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These are the posts for Sunday, the 18th day of November in the year 2007 of the common era.

The Last Waltz (1978)

Sunday, November 18th, 2007

You won’t make much money, but you’ll get more pussy than Frank Sinatra.

On Thanksgiving Night in 1976, the legendary rock group known simply as The Band said farewell to touring with a party at San Francisco’s legendary Winterland Ballroom. 5,000 turkey dinners were served. There was ballroom dancing and a poetry reading.

Stage Fright

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Director:  | Released:  | 117 min. | Rated:  | Genres: 

American Gangster (2007)

Sunday, November 18th, 2007

Judges, lawyers, cops, politicians. They stop bringing dope into this country, about a hundred thousand people are gonna be out of a job.

With the creative pedigree behind this film, if it had merely been good, that would have been a tremendous disappointment. The writer, director and two stars have no fewer than five Academy Awards between them and none of them earned cheaply. It should come as either no surprise or a great relief that American Gangster more than delivers on every promise made by the names in the credits.

American Gangster

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Director:  | Released:  | 157 min. | Rated:  | Genres: 

Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977)

Sunday, November 18th, 2007

Theatrical and director’s cut:
1980 Special Edition:

They can fly rings around the moon, but we’re years ahead of ’em on the highway.

What was it in the water in 1977 that directors of classic sci-fi movies couldn’t leave well enough alone? Long before George Lucas had turned the words “Han Shot First” into a fanboy battle cry, Steven Spielberg had already done a major facelift on his landmark UFO film. When Close Encounters was in production, Spielberg was aiming for a summer, 1978, release. Columbia Pictures, on the verge of bankruptcy, forced him to finish the movie for the fall of 1977, leaving unfilmed several of what he thought were key scenes.

I envy you.

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Director:  | Released:  | 135 min. | Rated:  | Genres: