But Mission: Impossible — Dead Reckoning Part One (Paramount, 7.12) is totally wowser — a shot of grade-A adrenalin and nothing but breathtaking elements top to bottom, plus some of the action sequences struck me — this was surprising — as almost Buster Keaton-ish in a welcome way. But the Austrian train wreck finale is in a knock-your-socks-off category by itself — an INSTANT CLASSIC.

The NYC screening starts at 6:30 pm, give or take. Update: It’s now 6:03 pm.

Nobody talks anymore about Sir “Low” Grade‘s Raise The Titanic, which opened and bombed in August 1980. Which means they’re also not talking about an incident that happens around the halfway point, when salvage experts begin to prepare for the dangerous job of actually raising the Titanic from the ocean floor.

At a depth near 10,000 feet, one of the project’s submersibles, Starfish, experiences a cabin flood and implodes.

“This is Turtle…we got Starfish in visual contact.”

The early car conflict scene between two old guys (Lou Gilbert‘s “Rosenbaum” and Ben Dova‘s “Klaus Szell”) is one of the most gripping sequences in John Schlesinger‘s Marathon Man (10.8.76).

Set on a one-way street in the 70s or 80s in Manhattan’s Upper East Side, it must have been a bitch to shoot with all the traffic control issues and whatnot.

One problem: I’ve never believed that both men would recklessly and obliviously drive full-speed into a fuel truck. Perhaps one of them but not both. A potentially great scene ends on a note of disappointment.

Sidenote: 24 or 25 years before Marathon Man Gilbert played “Pablo,” a trusted friend and ally of Marlon Brando‘s Emiliano Zapata, in Elia Kazan‘s Viva Zapata (’52)

No matter what the topic, Jeff and Sasha are reminded that there isn’t a single aspect of Hollywood diversion these days that hasn’t been woke-modified, influenced, or compromised by the urge to educate and enlighten by way of progressive guilt-tripping. Hollywood, in short, has totally torpedoed the classic idea of entertainment and Average Joes are sick of the preaching.

Oscar Poker Substack topics include the imminent financial disappointment of India Jones and the Dial of Destiny, Ethan Coen and Trish Foster‘s Drive-Away Dolls and the rare journalistic cojones of Deadline‘s Michael Cieply.

Again, the link.

This Tonight Show taping happened around ’75. Ann-Margret had broken through in Bye-Bye Birdie (’63) and Viva Las Vegas (’64), and she was now 34 — four years after Carnal Knowledge, three years after her Lake Tahoe stage accident.

It went without saying that her gymnastic dance moves were secondary to the main attractions.

“Bad wars always lead to a change of regime…”