News

Steven Soderbergh comes out of retirement with a stylish, madcap heist movie buoyed by superbly droll performances from Channing Tatum, Adam Driver and Daniel Craig

Steven Soderbergh gets his career and his groove back, thankfully terminating a retirement none of us believed in anyway. He returns with Logan Lucky, a terrifically stylish and laid-back heist comedy about robbing a Nascar racetrack in West Virginia. John Denver’s Take Me Home, Country Roads serves as its anthem. It is written by mysterious first-timer Rebecca Blunt, who has yet to show up for interviews or media appearances.

The film is similar to Soderbergh’s great caper Ocean’s Eleven from 2001 and maybe also the Peter Sellers 1960 classic Two-Way Stretch. It’s funny, beguiling and smart, although it maybe doesn’t deliver the sugar rush of excitement achieved by Danny Ocean and his crew: sometimes the tempo is a little too like an unhurried,...

He took viewers into the steamy jungles of Tarzan, the sleek (and foreboding) future of Logan's Run, and a skyscraper under siege by a deadly blaze. Filmmaker Robert Day brought many worlds to life in his career, and it's with great sadness that we inform readers that the director has passed away at the age of 94.

According to THR (via Legacy.com), Day passed away on March 17th on Bainbridge Island in Seattle. A British filmmaker, Day made his mark in the world of directing with four Tarzan movies—Tarzan the Magnificent (1960), Tarzan's Three Challenges (1963), Tarzan and the Valley of Gold (1966), and Tarzan and the Great River (1967)—and he also helmed one episode of the Tarzan TV series in 1966.

Day also directed horror legend Boris Karloff in Corridors of Blood and The Haunted Strangler, and he helmed plenty of other horror and sci-fi projects, including First Man Into Space and Ritual of Evil,...

Robert Day, the veteran British director who in the 1960s worked on five Tarzan movies and guided Peter Sellers in the delicious comedy Two-Way Stretch, has died. He was 94.

Day, who also helmed two Boris Karloff horror flicks, died Friday on Bainbridge Island in Washington state, his family announced. He worked in the U.S. starting in the 1970s and retired in 1991.

Day was married to bubbly American actress and dancer Dorothy Provine (TV's The Roaring 20's, That Darn Cat!) from 1969 until her death in 2010.

Day directed Gordon Scott as the King of the Jungle...

As The Lavender Hill Mob enjoys a 60th-anniversary re-release, let's have a butcher's at cockney characters in the movies

Like the perfect eccentric elderly relative you always wanted as a child (rather than your actual nan), it's always a pleasure to welcome back The Lavender Hill Mob. Ealing Studios' deathless heist caper is about to enjoy a 60th-anniversary re-release and will, as always, represent a slice of pure comic wonderment. But it's also a landmark in the history of the big-screen cockney, bringing with it a distinctive waft of fag ash and dog tracks.

Not that it makes a song and dance about it. That's sort of the point. If the first part of the film's title is a sleight of hand (Battersea's grubby central thoroughfare never actually appearing on camera), the second is a gag in itself – the very idea of Alec Guinness's exquisitely straitlaced Henry Holland...

Netflix has revolutionized the home movie experience for fans of film with its instant streaming technology. Netflix Nuggets is my way of spreading the word about independent, classic and foreign films made available by Netflix for instant streaming.

This Week’s New Instant Releases…

Promised Lands (1974)

Streaming Available: 04/19/2011

Cast: Documentary

Director: Susan Sontag

Synopsis: Set in Israel during the final days of the 1973 Yom Kippur War, this powerful documentary — initially barred by Israel authorities — from writer-director Susan Sontag examines divergent perceptions of the enduring Arab-Israeli clash. Weighing in on matters related to socialism, anti-Semitism, nation sovereignty and American materialism are The Last Jew writer Yoram Kaniuk and military physicist Yuval Ne’eman.

Vision: From the Life of Hildegard von Bingen (2009)

Streaming Available: 04/19/2011

Cast: Barbara Sukowa, Heino Ferch, Hannah Herzsprung, Gerald Alexander Held, Lena Stolze, Sunnyi Melles

Synopsis: Directed by longtime star of independent German cinema Margarethe von Trotta, this reverent...

The British character actor, writer and director Lionel Jeffries has died, following a long illness. He was 83.His film debut was in Alfred Hitchcock's Stage Fright in 1950, and he was an immediately recognisable face in countless British films for the next two decades. He turned in sterling character work in the likes of The Colditz Story (1955) and The Trials of Oscar Wilde (1960), and popped up for Hammer in The Quatermass Xperiment (1955) and The Revenge of Frankenstein (1958).But he was best known for his comedy roles in the likes of Doctor at Large, Blue Murder at St Trinians (both 1957), and the classic Peter Sellers vehicles Two Way Stretch (1960) and The Wrong Arm of the Law (1963). His premature baldness often lead to his playing far above his real age. He played Dick Van Dyke's father, the eccentric inventor Caractacus Potts, in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (1968), despite being six months younger than his onscreen offspring.

British actor/director Lionel Jeffries has died at the age of 83.

Jeffries, famed for directing kids' classic The Railway Children and for his role as Grandpa Potts in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, passed away at a nursing home in Poole, England this week (begs15Feb10).

Jeffries served in World War II and was awarded the Burma Star for his bravery before training as an actor at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts. He started his stage career in the theatre before moving into films, mainly portraying comedic characters.

His movie career peaked in the 1960s, with leading roles in a range of films including Camelot, Two-Way Stretch, and The Trials of Oscar Wilde.

In the 1970s, he turned his attention to writing and directing, and helmed several acclaimed children's movies including The Amazing Mr Blunden and The Railway Children.

No further details of Jeffries' death were available as WENN went to press.

The British actor and director, Lionel Jeffries, has passed away at the age of 83. Jeffries was known for directing the classic children's movie, "The Railway Children."

Jeffries' other film credits include his role as Grandpa Potts in "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang" and as King Pellinore in "Camelot." He also took on roles in films such as "Two-Way Stretch," "The Trials of Oscar Wilde," "The Prisoner of Zenda" and "The Wrong Arm of the Law."

According to his rep from the Liz Hobbs Group, the famed director passed away at his nursing home in Poole, England on Friday following a long illness. Funeral arrangements for Jeffries have not yet been announced.

The British actor and director, Lionel Jeffries, has passed away at the age of 83. Jeffries was known for directing the classic children's movie, "The Railway Children."

Jeffries' other film credits include his role as Grandpa Potts in "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang" and as King Pellinore in "Camelot." He also took on roles in films such as "Two-Way Stretch," "The Trials of Oscar Wilde," "The Prisoner of Zenda" and "The Wrong Arm of the Law."

According to his rep from the Liz Hobbs Group, the famed director passed away at his nursing home in Poole, England on Friday following a long illness. Funeral arrangements for Jeffries have not yet been announced.

London -- Actor and film director Lionel Jeffries, who wrote the screenplay for and directed "The Railway Children," has died at the age of 83, his agent said on Friday.

The London-born actor, who trained at The Royal Academy of Dramatic Art after serving in Burma during World War Two, had a long career spanning theatre, film and television.

"He passed away this morning, it was following a long illness," said a spokeswoman for his agent.

One of his best known appearances was in the 1968 film "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang," in which he played Dick Van Dyke's father, despite being six months younger than the U.S. actor.

Further back, one of Jeffries' most celebrated roles was the tough warder in the 1960 prison comedy "Two Way Stretch."...

Peter Sellers in Lolita. Photo: Courtesy of Turner Classic Movies. Peter Sellers will have his "Summer Under the Stars" day on Saturday, Aug. 29. Turner Classic Movies will present thirteen Peter Sellers vehicles, including two TCM premieres, John Guillermin’s Waltz of the Toreadors and Robert Day’s Two-Way Stretch. First of all, I must admit that I’m not that [...]...