Reruns - Guy Movies

My vacation continues. Here's a rerun from June, 5, 2008.

(Note: I took a lot of guff at the time for not mentioning The Godfather and The Godfather II. It was unintentional oversight. Consider them added.)

There's a lot of buzz out there that the big-bucks success of ”Sex and the City” will open the Hollywood floodgates for a torrent of new chick flicks.

Men, if we're going to get booted from the multiplex and back to our caves, we should prepare by stockpiling guy-friendly films. Here's a short list to get you started.

My main criteria was to think of some movies that, if randomly encountered while channel-surfing, I'll stop and watch the picture to its conclusion. Here are a few picks:

WORLD WAR II

Where Eagles Dare 1968 Richard Burton and Clinton Eastwood are allied agents who infiltrate a Nazi castle. Lots of plot twists and turns, gun play and Frauleins.

Also: The Dirty Dozen (1967), The Guns of Navarone (1961) and Kelly's Heroes (1970)

CAVALRY CHARGE

Fort Apache 1948 John Ford directs John Wayne and Henry Fonda in this western epic about a by-the-book commanding officer (Fonda) who overcharges. Final scene includes clueless newspaper reporters. Just saw it last Saturday night in a double feature with “She Wore A Yellow Ribbon,” another Ford-Wayne classic.

Also: They Died With Their Boots On (1941) Errol Flynn as George A. Custer.

COMEDY

Caddyshack (1980); Animal House (1978) ; Slap Shot (1977) Watch all three in a row, you pick the sequence.

DETERMINED MEN DOING HARD STUFF

Apollo 13 (1995) Ron Howard directs Tom Hanks etc. in what I consider to be one of the most patriotic movies ever made. Watching those tenacious can-do NASA technicians figure out how to get the astronauts home is about as American as it gets.

The Searchers (1956) OK, I know, another John Ford-John Wayne movie, perhaps the best. Its plot, the quest by Etan Edwards (Wayne) to find a niece kidnapped by Comanches, and its camera work are still influencing American movies.

Also: Die Hard (1988) …The Outlaw Josey Wales (1976) and just about any Bond movie.

FIGHTING CRIME

The Big Sleep (1946)Howard Hawks directs Humphrey Bogart in a Phillip Marlowe gumshoe saga with a twisted plot that will lose you if you run to the fridge for a beer without pausing.

Also: The Untouchables (1987)…The Maltese Falcon (1941)…Chinatown (1974)

Remember, this is a short list designed to leave plenty of room for your picks.