The National Lampoon movies sort of reached their downtrodden peak of funniness by the time the 1990s spurred around. Almost a decade into the 2000s and National Lampoon has become nothing more than a name tag on a never-ending list of direct-to-video abominations. In all fairness, at least its unique brand of twisted satire and bad taste had created some sweet moments of cinematic glory (need I say Vacation and Animal House?). Which goes above and beyond what comedy troupe Broken Lizard has managed to make since 2002 with the theatrical release of their first flick Super Troopers. Headed by actor-director Jay Chandrasekhar, Erik Stolhanske, Steve Lemme, Kevin Heffernan, and Paul Soter, the Broken Lizard guys seemed to have a better time making movies than the audiences did watching it. Club Dread and now Beerfest are no different. Jan Wolfhouse (Paul Soter) and Todd Wolfhouse (Erik Stolhanske) are brothers whose grandfather (Donald Sutherland) ...

  The real Battle of the Bulge started on December 16, 1944 during one of the coldest winters in France. Though the movie has the battle beginning on that date, other than place names and a few names of important military personnel, the movie version of the battle veers widely astray of actual events. In fact, Dwight D. Eisenhower, himself a World War II veteran and past President of the United States, took particular umbrage with the movie’s presentation of the battle. Several historians have stepped in and pointed out the various inaccuracies of the film. The German Tiger Panzers seen in the film were actually American tanks made after World War II. Likewise, the American tanks were ones that were used hardly at all during the war. Historical inaccuracy can be a burden to Hollywood—they’re after excitement and thrills. While the battle took place in snow and mud, the filmmakers didn’t want to try ...

  In a post-apocalyptic future, an unspecified time after “Mad Max”, the somber loner Max (Mel Gibson) and his dog find themselves embroiled in a conflict between a gasoline-craving gang of maniacs and a small band of survivors, who have holed up around a desert oil refinery. With fuel being the hottest commodity in this barren future, it’s only a matter of time before the wild renegades break through and steal the survivors’ cache. Adding to the mix is a somewhat loopy Gyrocopter pilot (an entertaining Bruce Spence, behind a set of rather brackish molars) and a non-verbal Feral Kid (Emil Minty) who try to convince the somewhat ruthless Max to help the survivors in their bid to escape from the compound and follow their dream of leaving the barren desert for the coast. Director George Miller’s follow-up to, “Mad Max” finds him with a larger budget and a much more muted lead character. ...

  Steve McQueen was pleased enough with director Sam Peckinpah during the making of “Junior Bonner” that he hired Sam to direct “The Getaway.” It resulted in one of the most satisfying movies of either man—and apart from “Papillon,” was the last genuinely good movie that McQueen made. His career and life off screen began to go offtrack during the making of “The Getaway;” he had a torrid affair with co-star Ali MacGraw, married to Robert Evans, then head of Paramount, and it ended his long-time marriage to Neile Adams. Soon, McQueen was involved in drugs and alcohol, though his early death was due to cancer. His marriage to MacGraw burned out in five years, and he left a third wife, much younger than him, a widow. Peckinpah had a few more good years, but he, too, was notoriously self-destructive, and he spiraled down to the likes of “Convoy” in much the same manner ...

  Al Pacino was recently awarded the American Film Institute Life Achievement Award—and “Dog Day Afternoon” is one of the movies that got him that honor. As gentle-natured bank robber Sonny, Pacino gives what may well be the finest performance of his career—certainly the finest for many of the years that followed. He gets completely into the somewhat warped soul of this earnest little man, who is in way over his head before he even announces to the startled employees of a bank that this is a holdup. Sonny could easily have become a silly, pathetic figure, but Pacino keeps him sympathetic and likeable, right to the tragic end. “Dog Day Afternoon” is based on a real-life incident that occurred in August, 1972, when John Wojtowicz along with Sal Naturile and another man entered a bank in Brooklyn and demanded money. Wojtowicz—Sonny in the movie—wanted enough money to finance the sex-change operation on Ernest ...