NEVER SAY NEVER AGAIN

...Ah, yes, James, it is good to have you back again. It is good to see the way you smile from under lowered eyebrows, and the way you bark commands in a sudden emergency, and it is good to see the way you look at women. Other secret agents may undress women with their eyes. You are more gallant. You undress them, and then thoughtfully dress them again. You are a rogue with the instincts of a gentleman...

...The movie is called "Never Say Never Again." The title has nothing to do with the movie -- except why Connery made it -- but never mind, nothing in this movie has much to do with anything else. It's another one of those Bond plots in which the basic ingredients are thrown together more or less in fancy.

Rocky

...On Nov. 21, 1976, Sylvester Stallone was vaulted to "the hottest new star" of the year with the debut of Rocky. The film, which claimed the best picture Oscar at the 49th Academy Awards, became a pop-culture milestone and an enduring franchise for Stallone. The Hollywood Reporter's original review is below:

To describe Rocky as a movie about prize-fighting is about as helpful as saying that Marty, which it resembles in many ways, was a picture about butchering. Marty, you'll remember, was a not-too-handsome but essentially decent sort of fellow who just happened to work in a butcher shop in the Bronx. Well, Rocky is a not-too-bright but essentially decent young man who just happens to be a third-rate heavyweight working out of a second-rate gym in South Philadelphia (and on the side, for eating money, breaks the thumbs of delinquent debtors on behalf of a local loanshark.) On paper, neither character may seem terribly appealing, but on the screen they steal your heart away, but completely.

The Godfather

...Popularly viewed as one of the best American films ever made, the multi-generational crime saga The Godfather is a touchstone of cinema: one of the most widely imitated, quoted, and lampooned movies of all time. Marlon Brando and Al Pacino star as Vito Corleone and his youngest son, Michael, respectively. It is the late 1940s in New York and Corleone is, in the parlance of organized crime, a "godfather" or "don," the head of a Mafia family. Michael, a free thinker who defied his father by enlisting in the Marines to fight in World War II, has returned a captain and a war hero. Having long ago rejected the family business, Michael shows up at the wedding of his sister, Connie (Talia Shire), with his non-Italian girlfriend, Kay (Diane Keaton), who learns for the first time about the family "business." A few months later at Christmas time, the don barely survives being shot by gunmen in the employ of a drug-trafficking rival whose request for aid from the Corleones' political connections was rejected. After saving his father from a second assassination attempt, Michael persuades his hotheaded eldest brother, Sonny (James Caan), and family advisors Tom Hagen (Robert Duvall) and Sal Tessio (Abe Vigoda) that he should be the one to exact revenge on the men responsible. After murdering a corrupt police captain and the drug trafficker, Michael hides out in Sicily while a gang war erupts at home. Falling in love with a local girl, Michael marries her, but she is later slain by Corleone enemies in an attempt on Michael's life. Sonny is also butchered, having been betrayed by Connie's husband. As Michael returns home and convinces Kay to marry him, his father recovers and makes peace with his rivals, realizing that another powerful don was pulling the strings behind the narcotics endeavor that began the gang warfare. Once Michael has been groomed as the new don, he leads the family to a new era of prosperity, then launches a campaign of murderous revenge against those who once tried to wipe out the Corleones, consolidating his family's power and completing his own moral downfall. Nominated for 11 Academy Awards and winning for Best Picture, Best Actor (Marlon Brando), and Best Adapted Screenplay, The Godfather was followed by a pair of sequels.

Lord of the Rings

...LORD OF THE RINGS: THE FELLOWSHIP OF THE RING (2001)

Cast

• Viggo Mortensen as Aragorn
• Sean Astin as Sam
• Ian Holm as Bilbo
• Ian McKellen as Gandalf
• Elijah Wood as Frodo Baggins
• Christopher Lee as Saruman
• Liv Tyler as Arwen

Directed by

• Peter Jackson

Written by

• Philippa Boyens
• Jackson
• Frances Walsh

Based On The Novel by

• J.R.R. Tolkien

Action, Adventure, Fantasy, Science Fiction

Rated PG-13 For Epic Battle Sequences and Some Scary Images

178 minutes

| Roger Ebert

December 19, 2001 | 35

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We invest Hobbits with qualities that cannot be visualized. In my mind, they are good-hearted, bustling, chatty little creatures who live in twee houses or burrows, and dress like the merry men of Robin Hood--in smaller sizes, of course. They eat seven or eight times a day, like to take naps, have never been far from home and have eyes that grow wide at the sounds of the night. They are like children grown up or grown old, and when they rise to an occasion, it takes true heroism, for they are timid by nature and would rather avoid a fight.

The Legend of Tarzan

...Following his parents' death in Africa, John Clayton has been be raised by an ape, was known by the name Tarzan, but eventually left Africa and for his parents' home in England, along with the woman he fell in love with and married, Jane Porter. He is asked by Belgian King Leopold to go to Africa to see what he has done there to help the country. Initially, he refuses. But an American, George Washington Williams, wants him to accept so he can accompany him. He says that Leopold might be committing all sorts of atrocities to achieve his goal, like slavery. Clayton agrees and his wife insists that she accompany him because she misses Africa. When they arrive, a man named Rom, who works for Leopold, attacks their village and captures Tarzan and Jane. With Washington's help he escapes and sets out to rescue Jane by going across the jungle. Washington joins him despite being told that he might not make it.

Indiana Jones

...Young Indiana sees scavengers stealing a sacred 16th-century relic, and determines to get it back, setting off on a series of adventures he hasn't quite mastered yet. He meets lions and rhinos and snakes, tries to jump from a cliff onto a horse, acquires his hat and whip and the tag line he uses in times of crisis, ''I'll think of something.'' The self-contained episode is a clue to how deftly Mr. Spielberg works in ''The Last Crusade,'' playing off our awareness of the Indiana Jones formula yet always playing it straight.

When the story leaps ahead to 1938, we discover that the medievalist Henry Jones has disappeared during a search for the Grail. Indiana rescues his father from the Nazis, who know Henry is about to find the Grail, and together they continue the search by zeppelin, plane and motorcycle. They waltz through a book-burning rally in Berlin, and wind up in a Middle Eastern desert where Indiana on horseback overtakes a German tank. Finally, they enter a magnificent temple carved into the face of a cliff.

Grand Champion

...A boy trying to do the right thing for his family loses his closest companion and decides to do something about it in this comedy-drama for the whole family that was shot on location in Texas. Buddy (Jacob Fisher) is a young boy being raised by his single mother Hallie (Joey Lauren Adams) on a small ranch in the Lone Star state. Buddy has been taking care of a young steer he calls Hokey Pokey, and while at first the animal is more of a pet than anything else, with hard work and encouragement Buddy is able to groom Hokey Pokey into a prize-winning steer who wins the Grand Champion award at a major rodeo livestock show. Hokey Pokey is purchased for 775,000 dollars at a livestock auction, which will allow Buddy and his sister to attend college and make life at home a lot easier for his mother. But when Buddy is told that Hokey Pokey's new owner plans to turn the steer into an especially large order of barbecue, he decides he can't let his four-hoofed buddy die, and with the help of his friends he hatches a scheme to kidnap the steer. Grand Champion features cameo appearances from country music stars George Strait, Natalie Maines (of the Dixie Chicks), and Robert Earl Keen, as well as several top rodeo riders.Genre:

• Comedy, Drama, Kids & Family
• Directed By:
• Barry Tubb
• Written By:
• Barry Tubb

Mr. & Mrs. Smith

Brad Pitt and Angeline Jolie

....John and Jane Smith are an ordinary suburban couple with an ordinary, lifeless suburban marriage. But each of them has a secret: They are legendary assassins working for competing organizations. When the truth comes out, John and Jane end up in each other's cross-hairs.

• Genre:
• Action & Adventure, Comedy, Mystery & Suspense
• Directed By:
• Doug Liman
• Written By:
• Simon Kinberg