In Part 2 of our episode, we review The Accidental Tourist (1986), directed by Lawrence Kasdan and starring William Hurt and Geena Davis. Hurt plays a man who's learning to navigate his life after a broken heart, a broken marriage and a broken leg. It's a truly delightful, quiet film that will warm your heart...but there's still an unfortunate side effect to deal with.

Next time around we view a pair of films that are wildly different in both tone and content. We begin with the original Halloween from 1978, directed by John Carpenter and starring Jamie Lee Curtis and Donald Pleasance.  From there we go to 1989 for Rob Reiner's When Harry Met Sally... starring Meg Ryan and Billy Crystal. Join us, won't you? 

This is the first of two episodes where we look at a pair of films that don't have a ton in common with one another, but instead have created some cultural ripples that haven't always had a positive effect.

We begin with Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939), the first time we've ever gone to the 1939 well after more than 140 films reviewed. This film, directed by Frank Capra, stars James Stewart as a rather naive young man who finds himself at the center of a political storm.

Stick around for Part 2, when we talk about The Accidental Tourist.

In this episode we review the 1981 film Thief, directed by Michael Mann and starring James Caan and Tuesday Weld. Caan plays a safecracker who's finding it quite impossible to break out of his life of crime. On the other hand, maybe he does find a way...

COMING ATTRACTIONS:

In our next episode we'll be looking at a pair of beloved films that have had unfortunate side effects. We'll start with 1939's Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, and then move on to 1988's The Accidental Tourist, a film Claude has loved ever since he attended a showing in which he was one of four people in the audience (but that wasn't a knock on the film--tune in and find out the whole story). Join us, won't you?

Both Episode 75 and 76 (this one) have been called "allegory" episodes, but in the interest of transparency we should note that in both cases they're specifically anti-Capitalist allegories. Last time around it was Westerns, and this week we're looking at Gangster movies.

And we begin with The Long Good Friday (1981), directed by John Mackenzie and starring Bob Hoskins and Helen Mirren. Hoskins is a man who learns that respectability doesn't necessarily mean legitimacy.

In Part 2, we'll be reviewing Thief, from 1980.

In Part 2 of our episode, The Claim (2000) was directed by Michael Winterbottom and stars Peter Mullan, Sarah Polley, Wes Bentley and Milla Jovovich. This one has a similar theme to McCabe, though the romance side is pushed a little more forward. But there are many striking similarities between the two films, as different as they are.

COMING ATTRACTIONS:

In Reel 76, we look at another pair of allegorical films. We begin with Thief (1981), directed by Michael Mann, and move on to The Long Good Friday (1982), directed by John Mackenzie. Join us, won't you?

This week (and next) we'll be looking at films that use genre as an overlay for their larger message. And we begin with two films that use the Western genre to convey their messages.

We start with McCabe and Mrs. Miller (1971), directed by Robert Altman and starring Warren Beatty and Julie Christie, along with several others from the Altman stable of actors. We often see this film listed as an "anti-Western" because it inverts so many tropes in the genre, and we can't really argue with that.

In Part 2, we'll look at a perhaps lesser-known film, The Claim, from 2000.

In Part 2 of our episode, we look at There Will Be Blood (2007), directed by Paul Thomas Anderson and starring Daniel Day-Lewis, along with Paul Dano and Kevin J. O'Connor.

Day-Lewis is one of the early oil tycoons whose greed takes him down a strange and destructive path.

COMING ATTRACTIONS:

In our next episode, we look at Westerns being used as an anti-Capitalist allegory. What? Yes, indeed, just come along for the ride. We start with McCabe and Mrs. Miller, and finish up with The Claim. Join us, won't you?

Never mind what Gordon Gekko told you, for lack of a better term. Greed almost invariably leads to a downfall of some kind, and in some cases people learn their lesson and in others, they don't.

In this episode we see both sides of that coin, and we start with The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948), directed by John Huston and starring Humphrey Bogart, Tim Holt and Walter Huston. They're three Americans who are after a remote gold mine in the Sierra Madre Mountains. They encounter hardship getting there and back, and in between there's all kinds of adventures.

In Part 2 we jump to 2007 and There Will Be Blood, part of which is contemporary to Sierra Madre.

In Part 2 of our episode, we look at A Most Wanted Man, a 2014 film directed by Anton Corbijn and starring Philip Seymour Hoffman, Rachel McAdams, Willem Dafoe, Robin Wright, and a host of others. Again, a powerful cast of actors.

Hoffman stars as the head of a covert German team that's trying to root out Islamic terrorist cells. While it's not a Cold War story specifically, there is some Russian involvement and Hoffman is at odds with German and American security officials regarding the ultimate goal.

In addition to being a tremendous film, it's also notable for being the last film that Philip Seymour Hoffman starred in before his untimely death. (He'd completed work for the last two Hunger Games films but we're not counting those as starring vehicles for him.)

COMING ATTRACTIONS:

In our next episode, we explore the wages of greed, starting with The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, and finishing with There Will Be Blood. They're a pair of films that feature a couple of famous lines that have been endlessly parodied, and we'd bet few people know the original source. Join us, won't you?

We conclude our series of spy films with another pair of movies based on the novels of John LeCarre.

In Episode 72 we had a strictly Cold War vibe going on; this time it's more of a mixed bag. So we'll start with a Cold War story with Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, the 2011 film directed by Tomas Alfredson and featuring an amazing ensemble cast including Gary Oldman, Colin Firth, Tom Hardy, Benedict Cumberbatch and many more. It's a tense story that deals with a potential mole in MI-6 who may have been operating for many years.

In Part 2, we'll look at the Islamic terrorist threat to the UK in A Most Wanted Man.