Damnation Alley (1977)
Jan-Michael Vincent,George Peppard,Paul Winfield,Dominique Sanda
Jack Smight

A small group of survivors at a military installation who survived World War 3 attempt to drive across the desolate wasteland to where they hope more survivors are living. Hopefully their specially built vehicles will protect them against the freakish conditions and other dangers along the way.

Adapted from Roger Zelazny's novel.What a great movie this could have been.As is,the first 15 minutes dealing with the wars beginning and missile launchings are gripping. But afterwards,due to a low budget,undeveloped special effect technology and only a 90 minute time frame,many opportunities are missed. What we have is an OK cult adventure story. The characters are one-dimensional. The cross-country journey is basically this happened,then that happened,then this happened storytelling. No thought given as to what types of societies developed or how people really deal with the downfall of civilization. We get flesh eating cockroaches in Salt Lake City,horney hillbillies in the midwest and a flood in Detroit.Much of the special effects are merely superimposed light shows.

This film was completed in 1976 but sat on a shelf and not released until several months after the Star Wars release.It then died at the box office.Several years later,the TV movie The Day After came out and riveted the nation. If done properly,this film could have been a mix of Star Wars and The Day After,an intelligent post-apocalyptic epic. What we got was a film that ends with the survivors reaching what seems to be Happyville USA, with smiling folks holding home-baked apple pies and everything hunky dory.What a stupid ending. 6 of 10 stars but less if you include the ending

I wasn't even born yet when this movie was first released but it became one of my guilty pleasures when I first saw it in the early 90s...first on cable's USA Up All Night and then on dvd...

Youtube has the whole movie up...Warriors....come out to play-y-y-y-y-y

I'm All Right Jack (1959)
Ian Carmichael,Peter Sellers,Terry-Thomas,Richard Attenborough,Margaret Rutherford
D-Jack Boulting

Stanley Windrush(Carmichael) a naive aristocrat gets a job as a common worker at a factory and unwittingly becomes more productive than members of the union prefer to be.Socialist shop steward Fred Kite (Sellers) leads a strike in protest of managements new demands stemming from Windrush's example.The strike spreads to a nationwide shutdown

Excellent satire on the British class system and the management/union struggle.Sellers won a British Academy award for this film.I do place the similar themed movie The Man in The White Suit a bit above this.Terry-Thomas is also in fine shape as a middle management man.The scenes in the beginning with Carmichael interviewing for different blue-collar jobs (Num Yums) and the finale at a TV station shine. And there are scenes at a nudist colony where you see 1959 bare tushies.Those brits were certainly progressive. 7 of 10 stars

So ends my Peter Sellers review which began before my movie notes here.21 movies in all.The very best were:

The Ladykillers
The Mouse That Roared
Lolita
Dr.Strangelove
Pink Panther
A Shot in the Dark
Return of the Pink Panther
Murder By Death
Being There

The other's I watched recently prior to this thread included What's New Pussycat, After The Fox, Casino Royale, I Love You Alice B. Toklas and There's A Girl In My Soup.Not all gems but Sellers was always a marvel to watch

Delta Force (1986)
Chuck Norris,Lee Marvin,Martin Balsam,Joey Bishop,Robert Foster,Lainie Kazan,George Kennedy,Susan Strasberg,Shelley Winters,Bo Svenson,Robert Vaughn
D-Menahem Golan

A 707 aircraft jetliner on its way from Athens is hijacked by Lebanese terrorists. The terrorists demand that the pilot take them to Beirut. What the terrorists don't realize is that an elite team of commandoes led by Major McCoy (Norris) and by Colonel Alexander (Marvin) are on their way to eliminate all terrorists on the jetliner

1980,the attempt to free the hostages in Iran ends in disaster and Chuck Norris quits the Delta Force in disgust.Now 6 years later,its the Reagan years and Norris is eating his breakfast on his farm when he sees a TV report about Lebanese hijackers taking over a plane with Americans on board.You don't upset Norris when he's having his granola.He rejoins Delta Force teaming up again with his commander Lee Marvin and its off to the middle east to kick some terrorist butt

The first hour of the film mainly focuses inside the plane and the treatment of the hostages.Robert Foster is the main bad guy and he's totally despicable.Passengers that are Jewish are rounded up.An American serviceman is tortured and killed.Well,at least one terrorist gives a little girl her dolly back and gives a pregnant lady an extra pillow.Father O'Malley (George Kennedy) joins the Jewish prisoners in solidarity.Shelly Winters kvetches alot

The 2nd half of the film as the hostages in Beirut at 3 separate locations and Delta Force arrives.Now it becomes a Sgt Fury film where Delta Force is probably outnumbered 10-to-1 which makes this a no contest romp.Norris speeds around on a motorbike that shoots missiles.The Delta Force theme song continually pumps up when the action begins.Arab bodies are flying left and right.Chuck gets off his motorbike now and then to deliver kickshots.

This was Lee Marvins last film.It was originally meant to be played by Charles Bronson.Reportedly Liam Neesom had a small part towards the end as an extra soldier.Chuck Norris at his peak in popularity and a prime example of 1980s action. 7 of 10 stars

Yeah, her character in Dead Reckoning is hard to get a handle on. Even she doesn't knkw what she really wants.

I love Too Late for Tears, especially the unpredictably simple way the plot starts. Basically, someone throws a bag of cash into a couple's car.

The Great Dictator (1940)

Charlie Chaplin's anti-Hitler propaganda film.  Opens with some WW1 slapstick involving a large antiaircraft ordinance and then some gags with an upside-down biplane. The story moves ahead 20 years to the late 1930s in a Tomania ruled by Adenoid Hynkel.  Chaplin plays both Hynkel and an unamed "Jewish barber."   Both characters have several slapstick sequences, with many amusing bits.  I liked not-Mussolini's ridiculous Italian accent.  Also fun was when Chaplin as Hynkel would slip into pidgen German gibberish, just ranting nonsense sounds and words like "weinerschnitzel."

I was expecting the prince&pauper doppelganger switch to happen much earlier in the film than it did.   It wasn't really until the last fifteen mintes, just in time for Chaplin-as-the-Jewish-barber-as-dictator-Hynkel to give an antiwar speech directed to the soldiers who allow the elites to manipulate them.

The Criterion print streaming on HuluPlus looked great.  There's a free version on vimeo, but like so many of the film uploads on youtube or vimeo, the picture is heavily distorted to evade copyright-bots.  So skip those and save your pennies for $8 worth of hulu.