Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (USA): 79

The American mystery comedy thriller film, The Mighty Quinn (1989), features Denzel Washington as the titular character. Quinn is the chief of police for a small US territory in the Caribbean. When Donald Pater, the millionaire owner of a luxury resort hotel, is murdered, Quinn’s best friend Maubee becomes the prime suspect. Despite this assumption, Quinn remains doubtful and clashes with Governor Chalk and his cocky political advisor Thomas Elgin. The murder case adds to Quinn’s personal struggles; he is estranged from his wife Lola and has little time for his son. Maubee continuously evades arrest by the ...

Overboard (1987) is an American romantic comedy film directed by Garry Marshall and written by Leslie Dixon. Heiress Joanna Stayton is accustomed to a wealthy life with her own yacht and fortune, along with her husband Grant Stayton III. While waiting for her yacht to be repaired in the fictional seaside town of Elk Cove, Oregon, Joanna hires local carpenter Dean Proffitt, a widower with four sons, to remodel her closet. Despite Dean’s quality work, she dismisses it because he used oak instead of cedar without her requesting it initially. Dean asks to be paid for ...

Director Brian De Palma brought to life Wise Guys (1986), an American dark comedy about two men at the bottom of a Newark Mafia hierarchy. Harry Valentini and Moe Dickstein, an Italian American and a Jewish friend respectively, worked for Castelo by completing mundane tasks like caring for his goldfish or testing bullet-proof jackets. Despite their lowly positions, they had big dreams of opening a unique Jewish-Italian deli. Unfortunately, their boss and fellow gang members looked down on them and often made fun of their aspirations. During a trip to the racetrack with Castelo’s violent henchman Frank ‘The ...

Year of the Dragon (1985) is an American neo-noir crime thriller film co-written and directed by Michael Cimino. It follows the story of Stanley White, a highly decorated police captain and Vietnam War veteran who is assigned to New York City’s Chinatown. Desperate to rid the city of Chinese organized crime, White becomes fixated on taking down Joey Tai, a young man who relentlessly climbs the ranks of the Triads. As their rivalry intensifies, they unravel the fragile peace that has long existed between the Triads and the local police precinct. Meanwhile, other criminal groups such as the Italian Mob and Thai ...

Directed by Gillian Armstrong, Mrs. Soffel (1984) is an American drama film featuring Diane Keaton and Mel Gibson. The movie is based on the true story of the Biddle brothers, who were sentenced to prison and later escaped with the help of Kate Soffel, the wife of a Pittsburgh warden in 1901. Despite being a devoted mother to their four children, Kate had been bedridden for months without explanation until she suddenly regained her strength. Desiring to spread comfort and hope to inmates, she begins reading Bible scripture ...

2010: The Year We Make Contact (1984) is a United States-produced science fiction film written, shot and directed by Peter Hyams. Acting as a sequel to Stanley Kubrick’s famous 1968 film 2001: A Space Odyssey and based on Arthur C. Clarke’s novel 2010: Odyssey Two (published in 1982), the movie follows a joint American-Soviet team sent to Jupiter to uncover the reason for the failure of the previous Discovery One mission. In this timeline, nine years have passed since the five crew members, ...

Octopussy (1983), the thirteenth film in the James Bond series produced by Eon Productions, marks the sixth time Roger Moore portrayed MI6 agent James Bond. The title of the film is derived from a short story in Ian Fleming’s collection Octopussy and The Living Daylights. While the overall plot is original, it does include an encounter with twin assassins Mischka and Grishka in East Berlin and the death of British agent 009, who was dressed as a circus clown and carrying a fake Fabergé egg. This incident leads MI6 to suspect Soviet ...

The romantic drama film, The Year of Living Dangerously (1982), was both directed and co-written by Peter Weir alongside David Williamson. Based on the 1978 novel of the same name by Christopher Koch, it tells the story of Guy Hamilton, a novice foreign correspondent sent to Jakarta by his Australian TV network. In Jakarta, he is welcomed into a tight-knit community of fellow correspondents from various countries, as well as diplomatic personnel and Billy Kwan, a highly intelligent Chinese Australian man with dwarfism and a ...

The mystery film, The Formula (1980), was directed by John G. Avildsen and produced and written by Steve Shagan, who adapted his own novel of the same name from 1979. It follows the story of Soviet forces closing in on Berlin during World War II and Panzer Korps General Helmut Kladen being sent to the Swiss border with important documents. However, he is intercepted by the U.S. Army and handed over to Army Intelligence. In present-day Los Angeles, Lt. Barney Caine is tasked with solving the murder of his former boss and friend Tom Neeley. Neeley’s body has a message ...

The third installment of the Shaft series, Shaft in Africa (1973), is an American blaxploitation film directed by John Guillermin. In his New York City apartment, protagonist John Shaft is drugged and taken against his will to Africa. He is forced to take on a new identity as an itinerant worker who speaks the local language in order to help take down a criminal organization that is smuggling immigrants into Europe and exploiting them. However, the villains are already aware of his arrival. Shaft successfully passes a grueling test as part of the hiring process – ...

Shaft’s Big Score! (1972) is an American blaxploitation action-crime film starring Richard Roundtree as private detective John Shaft. After receiving a distressing call from his old friend Cal Asby, a Queens insurance salesman and mortician, Shaft rushes to his aid. However, upon arrival at Asby’s house, he discovers that his friend has been killed by a bomb. Despite being questioned by the skeptical police Captain Bollin, Shaft is eventually cleared of suspicion. Meanwhile, Asby’s partner Johnny Kelly owes $250,000 in gambling debts to mob boss Gus Mascola. However, before Shaft, Kelly, and ...

Shaft (1971), an American blaxploitation crime action thriller film directed by Gordon Parks and written by Ernest Tidyman and John D. F. Black, is based on Tidyman’s novel of the same name and marks the first installment in the Shaft film series. In January of that year, private detective John Shaft receives word that a group of gangsters are after him. quickly taking action, he confronts one of them in his office building and forces him to lead him to their ...

Kelly’s Heroes (1970), directed by Brian G. Hutton, is a film set during World War II that blends comedy, drama, and a thrilling heist storyline. As the 35th Infantry Division approaches the town of Nancy in early September 1944, they are met with fierce resistance from the enemy. Despite being ordered to hold their position, one of the division’s mechanized reconnaissance platoons finds themselves caught in a thunderstorm and facing friendly fire from their own mortars. In the midst of chaos, Private Kelly takes action and captures Colonel Dankhopf of Wehrmacht Intelligence. In a twist of fate, Kelly ...

2001: A Space Odyssey (1984) is a groundbreaking science fiction film, directed and produced by Stanley Kubrick. The screenplay, co-written by Kubrick and renowned science fiction author Arthur C. Clarke, draws inspiration from Clarke’s 1951 short story The Sentinel as well as other works. The story begins in a prehistoric veld where a tribe of hominins is forced to leave their water source by a rival tribe. The following day, they discover the presence of an alien monolith amongst them. Through this ...

Grand Prix (1966), an American sports drama film, was directed by John Frankenheimer and written by Robert Alan Aurthur. Set in the world of Formula One racing, it follows the journeys of four drivers as they navigate the high-stakes and danger of their profession. Alongside their racing exploits, we see the complicated relationships they have with the women in their lives. For example, Sarti engages in an affair with American journalist Louise Frederickson, who initially shows little interest in motorsports. Meanwhile, Aron has a fling with Stoddard’s unhappy wife ...

North by Northwest (1959) is an American spy thriller film produced and directed by Alfred Hitchcock. In New York City the following year, a waiter at the Plaza Hotel’s Oak Room restaurant is asked by some thugs to page George Kaplan. Meanwhile, advertising executive Roger Thornhill calls over the same waiter and is mistakenly abducted as they believe he is Kaplan. He is then taken to Lester Townsend’s estate in Glen Cove where he is questioned by Phillip Vandamm, a Cold War spy working against the United States who is posing as Townsend. Vandamm orchestrates Thornhill’s supposed death in a staged ...

King Solomon’s Mines (1950) is a Technicolor adventure film based on Henry Rider Haggard’s novel of the same name. Set in ‘British East Africa’ (Kenya Colony) during 1897, experienced safari guide Allan Quatermain is convinced by Elizabeth Curtis to search for her missing husband, who disappeared while looking for King Solomon’s legendary mines in unexplored Africa. Elizabeth and her brother John Goode join the expedition. Despite Allan’s initial reservations about having women on a safari, he and Elizabeth gradually develop feelings for each other during their arduous trek. Along the ...

The film noir The Asphalt Jungle (1950), directed and co-written by John Huston, follows the story of criminal mastermind Erwin ‘Doc’ Riedenschneider. Upon his release from a seven-year prison sentence, Doc seeks out the help of bookie Cobby in an unknown city located near a Midwestern river. In need of $50,000 to complete a major jewel theft, Doc requests the assistance of three individuals: a safecracker, a driver, and a hooligan. With Cobby’s connections, he sets up a meeting with high-class lawyer and fixer Alonzo Emmerich. During the meeting, Doc mentions that the stolen jewels could potentially ...

Mutiny on the Bounty (1935), an American historical adventure drama film directed by Frank Lloyd and produced by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, tells the story of William Bligh’s command of the Royal Naval merchant vessel HMS Bounty in 1787. As a brutal tyrant, Bligh is known for administering harsh punishments to any officers or crew members who lack discipline or defy his authority. After recruiting a new crew from a local pub, the Bounty sets sail from Portsmouth on a two-year voyage to transport breadfruit from the Polynesian islands to Jamaica. Fletcher Christian, the ship’s executive officer, is both strong and ...