were they hilarious together.

Hollywood needs more movies like 'Hell or High Water'

After a pretty disappointing summer season, Hell or High Water -- an exceptional new cops and robbers film meets western -- hit me like a breath of fresh air. It also left me feeling kind of sad, not only because Hollywood so rarely makes smart adult movies like this with mainstream appeal -- but also because the movie isn't finding the audience it deserves, at least so far.

This little gem of a movie has towering performances from its three leads -- Jeff Bridges, Ben Foster and a revelatory Chris Pine. It also has some smart, subtle commentary on what the modern economy can do to small towns and the men who yearn to be big in them.

It's not an art film. In fact, on its surface, it's a nifty little crime movie. But it has so much more going for it -- from its Texas atmosphere to its rivetingly realistic action sequences -- that it stands as a great genre picture.

Pine and Foster play brothers pulling off a series of strategic bank robberies so they can settle some outstanding debts and get even with some people who wronged them. Bridges (who is Oscar-worthy here) is an irascible-but-wise lawman, right on the brink of retirement, who is poised to bring them in.

Instead of relying on cliches or bombarding the audience with quick cuts, the film takes its time to really establish its characters and setting (including the bravura opening one-take shot that puts the viewer right in the center of an unfolding heist). Because the film isn't afraid to let its thoughtful story unfold, we get richer performances, vivid side characters and little moments of beautiful detail that stick in your head long after the credits roll.

Hell or High Water is one of those movies that lingers and gets better and better the more you think about it. It shares some DNA with No Country for Old Men, but it has some intriguing preoccupations of its own -- such as its nuanced and touching portrayal of a half-Mexican, half-Native American policemen or what appears to be an authentic local actress playing an embittered waitress.

I can't say enough good things about Pine and Foster -- one, a great character actor trapped in a matinee idol's body, and the other, a bit of a chameleon who really seems to be coming into his own. But for me this is Bridges' picture. He's matured from underrated genius to national treasure territory.

You trust him on screen. You believe he is this character. The word I kept coming back to again and again when I watched this film (one of the best I've seen this year): real. This film has real stakes, takes place in the real world and revolves around characters that are plausibly real.

And although the climax is just as exciting as anything you'll find in a big budget blockbuster, it never loses its grounding as a serious-minded character study. Even if the character is more about the nature of man or how money and violence can degrade his inherent decency.

It's the kind of movie that used to stand a chance of gaining traction from positive word of mouth, but nowadays, small movies almost never get the opportunity to play in the same space as the tentpole movies. This film -- and the similarly small but compelling Southside With You -- are worth seeing and recommending to someone, anyone, with discriminating tastes.

I want more of this -- but it can't happen if we don't shoe our encouragement with our dollars.

My top 10 most anticipated upcoming 2016 releases (UPDATED)

The Founder

Back in January, I came up with a list of movies I couldn't wait to see that were scheduled to be released sometime this calendar year.

As the summer season starts to wrap up and we enter the very condensed awards season in Hollywood, I thought the time was right to make some revisions. After all, a lot has happened in the last eight months.

Some of the films I was excited about have already come out -- Keanu, The Nice Guys, and Hail Caesar largely lived up to my expectations, the new Ghostbusters -- not so much.

Meanwhile, I will not be seeing Suicide Squad until it winds up on HBO or Netflix, I just can't bring myself to see a movie that is so critically reviled just because it is an "event movie" (see my Batman vs. Superman blog post from the Spring).

Still, there is a lot that remains high up on my list of must-sees, with a few new entries that have caught my attention because of some terrific early trailers and buzz. This fall and winter look like a real boon to film fans seeking more diverse, if not wholly original, subject matter.

My list features sci-fi blockbusters and typical awards fare -- to be honest, I have yet to see any trailer that has totally floored me besides Rogue One (although Loving looks very moving). Still, it's pretty early and there is always a sleeper surprise or two. For now, these are the films at the top of my list.

Loving - This film, which tells the true story behind Richard and Mildred Loving's courageous battle to get interracial marriage legalized nationwide in the late 60s, looks like awards fodder. But it also appears to be quiet and emotional in a refreshing way. I don't expect to see big, rousing speeches in this one. The material doesn't need to be overstated, it should be compelling enough on its own.

Doctor Strange - Just when I thought I couldn't be more burnt out on the whole superhero genre, the trailer for Marvel's Doctor Strange came along got me all excited. Not only does it look like an Inception-type brain teaser, but Benedict Cumberbatch appears to be delivering a committed, unironic performance in the lead role. The casting of Tilda Swinton as a character who was supposed to be Asian gives me pause, but I am intrigued by this one, even though I don't know the character at all.

Rogue One: A Star Wars Story -The first trailer had me at hello, but the second one -- which featured a little tease of Darth Vader -- had me getting heart palpitations. This film appears to have doubled down on all that was great about The Force Awakens, but it could possibly be even better since it doesn't bear the responsibility of reintroducing and reinvigorating many pre-existing characters. It could still be a disappointment, Star Wars trailers have been better than the finished products before, but I will definitely be marking my calendar for this one.

Arrival - This kind of film has been done many times before -- aliens make contact with earth and we must decide whether they are benign or a threat. Inevitably, military people are skeptical, while the scientists are more interested in playing nice. What makes this sci-fi melodrama look better than most is the cast (Amy Adams, Jeremy Renner and Forest Whitaker) and its director Denis Villeneuve -- who has been on an amazing hot streak following Prisoners and Sicario. That's enough to get me on board.

Hidden Figures

The Founder - Right now all the smart money is on one of my all-time favorite actors, Michael Keaton, to be the Best Actor front-runner at the Oscars this year for this anticipated biopic about Ray Kroc, the man behind the modern McDonald's franchise. He's certainly do, after being snubbed for Birdman and totally overlooked for Spotlight. The trailer has me a little worried that the tone will be too light and breezy. But I trust in Keaton, who is finally getting the chance to show off his considerable chops on a regular basis after a long lost period.

Hidden Figures - I've been excited about this biopic ever since I first heard of its conception. It's just the kind of black history-tinged biopic I've been waiting for -- both inspirational and original -- looking at a trio of brilliant black women who played a crucial role behind the scenes of NASA during the early days of the space program. The first trailer suggests a real showcase for the resurgent Taraji P. Henson and a potential breakout role for one of my favorite singers, Janelle Monae.

Fences - Denzel Washington directing himself and Viola Davis in an adaptation of the August Wilson classic -- what more do you need to know? There have been no trailers or even photos to emerge from this production yet. but its pedigree already has it high up on the list of likely Oscar contenders this year. Flight promised a return to Denzel's more dramatic roots and I am hopeful that this film will be as authentic and compelling as some of his best work has been.

The Magnificent Seven - But, even if Fences falls short, Denzel is bound to have a hit with this western popcorn flick remake, which he stars in alongside Chris Pratt, Ethan Hawke and many more. The exciting trailers suggest a real fidelity to the original with some refreshing multicultural flair. And although director Antoine Fuqua's track record is sometimes suspect, I have faith that this shoot 'em up will deliver the goods.

Silence - There is a lot of mystery around this Martin Scorsese passion project about missionaries in Japan (starring Liam Neeson and Andrew Garfield), but since he's my favorite director, and he rarely, if ever, totally disappoints me -- I feel compelled to give this movie a chance. After a string of box office hits with Leonardo DiCaprio, Scorsese is making a real shift here to more introspective territory and I am intrigued by what this legendary director has to say at this point.

The Birth of a Nation  - This already controversial Nat Turner slavery epic has become even more polarizing in the wake of resurrected rape allegations from 1999 against its writer-director-star Nate Parker. That certainly casts a shadow over the film, and for some people will make it unwatchable, but I am still open to giving it a chance. It looks to be a powerful, provocative piece of work and I look forward to judging it on its own terms.

'Solaris' double take: Each version has their merits and majesty

Both versions of Solaris are seeking rarified air in cinema -- science fiction that is both emotional and thought-provoking. Those kinds of films almost always fail financially (think Blade Runner, which was a huge flop back in 1982) even if they eventually find an appreciative audience.

The one significant exception to the rule is Stanley Kubrick's 2001, but generally speaking when people go to a sci-fi film they are expecting certain trappings of the genre.

Perhaps that is part of why I find 1972's Russian adaptation of the Stanislaw Lew novel Solaris so beguiling.

It is almost aggressively uncommercial -- to call it glacially-paced would be an understatement -- and its characters are mostly passive, non-emotive types. Yet the movie is a compelling meditation on life itself.

The remake, released in 2002 and directed by Steven Soderbergh, is terrific in its own right, but will perhaps always live in the shadow of the original. And while the remake takes great pains to pay homage to the original, it's far more accessible and streamlined, and it features a dark, brooding performance from George Clooney that's almost unlike anything he's attempt before or since (save for, perhaps, the unjustly maligned character study The American.)

Both films (which tanked in the U.S. despite critical acclaim) actually work well in tandem, and can even be seen as communicating with each other -- expanding on the themes of love and identity, humanity and regret.

Solaris (1972)

The premise is both startlingly simple and daringly complex. In the near distant future a space exploration discovers a strange planet which seems to feed off the subconscious of humans and presents them with facsimiles of people that populate their brain.

In both films the protagonist, curiously named Kris Kelvin, is haunted by his dead wife -- and he is forced to decide whether to banish this virtual copy of his lost love or live the rest of his life as a relative lie.

These are heady concepts to be sure, and both can be accused of veering into pretension, but if you can concede both films slow-burn takes and heavy-handed dialogue, you can be treated to some truly profound life questions, the kind that cinema asks far too rarely.

I've said this before and I'll say it again -- I am always more willing to embrace a movie that has ambition and scope than a film that is lazy and that panders to its audience. Both films could have allowed themselves to lapse into Alien-rip-off territory. But while each has unsettling, even disturbing, moments, they both wisely center their tensions on the characters instead of on some fantasy boogeyman.

And although the 2002 film is much shorter and straightforward, both films aren't afraid to linger on silences, faces, and atmosphere. They don't go down easy, so I wouldn't recommend them to anyone interested in light viewing.

But, if you are looking to see something beautiful, that aspires to make you think about what makes our emotions and state of mind real -- these two films have a lot to offer.

'Never Seen It' Episode 7: 'Spy Kids' shows its age and its charm

Here we are again, my wife Liz Rosado and I are reviewing another fairly-well known film that neither of us has ever seen before, for one reason or another.

After taking a trip to the dark side with Kathryn Bigelow's violent and moody cop thriller Blue Steel, Liz and I decided to take a more light-hearted approach this time around.

The low budget adventure movie Spy Kids was a surprise breakout his fifteen years ago, and it spawned three sequels. Still, we'd never seen it -- until now.

How well does the movie hold up? And does it make us nostalgic for the times when Antonio Banderas was something akin to a bankable movie star? Click on the YouTube embed below to listen to our latest podcast to find out what we think and how this movie made us reflect on our own childhoods:

'Mahogany' and the missed opportunity of Diana Ross' movie career

Diana Ross in Mahogany

Hollywood really didn't know what to do with a formidable female actress of color in the 1970s. That sad fact becomes abundantly clear when you look at the all to brief movie career of legendary diva Diana Ross.

Sure, one could counter that contention by citing blaxploitation icon Pam Grier, but I would argue that she simply rose above the mediocre material she was given. She wouldn't get an opportunity to play a fully realized role until Quentin Tarantino resuscitated her career in the late '90s with Jackie Brown.

Ross, along with women like Cicely Tyson and Diahann Carroll (the other sole women of color to score Oscar nominations that decade), was one of the few black women to get parts in 'respectable' mainstream Hollywood films. And she gave a remarkable performance in her first film, taking on an incredibly difficult role -- of tragic jazz singer Billie Holiday in Lady Sings the Blues -- which few thought she was right for.

Certainly, that film plays to her strengths since she plays a singer and famously is one in real life, but Ross brought an exuberant, loose-limb physicality to the role that rightfully caught many critics' attention. In the film Ross has to play a woman from childhood to adulthood, from the first burst of fame through her drug induced downfall, with an admittedly made-up romantic subplot to boot, featuring Billy Dee Williams in his breakthrough movie role.

She and Williams particularly had special chemistry, and for a brief spell they were the most glamorous black pairing in all of cinema. They parlayed their appeal into a second, decidedly more campy film -- the fashion industry melodrama Mahogany -- which today plays like a case study in how Ross' natural acting talent was squandered.

It's the very definition of a vanity project, directed by her then on-again, off-again real life love interest and head of Motown entertainment Berry Gordy. The movie starts off promising enough with Ross as a put-upon wannabe designer falling for Williams' Jesse Jackson-esque local activist. But once Ross is "discovered" -- and becomes somehow both a model and a mogul at the same time -- the movie goes off the rails in a huge way.

It's not just the silly fashion shoot montages or the simplistic screenplay, which sets up a misogynistic power play over who gets to control Ross' livelihood -- it's Ross herself who is clearly being directed by someone who wants to indulge her and can't view her objectively. The story itself almost seems to be a commentary on Gordy and Ross' private drama -- and arguably the movie could be fascinating if read that way.

But instead it chooses to go a more tawdry route -- including a strange subplot involving an over the top Anthony Perkins as a sexually stunted sociopath photographer. That story culminates with two scenes that are at least delightfully strange. A vaguely homoerotic fight over what turns out to be an unloaded gun between Williams and Perkins -- and a cartoonish scene where Perkins goads Ross into being photographed while he drives erratically on an overpass.

That got weird

These scenes -- and an infamous one where Ross drunkenly declares "I'm a winner" while Williams defines what he considers the value of success -- are entertaining but also crude and silly. Ross really deserved better. And it'd be interesting to see what kind of work she could have produced if she was working with a director who wasn't interested in tailoring her star image, but instead wringing a real performance out of her.

However, when Ross did work with a truly great director -- Sidney Lumet -- on her third and final movie, the big budget musical The Wiz, the results were not much better. The Wiz is a lot of fun, with unassailable music and dancing -- but even its greatest defenders (including myself) acknowledge that Ross was the weakest link. She is simply, clearly too old for the role and the strain of watching her play a lonely, single young woman shows on her face and voice.

In other words, right director, wrong movie, and the wrong time. The movie was deemed a costly flop and Ross would never attempt a big screen career again. And with hindsight its clear that producers couldn't see past her off-screen star persona as a popular singer to give her roles which would require real chops.

At 72, she's still young enough to make a comeback with a triumphant new role, but even if she doesn't we can still marvel at her work at Lady Sings the Blues and wonder what might have been.

'Ant-Man' already did what 'Deadpool' tries to do, and did it better

I finally got around to seeing the blockbuster superhero film Deadpool. And after all the hype, I can't say that I hated it but I wasn't all that impressed either.

When watching this slick, ultraviolent movie I kept thinking about a film I enjoyed much more -- Ant-Man -- even if it is decidedly less hip.

The more I reflect on Ant-Man, the popular though somewhat dismissed little-Marvel-film-that-could, the more I like it. The film was one of the few Marvel properties to not take itself too seriously, and instead delight in its own absurdity while taking subtle jabs at the very genre it's immersed in.

My take on these films is that they should always be light entertainment. Christopher Nolan pulled off quite the high-wire act by making three Batman films that were deadly serious and really resonated with real world events -- but they were outliers. Too many superhero films feign substance but wind up coming across even more like products because of it.

Of course, in our fanboy-driven, critic-proof age it doesn't matter how good a movie like Suicide Squad, Batman vs. Superman or even Deadpool is, as long as it looks cool, and more importantly, affects coolness in its trailers and promotional materials.

I, like most audiences, had never heard of Deadpool until the main character (played by Ryan Reynolds) started becoming ubiquitous in a series of ads that I felt were smug and obnoxious. Having finally seen the film some of my worst fears were confirmed.

The movie is so impressed with itself and so eager to earn its hard R rating that it ends up diminishing the elements of the movie that work. For instance, some of the action is quite great, at least prior to requisite third act punchfest that has bogged down so many superhero movies. But Reynolds' quips, some of which are funny, are so rapid-fire and smarmy that I found myself detached from everything I was viewing.

Paul Rudd in Ant-Man

Hollywood has been toiling for years to make Reynolds a bonafide movie star, and this is the film that finally helped him make the jump. But he is not the natural comedian that Paul Rudd is. Reynolds performance is the kind of thing that Chevy Chase used to do with ease in his heyday, but even he could occasionally project vulnerability. Reynolds has this off-putting ability to almost always seem self-satisfied, even when he is being tortured, and it makes for a tough slog.

Ant-Man, on the other hand, benefits immeasurably from the presence of Rudd, who can't help but to appear slightly embarrassed to be appearing in a superhero film in the first place. He has fun poking fun at the silliness of what he's being asked to do in a way that doesn't condescend to the audience or alienate them either.

Deadpool tries to have its cake and eat it too. It breaks the fourth wall with opening credits which call out its own cliches and inside jokes that will certainly have any comic book fan tittering. But for all of its gore and four-letter words (not to mention its paper-thin, teenage boy fantasy of a female lead), it didn't give me a single moment that felt extraordinary and went beyond the cliches -- like Iron Man's first flight or The Hulk's debut in The Avengers.

I wonder how well the movie would have played if it actually tried to be more conventional and told its story straight (instead of flashing back repeatedly to the character's origin story amid the action). In a way, I think Deadpool suffers from trying too hard to be edgy.

I know I am in the minority here on this movie; its reviews were strong and its fans are so devoted they even tried to lobby Saturday Night Live to let Ryan Reynolds host the show in character as Deadpool. There will inevitably be at least one sequel, maybe more, as all of these films can't shake their assembly line origins.

I still have hope for this genre. Doctor Strange at least looks interesting. And I thought Captain America: Civil War struck a really great balance between drama and pure old-fashioned summer movie fun. Still, I feel like the older I get the more the industry isn't interested in catering to people like me. The best I can hope for is an adaptation of a halfway decent best-selling book for adults (think Gone Girl) as a opposed to a terrible but popular one (Fifty Shades of Grey).

Flashback 1976: My top 10 favorite movies from 40 years ago

The year 1976 was a pivotal one for this country. America celebrated its bicentennial, put a fork in the Watergate era by electing Democrat Jimmy Carter president and it also marked the post-Jaws era in Hollywood.

Making a blockbuster began to mean more at the time, although there were plenty of artistically sound movies that found a massive audience, too.

That was the magic of the '70s at the movies. Something as overtly commercial as King Kong could be just as profitable as something as challenging as Taxi Driver, one of my all-time favorite films.

It was a good year for unconventional movie stars (like Dustin Hoffman), a year which launched the career of a future one (Sylvester Stallone), and capped off the achievements of a prematurely departed actor (Peter Finch).

Here are my top ten favorite movies from forty years ago (with honorable mentions for Silent Movie, The Bad News Bears, The Man Who Fell to Earth and The Shootist).

10) The Tenant - A profoundly strange and unsettling thriller from Roman Polanski (and his last before his ongoing exile following rape charges), is part of his paranoid apartment trilogy -- and quite possibly the least accessible. Polanski stars in the film himself, which is a nightmarish look at madness and sinister personality disorders. This is definitely not for most audiences' tastes, but if you like creepy existential dread, this might be a movie for you.

9) The Killing of a Chinese Bookie - A moody, and at times darkly funny, character study about a socially awkward nightclub owner who winds up getting drawn into organized crime because he can't pay his own debts. Ben Gazzara gives a towering performance in the lead as a man who is desperate to be loved but can't express his emotions effectively. Another oddball film, in John Cassavetes' signature meandering style. 

Silver Streak

8) The Omen - One of the great horror films of its era, The Omen borrows elements of The Exorcist, but also spins its own arresting brew of mysticism and mayhem. Gregory Peck lends his gravitas to what could have been a silly movie about a demon child, and the well-paced and well-scored action -- directed by Richard Donner -- takes care of the rest. As over-the-top as it is, the chilling ending is a classic.

7) Silver Streak - We are all accustomed to mixed race buddy comedies now, but this first pairing of Gene Wilder and Richard Pryor was one of the first and one of the best. This wild, mixed bag of a movie is both an homage to Alfred Hitchcock style thrillers and a straight ahead comedy featuring the somewhat manic Wilder finding an unlikely friend in the wisecracking Pryor. The iconic blackface scene could never happen today -- but it still holds up, in part because the joke is on Wilder, not African-Americans.

6) Carrie - I have never read the Stephen King book, so I am not sure how Brian De Palma's iconic horror film compares, but I do know that his riveting camerawork in this film is peerless, as is Sissy Spacek's incredibly sympathetic performance in the title role. Everyone knows the show-stopping climax where he character is doused with pig's blood and exacts revenge, but that pay-off only works because of what proceeded it, which is a surprisingly sensitive portrayal of an outcast, who happens to have telekinetic powers.

5) Marathon Man - A terrifically acted adult thriller with a dream cast, headlined by Dustin Hoffman, Laurence Olivier and Roy Scheider. Hoffman somewhat improbably plays a graduate student who becomes a target of nefarious figures with ties to a sadistic Nazi dentist (played to perfection by Olivier). There are some classic scenes and chases in this very watchable potboiler, which is emblematic of the kind of smart complex genre movies they just don't make anymore.

4) Network - When this brilliantly written film came out it was largely seen as absurd satire of the state of television, albeit an entertaining one. But the rise of reality television and demagogues in our politics have made this dynamite movie appear very prescient. Peter Finch (who delivers the classic "I'm as mad as hell" monologue), Faye Dunaway, William Holden and Robert Duvall all deliver pitch perfect performances in this scathing look at the gradual degradation of media due to corporate malfeasance. This is a film that grows in stature every year.

3) All the President's Men - This movie shouldn't have worked. Coming just two years after Richard Nixon's resignation, everyone going to see this film (about how reporters Carl Bernstein (Dustin Hoffman) and Bob Woodward (Robert Redford) broke the story of the Watergate break-in), knew how the story was going to end. And yet, this is one of the great suspense films of all time and a fascinating look into how the sausage got made at newspapers when they still had tremendous clout and influence. Redford and Hoffman have wonderful chemistry with each other and are singlehandedly responsible for making journalism seem like a glamorous profession, at least for a while.

2) Rocky - This film has a very special place in my heart -- it's a film that my wife and I have deeply bonded over. I think that is because, despite its boxing pedigree, it's essentially a very sweet love story between a lovable lug who nobody respects (Rocky) and a shy, sweet girl who nobody notices (Adrian). Their delicate romance forms that backbone to this persistently underrated masterpiece. Sure, it's story may be simple, but it is also timeless in a way, and writer-star Sylvester Stallone injects the movie with such humor, vitality and authenticity, that it's impossible to ignore this movie's value, unless you are a snob.

1) Taxi Driver - As I've said repeatedly, Martin Scorsese is my favorite director -- and this is my favorite Scorsese film, quite possibly an all-time top five favorite flick. Why would I like a movie about a racist, violent, misogynist freak who nearly assassinates a presidential candidate and becomes a 'heroic' vigilante after killing several people in cold blood? Because of the beauty of its images, because of the arresting score, because of the remarkable performances -- chief among them Robert De Niro's nuanced and complex portrait of Travis Bickle -- and because the film is endlessly challenging and inventing and somehow speaks to a universal truth about loneliness and wanting to matter. I'll defend this movie to death.

'I Know Who Killed Me' and the death of Lindsay Lohan's career

The stripper who never strips

The most lackadaisical stripping you've ever seen. The raspiest voiced young person you've ever heard. And a random hairless cat with very pronounced testicles. These are just a few of the pleasures of I Know Who Killed Me, one of the best bad movies of all time.

I can't remember a film I've seen that had more pathetic attempts at foreshadowing with no payoff. The film opens with a series of scenes that are edited so poorly and end on such off-beat moments that I can only assume the filmmakers were doing the best they could with what little footage they could use.

The whole enterprise feels like a Tommy Wiseau film with a bigger budget.

This film, I guess, marks the beginning of the long descent of Lindsay Lohan. I have never believed, like some people, that she was a great actress. She gave a serviceable lead performance in Mean Girls and didn't ruin A Prairie Home Companion. And I'm sorry but Freaky Friday is Jamie Lee Curtis' showcase from start to finish.

What Lohan did have was star quality, and of course, had she not become a tragic tabloid mainstay she might have had an interesting career. Instead, her off-screen antics made her box office poison and, reportedly, impossible to work with.

This film is exploitative trash -- too gory and grim to really be fun -- but still with enough unbridled camp to make it pretty watchable, despite being incredibly cheap-looking and narratively almost incomprehensible. It is pretty irredeemably gross, I will give it that.

So why was this movie even made? I suppose it was inspired by the prurient interest on the part of some filmgoers in seeing Lohan naked. But she is never nude in the movie -- and her one sex scene features her removing a prosthetic leg. Meanwhile, characters are introduced with little or no context and the camerawork is shoddy at best.

But I would argue this movie has value -- as a comedy. It's so ludicrous that it's quite funny. Like most great bad movies, it really aspires to be sophisticated. But unlike top-notch thrillers about serial killers (think Seven or Silence of the Lambs) it forgot to be smart or sensitive.

Look at me act!

Take for instance a scene where Lohan discovers -- spoiler alert -- that her arm and leg have been amputated. It should be harrowing but it ends up hilarious because her acting is on par with a bad Hallmark movie and when the big twist comes -- SPOILER ALERT -- that Lohan's personality is fused with an identical twin stripper named Dakota -- it really kicks into high gear.

There are few things in the movies more comically awful than someone attempting to act 'badass' badly. Lohan -- as Dakota -- spits out her lines with a grizzled frankness which I imagine she thought would affect coolness but it actuality undermines the movie, which was on very shaky ground to begin with.

I still think she could salvage her career. Even though I am ragging on her I don't have any ill will against her. Addiction is no joke. And clearly her parents are not exactly a walk in the park. I wouldn't say I am rooting for her -- her ersatz political statements have been too much for me to bear -- but I'd pay to see a movie with her in it, in theory.

She needs to lampoon her persona -- she tried to a little bit in Machete -- but she needs to go even further and she has to do it better than she did during her last tepid appearance on Saturday Night Live. A little sense of humor about yourself goes a long way.

In fact she should play herself -- a la Anna Faris in Keanu -- and completely have a ball playing up over-the-top things she does or we think she does, because her biggest flaw (which is on display in this movie) is she takes herself too seriously. She works too hard at acting and the effort is unflattering (she even gets upstaged by her severed limb in one scene).

She should just be herself and people will be entertained.

'American Graffiti': What might have been for George Lucas

I have always felt a certain degree of sadness when I watch movies that revel in high school nostalgia.

 I didn't make the most of that period of my life. I didn't make any lifelong friends, didn't date, didn't drink, didn't own a car.

My memories from my teen years are hazy at best so when I see movies like American Graffiti, ostensibly there's little for me to relate to.

Seeing that the film is set in the 1950s, in a nearly all-white world, and on the West Coast -- I should find even less to love about George Lucas' 1973 breakout hit, but I like it more every time I see it.

Tonight, I got to see it in probably the best possible way -- in an outdoor screening on a cool summer night. The movie itself takes place on a night not unlike this and its ability to tap into certain universal truths and emotions has helped it stand the test of time (as has its timeless soundtrack of late '50s and early '60s-era pop hits).

I could particularly connect with the Richard Dreyfuss character, an introspective, earnest type who feels torn between a desire to stay young forever and the necessity to venture outside of his comfort zone.

Although my high school experience was not anything special, I do remember the anxiety and exhilaration of those days and weeks before I left home for college, and it's comical, in retrospect, how at that time you feel like you've established who you are as a person -- you haven't.

The film also taps into other funny and bittersweet aspects of adolescence -- from the awkwardness of maintaining high school relationships as you transition (beautifully acted by an against-type Ron Howard playing a bit of a jerk) and the tendency to put on personas to seem cool (done to great comic effect by Charles Martin Smith).

What's most remarkable to me about the movie though has always been the fact that George Lucas made it. The Star Wars mogul has always insisted that he never planned to be a blockbuster filmmaker and always intended to make personal movies like these.

Who knew Richard Dreyfuss was so adorable?

Something went wrong though and following the enormous success of the first Star Wars film, Lucas transitioned into becoming a mega-producer and never made a film himself again until the ill-fated prequel trilogy. By the time those films rolled around Lucas seems to have totally lost his ability to craft human, humorous and heartfelt characters -- the kind of which populate this entire film.

Which is a shame. American Graffiti is clearly an extremely personal film. Lucas was apparently a car nut as a young man and liked to cruise his California suburbs just like the characters in this film. They speak their hip, hepcat lingo, while at the same time their bravado betrays their more insecure emotions. Lucas, who is known to have been incredibly shy, at least at the time of the filming, must have really enjoyed revisiting his rebellious youth and playing at being a kid again.

Although this movie couldn't be further from Star Wars on the surface, it too shares some DNA (and I'm not just talking about the casting of Harrison Ford as another charming rogue). Both films celebrate freedom and are about making existential choices about what you are and where you are going. It's heady stuff, packaged in a visually and aurally appealing product.

It would have been fascinating to see what kind of films Lucas would have made had he kept directing or at least if he had alternated Indiana Jones-type spectacles with movies that are closer to his heart.

We'll probably never see that kind of project from Lucas, so for the foreseeable future we must cherish American Graffiti as an example of what might have been -- as a sweet but sophisticated tribute to a bygone era, that had its virtues and its faults.

Why 'Jason Bourne' reminds me of Jay-Z's 'Kingdom Come'

When Jay-Z announced he was retiring from hip-hop after his 2003 landmark Black Album nobody really believed it. It all felt like a part of his career arc, which had been nearly flawless at that point. His fans knew he'd be back, and we expected his return to be triumphant.

When Kingdom Come arrived in 2016, it was a big hit but has come to be seen as the work of rapper who was rusty. Today, it's often ranked as his worst album.

Jason Bourne, the fourth edition in the Matt Damon espionage series, recalls that misstep. Everyone knew that for the right money and with the correct collaborators, Damon would reprise his signature role.

And, for the record, I like Kingdom Come. It's not as horrible as its reputation, but it's not classic either. Jason Bourne has the same staying power.

Just like Kingdom Come had a few bravura songs, Jason Bourne boasts some terrific action sequences -- particularly a Vegas-based car chase that has to been seen to be believed. But, it doesn't reinvigorate the series. Instead, like many critics have surmised, it feels more like a retread.

Which is really disappointing considering the fact that it's been nearly a decade since the last proper Bourne film (the less said about the Jeremy Renner sidebar vehicle, the better). Director Paul Greengrass and Damon could have taken a whole new direction with these movies, but instead, the Bourne character is just as sullen and tortured as he always was. Are we too believe he's still suffering from post-traumatic CIA flashbacks nine years since the last film?

You get the familiar propulsive soundtrack, the chaotic and at times incoherent action scenes that are hyper-kinetically edited, and the tech-savvy techno spies stalking our hero -- this time led by a decrepit looking Tommy Lee Jones and a stunning but soulless Alicia Vikander.

There is a potentially interesting subplot involving a Facebook-like social media site that is, in a way, a front for expansive covert surveillance, but for the most part this is just a simple chase movie on steroids -- which is fine, but not fantastic.

The trailer spoils this scene

It also speaks to what has been a largely disappointing crop of summer movies for me. The trailers have been terrific -- but with very few exceptions, they have not been delivering on the promise. The summer movie that had the goods for me -- Captain America: Civil War -- managed to introduce new and interesting dynamics to a crop of superhero films I truly felt had outlived their creative value.

The same goes for my favorite three films of last year -- Mad Max: Fury Road, The Force Awakens and Creed -- all of which had no business being as amazing as they were, but succeeded by making the old seem new again. Jason Bourne doesn't feel old, necessarily, but it doesn't feel new either. If anything it's more of holding pattern.

It ends on a semi-promising note, which both hints at more Bourne adventures while suggesting that we might finally get to see this character have a little fun for a change. Compared to James Bond and Ethan Hunt, Bourne is the most reluctant (and monosyllabic) of the spy film protagonists -- but part of the joy of watching these characters is they clearly derive a degree of pleasure at being good at what they do.

It would be nice to see Damon, who is really starting to show his age here, release some of the tension and revel in his undeniable bad-assery.