Madigan (Blu-ray) <small>by Stuart Galbraith IV</small><hr /> An interesting, mostly good policier often described as neo-noir (and with echoes of Kurosawa's Stray Dog), Don Siegel's Madigan (1968) straddles two worlds: the old-style, studio-made produced thriller, and the emerging genre Siegel would help define, most famously with Dirty Harry (1971). Based on the 1962 novel The Commissioner by Richard Dougherty, the movie mixes veteran Hollywood stars Richard Widmark and Henry Fonda, pairing them off with love interests young enough to be their children: Inger Stevens and Universal contract player Susan Clark, who as Fonda's lover in fact was younger than both Jane and Peter. Much of the rest of the cast draws from New York-rooted actors like Harry Guardino and Frank Marth, and the film makes excellent use of its seedy Spanish Harlem and Brooklyn locales. But parts of it were also shot on the Universal backlot, and apparently its c...Read the entire review »

Thunderbolt and Lightfoot (Blu-ray) <small>by Ryan Keefer</small><hr /> The Movie: I discovered through the years of watching a bunch of movies that given my choices, likes and dislikes that Thunderbolt and Lightfoot was a cinematic blind spot for me. It's not for much reason, other than I never got around to it, but given the stars and the backdrop it should have been something I probably should have gotten around to seeing sooner. Stupid life things! Anyway, written and directed by Michael Cimino in his feature debut (The Deer Hunter), Thunderbolt (Clint Eastwood, American Sniper) is a bank robber laying low and avoiding his old partners who think he double-crossed them. He runs into Lightfoot (Jeff Bridges, Bad Times at the ...Read the entire review »