Feast of Film

John Lithgow thanking his agent and calling his lawyer after being cast in this movie. What sort of movie does a 15-year-old sci-fi geek go and see in 1984? Well, he goes and sees the film adaptation of George Orwell’s novel, 1984 . He also goes to see this. The plot: Buckaroo Banzai (Peter Weller) is a brain surgeon, rock musician, scientist and adventurer. His team are the Hong Kong Cavaliers. Buckaroo invents a machine to take him to the eighth dimension and back.  It’s been done before, by Dr Emilio Lazardo (John Lithgow), except he returned insane and wants to steal Buckaroo’s device and use it to conquer our dimension.  Assessment: This is a classic 1980s low budget sci-fi movie with a crazy plot, effects that really don’t deserve the adjective ‘special’. But what it doesn’t have in lasers, warp speed and quality dialogue it makes up for it in crazy plot and one of the most eclectic array of actors from the ‘80s, many of whom we all know as stars today In addition to Peter Weller

Looking out into the cold, dark, deep waters ahead, not knowing where and when the pack of wolves will come for him, his crew and their precious cargo. Tom Hanks is one of the few actors today who has the star power to achieve the feat of making this film - and having it bought for AppleTV+ to boot! See what I did there? I threw in a pun that relates to a classic WWII German submarine film - if you don't know it, then watch it. Greyhound attempts to show a singular experience in the Second World War that has not been as well documented in films of the past couple of decades.  We've seen them storming the beaches again via Saving Private Ryan , fighting on the Eastern Front via Enemy at the Gates , the horror of the Holocaust via Schindler's List and how not to make a movie about the pacific war in the execrable Pearl Harbor ( Midway helped salvage that somewhat).  Then, of course, there were Clint Eastwood's twin triumphs of Letters from Iwo Jima and Flag