Richard Donner (1930-2021): My Top Five Films from the Director

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Richard Donner was one of the great action directors, a man who could tackle almost any movie and add his own distinct flavor to it. Although mostly a film titan in the eighties, Donner continued a long and illustrious career directing genre films well in to his eighties and left behind a humongous legacy of iconic films, hit films, and films that will live on for many, many years in the hearts of movie buffs everywhere.

In remembrance of the cinematic titan, I thought I’d list my five favorite films from his humongous oeuvre.

What are your favorite Richard Donner films? Let us know in the comments!

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The Bootleg Files: The First Martin and Lewis Reunion

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BOOTLEG FILES 772: “The First Martin and Lewis Reunion” (1958 segment from Eddie Fisher’s television show).

LAST SEEN: On YouTube.

AMERICAN HOME VIDEO: Uncertain if this was ever part of a documentary.

REASON FOR BOOTLEG STATUS: No one bothered to clear the rights.

CHANCES OF SEEING A COMMERCIAL DVD RELEASE: We’ll discuss this below.

One of the most dramatic moments on 1970s television occurred during the 1976 broadcast of Jerry Lewis’ Labor Day weekend telethon on behalf of the Muscular Dystrophy Association. Frank Sinatra was on stage with Lewis making a donation to the fundraiser and then he announced that he had a friend offstage that he wanted to have join him. The friend was Dean Martin and viewers were watching what they thought was the first reunion between the former comedy team partners in 20 years.
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Fear Street, Part 1: 1994 (2021)

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One of the many aspects of “Fear Street” that always set them apart from the “Goosebumps” books is that RL Stine relied a lot on folklore. With the “Fear Street” series, it depended a lot on the folklore and urban legend aesthetic, exploring more universal themes usually found there. There were always ideas about revenge, and mystery killers, and inherent terrifying nature of Halloween, and yes, even vampires. Fear Street always had something new to offer readers, and the movie carries that tradition.

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Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory (1971) [4K UHD/Blu-Ray/Digital HD]

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Celebrating its 50th anniversary June 30th of 2021, “Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory” is a movie that hasn’t aged since 1971 and shows no sign of aging any time soon. Even with the Tim Burton second adaptation and the upcoming prequel, Mel Stuart’s cinematic version of the Roald Dahl fantasy book still remains on the top of the heap. Even looking at it without nostalgia lens, the Gene Wilder fantasy is excellent in every sense of the word, while Wilder’s titular performance is unrivaled.

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F9 (2021)

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The only thing worse than a bad action movie is a boring one; even with the “Fast and the Furious” series now reaching that point where it’s becoming self-aware and self-satirical, Justin Lin’s penultimate entry in to the long running movie series is terrible. I rarely see action movies with so much noise and activity that put me to sleep, but lo and behold, “F9” pulls it off. This is a movie that throws everything but the kitchen sink at audiences, bringing in the cast from “Tokyo Drift,” Helen Mirren and Kurt Russell for brief walk on roles, and jumping through hoops to explain away the big plot holes with something vaguely resembling logic.

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The Bootleg Files: W*A*L*T*E*R*

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BOOTLEG FILES 771: “W*A*L*T*E*R*” (1984 television pilot).

LAST SEEN: On YouTube.

AMERICAN HOME VIDEO: None.

REASON FOR BOOTLEG STATUS: No perceived commercial reissue value.

CHANCES OF SEEING A COMMERCIAL DVD RELEASE: Unlikely.

In 1979, Gary Burghoff decided it was time to step away from his Emmy Award-winning role as Corporal Radar O’Reilly on the long-running television series “M*A*S*H*.” Burghoff was the only actor in the 1970 film version “MASH” to transition to the television series, and after a decade he became tired of playing the character after seven seasons.
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Batman: The Long Halloween, Part One (2021) [Blu-Ray/Digital]

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I’ll be the first to admit that I’ve never actually read Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale’s “The Long Halloween” before, so I was very interested in seeing what the movie would bring fans. Even as a non-Batman fan, “The Long Halloween” is probably one of the best animated Batman movies I’ve seen in a long time. While most of the previous Batman animated movies have zeroed in on non stop action and little story, “The Long Halloween” is very much about Batman being a detective.

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