The Naked Gun 2 1/2 : The Smell of Fear (1991)

Comedy sequel “The Naked Gun 2 1/2: The Smell of Fear” is a far lesser return than the first film which remains a laugh-out-loud pleasure of my 1980s youth. Every ounce of joy here can be attributed to Leslie Nielsen, back as Lt. Frank Drebin and in Washington, D.C., for a prestigious LEO honor. As with John McClane, where Frank goes, so does trouble. And death. Here, Frank gets mixed up in a Big Business scam to keep oil as America’s energy source forever and ever, damn the Earth, let’s make some money. The decades old jokes hit Big Oil and George Bush I and yet still feel sharp because the environmental conversation has not moved one inch. Conservatives hold on to their wealth and demand the world to stop. Liberals seek a future. I digress. Apologies. The successful laugh ratio is iffy, at best. The whole movie could lose 20 minutes more and come out sharper. I still dig George Kennedy as the clueless tough cop, and Anthony James -– a regular in Clint Eastwood films –- as an assassin with a song on his lips. B

Charade (1963)

This. THIS is what “Tourist” -– the dull-flat romantic caper with Johnny Depp and Angelina Jolie -– wanted to be, and failed. Starring Cary Grant and Audrey Hepburn, with assist from George Kennedy, James Coburn, and Walter Matthau, twisty-turny, tongue-in-cheek thriller/comedy “Charade” follows a new divorcee (Hepburn) whose Parisian rich ex-husband turns up dead before the legal papers can be signed. Woe for her, because $250,000 is missing, and the cops and the crooks know in their blood Ms. Hepburn has it. Enter Grant’s slippery admitted conman who switches identities quicker than he does clothes, and this film -– directed by Stanley Donen (“Singin’ in the Rain”) -– is a hoot of 1960s cool/suave. The turncoats, betrayals, and reveals are played for suspense and laughs, alternating one after the other, none better than when a parade of men stalk into dead hubby’s funeral, studying and abusing the corpse, making sure he’s dead. Grant is old enough to be Hepburn’s father, but the “ick” factor is joked away, with Hepburn on top, so to speak, even if some of the “you’re-just-a-girl” shtick is sexist. Doesn’t distract, though, from this cinematic shell game. Hepburn shines, as always. B+

The Dirty Dozen (1967)

World War II suicide mission classic “The Dirty Dozen” is mean, violent, carries enough cruelty and anti-PC credentials to offend everyone from patriotic zealots to liberal pacifists, and lays absolute waste to its stellar tough guy cast. The ass kickers include Lee Marvin, John Cassavetes, Jim Brown, Terry Savalas, Donald Sutherland and Charles Bronson. The puppet masters include Robert Ryan, George Kennedy and Ernest Borgnine. What a cast! This is the kind of film guys drink scotch – straight – to, and stare in awe. From the first scene of a weeping soldier being hanged to the raid-the-castle finale, director Robert Aldrich makes this action flick a subversive 1960s social drama: God takes a beating, Jim Brown smiles as he kills rich whites, all military brass are pompous idiots. We are essentially rooting for killers and scum to walk away free. The violence still plays tough, including a hairy scene where one of the 12 goes Judas bonkers. It seems common place now, but “Dozen” may be the first American film to say if you’re not dirty going into war, it’ll sure as hell grind you down into the muck and mire. Classic. A

Cool Hand Luke (1967)

"Cool Hand Luke" is a perfect film. Just two days before the great, irreplaceable Paul Newman died, I got the itch to watch this 1967 stick-it-to-the-man prison drama from 1967. I just sat in awe of his power.

Newman's Luke is, of course, a regular joe, or Luke, sentenced to a prison chain gang for lobbing off the heads of parking meters while drunk. In prison, the war hero and absolute rebel bucks authority and becomes a quasi-Christ figure to his fellow inmates.

The name Luke is no mistake, even an agnostic, as I am, knows the themes here. But I digress.

Luke escapes again and again from the prison, eats 50 boiled eggs and leads his crew in a race to quickly finish paving a road to let the "road bosses" know who runs the show. And like Christ, Luke suffers for his transgressions.

George Kennedy, who won an Oscar here, plays Dragline, a John the Baptist and unintentional Judas Iscariot. He gives a performance that makes you hate him, them fall deeply, hopelessly, in pity with him. Not love. But pity. And forgiveness.

Such a Christ-like story, film, is it not?

I could go into the mechanics of this being a film about the unbeatable human spirit in the face of oppression, and the religious overtones (which I always found over the top), but that's par for the course for these (those) times. Newman is what I truly love about this film.

The man was a god, and he's never been better than here. God.

One of my all-time favorite movie scenes: Luke learns his mother has died as he sits in the prison camp mess hall, and he quietly picks up a guitar, goes to his bunk and sings a song aloud to himself as he weeps. The scene is perfect. Literally perfect. My heart breaks for my own mother watching that.

The acting is unmatched, as tears stroll down his cheeks. Add in his final scene, where Luke throws back the "What we have here..." line from the wickedly good Strother Martin at his captors, Newman again is perfection. A+