The Film Yap

James Cameron’s suspenseful follow-up to Ridley Scott’s atmospheric horror-film-in-space remains the perfect summer movie.

Though a worthy effort, the 1935 version of “Les Misérables” is a ghostly shadow of a great story, whispered over a tremendous distance.

Visually sumptuous, Jean Cocteau’s “Beauty and the Beast” clearly influenced the Disney animated version.

Before “The Third Man,” Carol Reed directed this film noir-ish thriller starring James Mason as an IRA chief on the run.

One of the most beautiful films still remains powerful after 60 years.

Steven Spielberg’s first feature film launched the career of arguably the most successful modern director.

This stolid Korean War drama about Navy pilots lends insight into the changing cinematic depiction of war after 1945.

This 1964 adaptation of the award-winning play crackles with smart dialogue performed by two actors at their peak.

Werner Herzog’s hallucinatory film about a Spanish expedition in search of gold remains a mesmerizing tone poem.

He went on to make two more unmemorable movies, but most consider “Limelight” to be Charlie Chaplin’s swan song.