We all thought that 2020 was going to be a huge year for movies but, because of the coronavirus outbreak, many of this year’s new releases were pushed back months, some to next year. However, there are many movies celebrating big birthdays so we thought we’d take a look at a few of them.
Apollo 13 (1995)
Turning 25 this year is one of the best space-set dramas ever made in Ron Howard’s exceptional Apollo 13. The film was the next movie following an Oscar-winning double with Hanks winning the golden statuette for both Philadelphia and Forrest Gump. Amongst an exceptional supporting cast that includes Bill Paxton, Kevin Bacon, Gary Sinise and a brilliant Ed Harris, Hanks plays astronaut Jim Lovell who must bring the Apollo 13 spacecraft safely back to Earth after it suffers internal damage mid-flight en route to the moon. Apollo 13 won two Oscars and international acclaim on its release in late 1995 and if you haven’t seen the film, we urge you to check it out as soon as possible. It is really one of the modern greats and one of director Ron Howard’s best films.
Heat (1995)
Also turning 25 in 2020 is Michael Mann’s crime masterpiece Heat, the film that finally teamed Robert De Niro with Al Pacino in that famous diner scene. Again, featuring a brilliant cast that includes Val Kilmer, Tom Sizemore, Ashley Judd, Mykelti Williamson, Wes Studi, Ted Levine, Danny Trejoy, and Jon Voight. The film essentially follows both sides of the law, De Niro’s career criminal Neil McCauley and Pacino’s Los Angeles cop Vincent Hanna who is hot on the trailer of a gang of thieves. The two acting legends meet in perhaps one of the greatest scenes of the ‘90s, sitting across the table from one another in an LA diner, just a few scenes before Hanna takes down his man. Michael Mann’s epic three hour film strangely didn’t receive any Academy Awards in the year in which it qualified – a crime in itself.
Back To The Future (1985)
Celebrating 35 years this year is Back To The Future, the Robert Zemeckis-directed time travel classic featuring the adventures of 17-year-old Marty McFly (Michael J. Fox) and Doc Emmett Brown (Christopher Lloyd). The trilogy of film is as perfect as they come, with my own personal fave being the middle chapter, Back To The Future Part II where Marty and Doc travel to the future where the former purchases sportsbooks full of stats from the past fifty years. The book is stolen/ picked out of the litter by an elderly Biff Tannen who takes it all of the way back to 1955 to give to his younger self, thus setting off a chain of events which changes the future. The trilogy was capped off in 1990 with Back To The Future Part III, a western which also celebrates 30 years this year.
Snatch (2000)
Something completely different now, Guy Ritchie’s star-studded second feature film. Snatch starred the likes of Brad Pitt, Jason Statham, Stephen Graham and Benicio del Toro and it’s a film that I still have a soft-spot for nearly two decades on. The story revolves around a huge diamond and its landing in the UK courtesy of del Toro’s Franky Four Fingers but there are many subplots that all feed into one another – like Pitt’s travelling boxer Mickey O’Neil who is taken under the wing of Jason Statham’s Turkish to replace a fighter that he famously takes out early in the film, something that really riles Alan Ford’s character, bookmaker Brick Top, a man who we definitely wouldn’t be keen on giving us betting offers. There is also Vinnie Jones’ Bullet Tooth Tony and a brilliant turn by the lake Mike Reid as Doug The Head.
Total Recall (1990)
Paul Verhoeven directed this excellent science-fiction movie from 30 years ago, a wonderful epic that focuses on Arnold Schwarzenegger’s character, Quaid, who has always wanted to travel to Mars. Early in the film, Quaid visits a company called Recall who specialise in implanting memories into its patients to give them the impression that they have experienced life events. Quaid has a memory of visiting Mars implanted, one that sees him as a secret agent sent to the planet on a mission – however, it all seemingly goes wrong during the process and Quaid sees him traveling to the planet for real to discover his true identity. A film based on Philip K. Dick’s book ‘We Can Remember It For You Wholesale,’ Total Recall was remade in 2012 but this exceptional, truly original question raiser from Verhoeven remains far superior.
