The early aughts were consumed with the so-called “torture porn” genre the more extreme the better. You might even wish there had been subsequent installments made or at least for Conran to make another movie. But it’s also incredibly charming, carrying over the serialized hero phase of the 1990s (“The Rocketeer,” “The Shadow,” “The Phantom”) with newfangled technology and a kind of creative fearlessness. (Joining him is Gwyneth Paltrow, Giovanni Rabisi, Angelina Jolie and a reanimated Laurence Olivier.) Not all of “Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow” works the performances are occasionally stiff and some of the homemade effects have aged poorly. (He has been attached to several high-profile projects.) Set in the late 1930s, Jude Law plays the title character, a fighter pilot hero, who goes up against mechanical monsters, sinister scientists and a plot to take over the world. And while the movie was initially met with indifference, it has grown in estimation in the nearly two decades since its release, although Kerry Conran, the plucky writer/director behind the project, hasn’t made another movie since. The concept behind the movie, of shooting big name actors against a blue screen and adding everything – including sets, vehicles and creatures – in post-production is commonplace now but was downright revolutionary then. If you’ve never seen “Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow,” take a look and then remember that it was made back in 2004. – Drew Taylor “Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow” Paramount Pictures If you’ve never seen it before, you’ll see it in the best possible way. (Even though its set in modern day, it could have just as easily been staged in a decade long ago it’s closest cousin is probably the HBO movie “Cast a Deadly Spell” from 1991.) Barker conjures a world both familiar and untethered to our reality and Bakula is wonderful in the lead role, somewhat surprising considering audiences best knew him, at the time, from the squeaky clean sci-fi series “Quantum Leap.” What makes the movie’s arrival on HBO Max even groovier is the fact that it is the restored director’s cut, which gives the movie greater texture and nuance. Scott Bakula stars as Harry D’Amour, a hardboiled private eye who specializes in occult crimes and is drawn into an incredibly strange case involving a supernatural death cult and the murder of a prominent stage magician. The resulting film is one of the most criminally overlooked films of the decade. A few years later, Barker took to adapting one of his own short stories, “The Last Illusion” (from 1985’s “Books of Blood” Volume 6). It was a sizable enough hit to spawn a franchise and to make Barker, the writer/director of 1987’s “Hellraiser,” hot again. In 1992 one of Clive Barker’s stories, called “The Forbidden,” was excellently adapted into “Candyman” by British filmmaker Bernard Rose. Heartwarming, hilarious and rich in character, “Paper Moon” is a classic for a reason. Directed by Peter Bogdanovich, the film takes place during the Great Depression and stars real-life father and daughter Ryan and Tatum O’Neal as a con man and orphan who team up when the con man agrees to take the young girl from Gotham, Kansas to St. If you’re in the mood for a classic, 1973’s road trip comedy “Paper Moon” holds up tremendously well. – Adam Chitwood “Paper Moon” Paramount Pictures What begins as a gambit to make more money soon takes a number of shocking twists and turns as director Bong Joon-ho unfurls a complex tale that’s essentially about the myth of socio-economic mobility. The Korean-language drama follows a low-income family that schemes to get jobs for a rich family without the rich family knowing they’re all related. The 2020 Oscar winner for Best Picture, Director and Original Screenplay, “Parasite” is a wildly compelling, moving and surprising story of class struggle through the eyes of two very different families. What’s New on Netflix in May 2023 “Parasite” Neon
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