FilmJerk Favorites

A group of unique directors and the essential works that you've got to see.

||| Norman Jewison |||
Norman Jewison

Yes, he directed “Moonstruck” and two unforgettable musicals, but Jewison is also responsible for a trilogy of films focusing on racial-injustice, a whacky Cold War comedy and a signature film of Steve McQueen’s showing that he is one of the most versatile directors since Robert Wise.

This blueprint for good investigation dramas tells the story of a black Philadelphia detective investigating a murder in Mississippi who matches wits with a redneck sheriff. Groundbreaking for it’s time, this Oscar winning film is still relevant today and offers a gripping mystery with terrific dramatic performances by a complete cast of fully realized characters.

This is an amazingly funny and entertaining irreverent "Cold War" comedy about a Russian submarine stranded outside an isolated New England town, which throws the locals into a panic. Jewison does a delightful job of utilizing his all-star cast to their fullest, deftly mixing Capra-esq characters with Mel Brooks’s type situations (and vise-versa).

A bored millionaire (Steve McQueen in his prime) masterminds a flawless bank job as Faye Dunaway (an insurance investigator out to get him) identifies him as the mastermind and falls in love along the way. This is the original and the best, with all the arch stylized movie techniques of the ‘60s (including split-screen and fuzzy shallow focus) and the most erotic chess game ever captured on screen.

Recommended by CarrieSpecht

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Alien 5, Bye Bye Bye

By EdwardHavens

December 3rd, 2001

For the twelve of you who have been waiting for the next installment of the Alien franchise are going to have to wait a little longer. A source who wishes to call himself "Darryl Zanuck's Revenge" sends word to us that Fox shot down a supposed final draft script of Alien 5: Invasion on Friday afternoon.


Now, Sigourney Weaver has been very coy with the press about doing a part five, saying she was going to be meeting with Ridley Scott about possibly collaborating on this. Well, someone forgot to tell Sigourney that she does not decide when the next Alien movie gets made... especially if Ripley doesn't even appear in the latest script.

What? Yes, you read that right. Fox decided to give the franchise a spin with Annalee Call as the main focus of the story. Now why would Fox do that? DZR says because Sigourney is just holding out for that one last big paycheck she will never get from anyone else, and Winona Ryder is busting at the tits to do the movie. Since Annalee was an android in Resurrection, there are twenty different ways her reappearance could be explained away with nothing more than a one sentence script explanation.

Keeping this franchise alive has been a major priority at Fox for a long time. But they just can't get anything going on it. The Aliens Vs. Perdator film got bogged down not because of a bad story but because they couldn't get the various producers from the competing franchises to agree on all the rights issues. And now this attempt at keeping the original franchise alive is going nowhere. Fox is now ready to sell the Alien franchise to another studio.