Movie Recommendations

Monty Python alums John Cleese and Michael Palin join psychotic ex-CIA agent Kevin Kline and lover Jamie Lee Curtis in this jewel-robbery caper.

Peter O’Toole and Audrey Hepburn team up to steal a statue her father has forged.

The preeminent film noir. Bogart is hard-boiled sleuth Sam Spade, on the trail of a gem-encrusted statuette.

Any individual movie probably gets an M, but there are enough classic bits scattered throughout for the series to rate an F. The only ones worth watching are The Pink Panther, A Shot in the Dark, The Return of the Pink Panther, The Pink Panther Srikes Again, and Revenge of the Pink Panther.

New babysitter Lynn Belvedere has one simple explanation for the household’s transformation: I am a genius.

Filmed simultaneously but released a year apart, these are the most faithful adaptation of Dumas’s opus and offer nonstop action, infectious humor, and classy swordplay.

Cary Grant’s two sweet aunts relieve old and sad gentlemen by adding arsenic to their elderberry wine; one brother thinks he’s Teddy Roosevelt, the other is an internationally wanted murderer. Just the place to bring the new wife.

A beautiful movie about movies, and growing up, in a small Italian village. The original 1989 film is wonderful, but the main character’s romance lacks closure—nearly an hour was chopped out for American distribution. Watch the extended Director’s Cut if at all possible. (subtitled)

The best Bond movie, made before the series went over the top. (And of course the younger Sean Connery is the best Bond.)

Paul Newman’s tortuous journey from pool shark to pool player is an engrossing look at life on the down side.