The Boys From Brazil (1978)

“The Boys From Brazil” is a mash-up paranoid mystery/Nazi thriller from the twisted mind of Ira Levine (the novels “Rosemary’s Baby” and “The Stepford Wives”). With classic actors. Here, Gregory Peck drinks everyone’s milkshake as a fictionalized version of Josef Mengele, living in South America and working SS-style decades after World War II. Fellow movie god Laurence Olivier grabs a straw, too, and slurps right back as Nazi hunter and all-around eccentric Ezra Lieberman. The climax has the men meet for a gloriously violent, over-the-top battle in a seemingly quaint Lancaster County, Pa., home. Delicious. I spent summer there as a child. Several plot strands (a captive South American boy) are left aside, and Steve Guttenberg is unconvincing as a young Nazi hunter who sets the plot going, but the climax is sick, lovely mind-screw Levine. Bonus points: Scariest screen child ever, over “Omen” and some (bleeped) up dogs. Not high art, not meant to be, but damn fine 1970s entertainment. B+

Surrogates (2009)

It’s a two-for-one Bruce Willis in “Surrogates,” an action/sci-fi flick that giddily plays with the idea of the unkillable "Die Hard" hero … until the damn thing becomes another run-of-the-mill action/sci-fi flick with Willis as an unkillable "Die Hard" hero. The setup is cool: In the near future, shut-in humans live flawless Second Life existences via mass-produced “Cosmo”-worthy replicants. There is no pain. No spread of disease, sexual or otherwise. No crime. No need to work and then hit the grocery on the way home. Willis is Tom Greer, a grizzled FBI agent mourning a lost son, and also Tom’s superhuman FBI agent clone who’s like a blond Six Million Dollar Man. RoboTom get sucked into a conspiracy involving big business, bigger money, a hippie prophet (Ving Rhames ) and a new secret weapon that looks like a space-age Dustbuster. Of course, FlabbyTom must save the day. “Surrogates” at first plays like a welcome revisit of classic Ira Levine, but is sadly hijacked by Michael Bay Hollywood mentality. B-

The Stepford Wives (1975 and 2004)

More than 30 years on, the 1975 version of “The Stepford Wives” packs a huge punch. Unless you were raised under a rock or you actually are a Stepford Wife, you know the plot to this classic pitch-black Ira Levine satire: A married couple (Katherine Ross and Peter Masterson) and their children move from New York City to a seemingly perfect Connecticut suburb known as Stepford.

Lawns are perfectly manicured, houses impeccably clean and orderly, fantastic casseroles are the norm, even the sunlight is perfect, and almost every wife does nothing – literally nothing – but please their husband’s every single whim. The men laugh about it. Something’s wrong, and it ain’t the water.

Like “Rosemary’s Baby” – another Levine book turned film, and my favorite horror movie of all time – “Stepford” is a tale of women suffocating under the rule of men. Ross (“The Graduate”) is a brilliant heroine – she loves her family without question, but like any person who loves herself, or himself, she wants to be fulfilled in her own right, to be remembered. And she will bust your head with a fireplace poker if pushed too far. Even if she loves you.

The soul-killing husbands are scary because they are so matter-of-fact. As the film marches toward its dark ending, Ross pleads, “Why are you doing this?!?” The cold reply: “Because we can.” If it doesn’t boil your blood – woman or man – then you need to check if you still bleed. A-

I vividly recall the 2004 remake. Like a bout of tuna-inspired food poison. This version trades in the dark nature of the original for an ungodly fluffy comedy topped by a script so awful and contradictory, I still can’t believe I watched it to the end. A career worst for Nicole Kidman, who takes the role played by Ross in 1975, as well as director Frank Oz. F