This is part of my continuing series looking back on films from the years before I began this blog. The ten films below are unranked and listed in no particular order. Enjoy.
Rocky II - Some of the best moments in the "Rocky" series are here. Rocky and Adrian get married. Rocky Jr. makes his first appearance. And, of course, there's the rematch. "Rocky II" brings back so many good aspects of "Rocky," but with Sylvester Stallone directing, we get a little bit more. More people climbing the famous steps. More glory in the fight. More bombast and broad strokes.
1941 - It may have been the boldest move of Steven Spielberg's career to make a slapstick comedy about the start of WWII and set it during the week after the bombing of Pearl Harbor. And just look at that amazing cast. Why, the film is so stuffed with luminaries that even Toshiro Mifune ended up in a bit part. The revolutionary special effects and stunt sequences still have a lot of kick to them, and Spielberg packed in plenty.
Moonraker - I love that Jaws gets the girl. Sure, it's nice that Bond joins the 200,000 mile high club, but it warms my heart to see the henchman have his day. "Moonraker" is full of fun little touches like this, full of irreverence and shiny graphics, making it one of the best of the Roger Moore era Bond films. It really embraces the inherent silliness and campiness of the spy genre, and uses them to add some laughs to the spectacle.
Star Trek: The Motion Picture - Where would the "Star Trek" franchise be without its first theatrical film? It's impossible to say, but surely it would have been far different without this splashy, big budget transplant of the television series to cinemas. The gorgeous special effects were never so well displayed or so heavily leaned on by the narrative, and the characters certainly needed all the shaking up that the big screen treatment afforded them.
Caligula - One of the most notorious films of its era certainly didn't lack ambition. The greatest, and to date the only film produced by Penthouse, it features unsimulated sexual scenes, plenty of the old ultraviolence, and so many historical figures behaving badly. It's still hard to imagine that such a film was actually a commercial success, but the '70s were a different time. Things were possible then that would never happen now.
Lady Oscar - An adaptation of the beloved Japanese manga about a fictional cross-dressing female soldier who looked after Marie Antoinette during her days at Versailles. Beloved director Jacques Demy helped to make the film feel authentically French, but the real star of the show was Catriona MacCall in the title role. Her Oscar is so utterly unlike the manga or anime versions, it's hard to imagine that they're the same character.
The Apple Dumpling Gang Rides Again - Tim Conway and Don Knotts return as everyone's favorite bumbling ne'er-do-wells. More wild west hijinks ensue, this time without all the fuss of taking care of the orphans. There's nothing like a little family-friendly action comedy to gets your spirits up, and this one embodies all the best qualities of Disney's memorable live action films of this era. They never let an idea, bad or good, go to waste.
The Villain - 1979 saw the release of the Bugs Bunny/Road Runner movie, but the best Looney Toon of the year was definitely Hal Needham's "The Villain." It's an old west tale that pits Kirk Douglas against a young Arnold Schwarzenegger, in a universe full of cartoon logic and sight gags. At one point they literally paint a hole in the side of a mountain, Wile-E Coyote style, and play out the tunnel bit. Everyone is so committed to it, it's a blast.
Ultraman - The Japanese, masters of efficiency, went and turned five episodes of their popular "Ultraman" series into a feature film. Ultraman is a giant alien superhero who fights monsters, and became so popular that his shows are still running to this day. The 1979 compilation feature is made up of episodes from the original 1966 show, even though at least five other "Ultraman" series had aired by the time of its release.
Ultraman: Great Monster Decisive Battle - And why make release one compilation feature made up of old episodes of "Ultraman" when you could release two in the same year?
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