Starring: Humphrey Bogart, Ingrid Bergman, Paul Henried, Claude Rains, Conrad Veidt, Sydney Greenstreet, Peter Lorre
Casablanca is a classic and one of the most revered films of all time. Starring Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman in a love triangle in the city of Casablanca which is a refuge for many fleeing foreigners looking for a new life during the war. Political romance with a backdrop of war conflict between democracy and totalitarianism. A landmark in film history.
Starring: George Clooney, Meryl Streep, Jason Schwartzman, Bill Murray, Wallace Wolodarsky, Eric Chase Anderson, Willem Dafoe
A dream-team of twee icons Roald Dahl and Wes Anderson, Anderson’s stop-motion adaptation of Fantastic Mr. Fox follows the titular Mr. Fox as he balances his responsibilities as a father (he’s a bad one) with his compulsive need to chicken thieve. Breaking a promise to his wife not to return to his poultry plucking ways, Mr. Fox leads a raid on the property of three ornery farmers, endangering the entire animal community in the process.
Starring: Will Ferrell, James Caan, Bob Newhart, Edward Asner, Mary Steenburgen, Zooey Deschanel
Elf is a mix between the misfit story of Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer and the “believe in miracles” story of A Christmas Carol but with the added joy of Will Ferrell in an elf suit running around New York City. Starring as Buddy, one year he crawls into Santa’s toy bag as a baby and gets whisked off to the North Pole where he gets raised as an elf. Of course, he’s a tall fish out of water and eventually decides to head to his birthplace to meet his father. What he finds is a family and a city who have forgotten the meaning of Christmas so he sets out to save the holiday!
Starring: Peter Billingsley, Darren McGavin, Melinda Dillon, Ian Petrella
While Bob Clark holds a special place in our dark hearts for his inventive horror flicks like the scary treat Black Christmas, it’s his contribution to the American canon of holiday classics with A Christmas Story that solidifies him as one of our favorite directors. Quirky family dynamics, a leg lamp, a bunny suit, bullying, swear words and anorexia are all involved in one boy’s quest for a Red Ryder B.B. gun in the 1940s. With such sincerity and deep humor, make a switch from watching this on television this year and see it on the big screen with your Nitehawk family!
Starring: Candace Hilligoss, Frances Feist, Sidney Berger
Herk Harvey’s macabre masterpiece gained a cult following through late night television and has been bootlegged for years. Made by industrial filmmakers on a modest budget, Carnival of Souls was intended to have the “look of a Bergman” and “feel of a Cocteau,” and succeeds with its strikingly used locations and spooky organ score. Mary Henry (Candace Hilligoss) survives a drag race in a rural Kansas town, then takes a job as a church organist in Salt Lake City. En route, she becomes haunted by a bizarre apparition that compels her to an abandoned lakeside pavilion.
Starring: Peter Weller, Ellen Barkin, John Lithgow, Carl Lumbly, Christopher Lloyd, Lewis Smith, Vincent Schiavelli, Jeff Goldblum
Dr. Buckaroo Banzai is a real renaissance man: a physicist, neurosurgeon, test pilot, and even a rock musician. Is there anything he can’t do?! Well, when it comes to saving the world from the band of inter-dimensional aliens the Red Lectroids, he and his crew The Hong Kong Cavaliers are really put to the test. Buckaroo Banzai (aka The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension) is brilliantly adventurous and unique film that spans so many genres and has a rather complicated backstory that involves a secret device called an “oscillation overthruster,” traveling to other dimensions, alien hitchhikers, and a madman scientist. A must see!
Starring: Cary Elwes, Robin Wright, Fred Savage, Mandy Patinkin, André the Giant, Chris Sarandon, Christopher Guest, Peter Cook, Peter Falk, Wallace Shawn
A fairy tale adventure about a beautiful young woman and her one true love. He must find her after a long separation and save her. They must battle the evils of the mythical kingdom of Florin to be reunited with each other. Based on the William Goldman novel “The Princess Bride” which earned its own loyal audience.
Starring: Mike Myers, Cameron Diaz, Eddie Murphy, Linda Hunt, John Lithgow
It ain’t easy bein’ green — especially if you’re a likable (albeit smelly) ogre named Shrek. On a mission to retrieve a gorgeous princess from the clutches of a fire-breathing dragon, Shrek teams up with an unlikely compatriot — a wisecracking donkey.
Starring: Roy Scheider, Richard Dreyfuss, Robert Shaw, Lorraine Gary, Murray Hamilton
Steven Spielberg’s glorious Jaws is the film that defined the blockbuster and has made generations of movie-goers terrified of going into the water. When a giant great white sharks swims into the town of Amityville during the Fourth of July holiday and begins munching on vacationers, it sets off a battle on both land and in the sea.
The first half of Jaws is the struggle of New Yorker sheriff Brody is get the mayor on board with the idea that a man-eating shark is cause enough to close the beach. The second half is an adventurous boat trip with Brody, marine biologist “city hands” Hopper, and salty fisherman “chalkboard” Quint as they battle the shark on its own surf. In between, you get a lot of intensely scary moments. Trust us, you’ll never forget the first time you see that shark pop out of the water on the big screen!
With his mother dead and his father, Hal Osborne (Dabney Coleman), busy working, 11-year-old Davey (Henry Thomas) spends his time immersed in video games, often dreaming up espionage stories featuring imaginary spy Jack Flack (also Coleman). When Davey sees the murder of an FBI agent, the dying man hands him an Atari video game cartridge with military secrets. No one believes his story, and Davey is forced to go on the run, escaping from attempts on his life with Flack’s guidance.
