Every Monday, each of us will suggest a film that we feel too few people have seen.
Windy’s Pick of the Week: 12 Angry Men
If you love court-room dramas and you haven’t seen this? You’ve been cheating yourself. It’s weird to recommend a classic like this as “underappreciated” – but I can no longer assume that we’ve all seen these great films, as generations shift and movies that everybody knew are slowly forgotten. Twelve jurors in a murder trial slowly file into the room to decide on a verdict. It’s hot, it’s Friday afternoon, and they just want to finish and go home. Eleven voices agree “guilty” – and the voice of that one dissenting man becomes the driving force of a play entirely about perception and memory, bias and assumptions. The 1957 film has an amazing cast – Henry Fonda, Lee J. Cobb, Jack Klugman, Jack Warden, Ed Begley… This movie is the definition of “drama.”
Melissa’s Pick of the Week: Mr. Vampire
I’ve adored this film ever since I laid eyes on it, because it’s a joyous blend of three things I love: horror, comedy, and martial arts. It’s the story of a Hong Kong mortician and his bumbling assistants, who find themselves plagued by a rogue vampire. I say “rogue” here because most of the vampires they know are docile “clients” of a fellow mortician, who keeps them obedient via little yellow scrolls that he sticks to their foreheads. Oh, and did I mention that the vampires hop like bunnies? And that Ricky Lau directed it? And that Sammo Hung produced it? Yeah, it’s daffy and glorious.
