May 30 2003 THE ITALIAN JOB opens. Dir. F. Gary Gray. Slick, competent, broadly generic, mainly US-set heist caper inspired by the classic 1969 original with Mark Wahlberg as betrayed master thief leading his team on a fast & furious mission to reclaim shitload of gold bullion.

May 30 2008 SEX AND THE CITY: THE MOVIE opens in US. Dir. Michael Patrick King. Insipid, lazily written, strictly paycheck regurgitation of the once popular HBO TV series with Sarah Jessica Parker leading the supercilious quartet across a minefield of product placement dross.

May 30 1980 THE HOLLYWOOD KNIGHTS opens wide. Dir. Floyd Mutrux. Crude, raunchy American Graffiti/ Animal House riff with Robert Wuhl as leader of raucous group of Bev. Hills High seniors celebrating Halloween, 1965, trick or treating with random acts of lewdness & debauchery.

May 29 2015 ALOHA opens. Dir. Cameron Crowe. Disastrous misfire with Bradley Cooper as Hawaii-based military contractor juggling a budding romance whilst mediating with environmentalists protesting his billionaire boss's plan to launch a space probe from a sacred burial ground.

May 29 2009 UP opens. Dir. Pete Doctor. A curmudgeonly, septuagenarian widower & a podgy 9 year-old stowaway fly off on quixotic Sth. American adventure aboard a balloon-powered house in Pixar animation's sublimely witty & wonderful flight of fancy. Ed Asner leads voice cast.

May 29 1982 ROMY SCHNEIDER, alluring German-French actress, dies in Paris from cardiac arrest aged 43. Her 3 decade, 50 plus film career, working with the likes of Visconti, Welles, Sautet & Chabrol, includes The Trial, La Piscine, Cesar and Rosalie & Les Choses de la Vie.

May 29 1963 HUD opens, Dir. Martin Ritt. Paul Newman is outstanding in contemplative generational morality play set on a Texas cattle ranch centering on the ongoing conflict between an ambitious, self-centred, hard-drinking philanderer and his disciplinarian, unloving father.

May 29 1963 55 DAYS AT PEKING opens. Dir. Nicholas Ray. Lumbering historical epic recounting 55 day siege at Peking's (now Beijing) foreigners compound during the summer of 1900 Boxer Rebellion. Lovers Charlton Heston & Ava Gardner help Brit David Niven circle the wagons.

May 29 1942 YANKEE DOODLE DANDY prem in NYC. Dir. Michael Curtiz. Pint sized dynamo James Cagney sings, struts & tap-dances to Oscar glory in dazzling, flag-waving biopic of singer, songwriter, actor & producer George M. Cohan, the so-called father of American musical comedy.

May 28 2004 THE DAY AFTER TOMORROW opens. Disaster specialist (& latter day Irwin Allen) Roland Emmerich wheels out the climate change boogeyman & plunges the Nth. Hemisphere into deadly ice age. Dennis Quaid & Jake Gyllenhaal defer to the jaw-dropping CGI-ed mass destruction.

May 28 1999 NOTTING HILL opens. Dir. Roger Michell. Hugh Grant & Julia Roberts define chemistry in fanciful, irresistably summery rom-com charting the seredipitous meet-cute romance between a diffident London bookstore owner & an improbably accommodating big-time US movie star.

May 28 1993 CLIFFHANGER opens. Dir. Renny Harlin. Sylvester Stallone's Rocky Mountains rescue ranger goes toe to toe with John Lithgow's viscious bunch of Treasury heist psychos in vertiginous, high altitude thriller distinguished by skillfull assembly of explosive set pieces.

May 28 1970 THE OUT OF TOWNERS opens in NY. Dir. Arthur Hiller. Flight diversions, lost baggage, booked-out hotels & muggings are just some of the wildly hilarious ignominies (per Neil Simon's script) which bedevil Ohio couple Jack Lemmon & Sandy Dennis' 24H sojourn in NYC.

May 28 1958 VERTIGO opens in NY & LA. Dir. Alfred Hitchcock’s masterful exploration of guilt, exploitation & obsession with James Stewart as a retired, acrophobic San Fran cop whose perceptions of reality become seriously challenged after a friend hires him to follow his wife.

May 27 1995 Actor CHRISTOPHER ‘Superman” REEVE, aged 43, while taking part in an equestrian competition in Culpeper, Virginia, is thrown from his horse rendering him paralyzed from the neck down & confined to a wheelchair. He dies from cardiac arrest on Oct. 10 2004 aged 52.

May 27 2016 X-MEN: APPOCALYPSE opens. Dir. Bryan Singer. Competent but showing showing signs of fatigue, the 9th installment in the franchise backtracks to 1983 where a younger version of the X-Men join forces to stop an ancient mutant from 3600 BC from taking over the world.

May 27 1994 THE FLINTSTONES opens. Dir. Brian Levant. Irrepressible, fetishistically faithful, both in tone & conception, to Hanna-Barbera's classic '60s' animated TV series with a perfectly cast John Goodman having a gay ol' time as head of Bedrock's leading Stone Age family.

May 27 1977 SMOKEY AND THE BANDIT opens wide. Dir. Hal Needham. The apotheosis of "redneck cinema" with Burt Reynolds in full macho swagger as southern good ol' boy gunning his muscle car on an illegal cross country beer run with bumbling cops in hot pursuit. Huge BO hit.

May 27 1967 THE WAR WAGON opens. Dir. Burt Kennedy. John Wayne & Kirk Douglas deploy their outsized star power in rollicking, entertaining Western caper centering on the hijacking of armored stagecoach by a paroled ex-rancher & a gunslinging, quick-with-a-quip safe cracker.

May 27 1970 THE GRASSHOPPER opens. Dir. Jerry Paris. A debuting Jacqueline Bisset holds the screen in a candid, often witty, often vulgar, New Hollywood embroided cautionary tale centering a wide-eyed, 19 year old girl’s 3 year LA/Vegas journey from innocence to degradation.

May 26 2006 X-MEN: THE LAST STAND opens. Dir. Brett Ratner. Multiple random plot threads severely burden underwritten, action-heavy 3rd installment focusing on Magneto's attempt to nullify a govt. formulated "mutant "cure".

May 26 2000 SHANGHAI NOON opens. Dir.Tom Dey. Colorfully frivolous, multiplex fodder transplants the Rush Hour algorithm to the Old West with Jackie Chan's Kung Fooey Imperial Guard teaming up with Owen Wilson's anachronistically slacker bank robber to rescue kidnapped princess.

May 26 1978 BIG WEDNESDAY opens. John Milius' grandly mythologized elegy to the 1960s' Calif surf culture & the rituals of male bonding. Jan Michael Vincent, William Katt, Gary Busey & a living breathing ocean amplify melancholic echoes from a time of innocence long gone.

May 26 1976 MOTHER, JUGS & SPEED opens. Dir. Peter Yates. Wacky, MASH inspired black comedy centering on desperate rivalry between two L.A. patient-chasing ambulance companies. Harvey Keitel, Raquel Welch & a scene stealing Bill Cosby deftly balance the serious & the slapstick.

May 26 1976 WON TON TON: THE DOG WHO SAVED HOLLYWOOD opens. Dir. Michael Winner. Farcical, Rin Tin Tin inspired tale of a German Shepherd who becomes a major silent movie star in 1920s H'wood. Bruce Dern & Madeleine Kahn oversee brief cameos by 72 stars from H'wood's golden era.

May 26 1971 WHEN EIGHT BELLS TOLL opens. Dir.Etienne Perier. Pacy, workmanlike espionage thriller sourced from author Alistair (Guns of Navarone) MacLean's prolific oeuvre with Anthony Hopkins as Bond-inspired Brit spy investigating hijacking of cargo ship carrying gold bullion.

May 25 2001 PEARL HARBOR opens. Dir. Michael Bay. A sappy, drawn-out love triangle between a nurse & 2 flyboys gets mercifully short-circuited by a sustained & admittedly bravura sequence of CGI-ed death & destruction. An historic tragedy dumbed down for the multiplex masses.

May 25 1966 BLINDFOLD opens in NY. Dir. Philip Dunne. Witty, inventive, faux Hitchcockian espionage/romance caper with an excellent Rock Hudson as a NYC shrink drawn into a risky, convoluted web of intrigue involving the Gov, the CIA, the FBI & a curvaceous Claudia Cardinale.

May 25 1972 CHATO’S LAND opens in LA. Dir. Michael Winner. In 1870s New Mexico a ragtag, racist posse hunting a fleeing half-breed finds itself at the mercy of their quarry’s unforgiving environment. An enigmatic Charles Bronson carries a vastly under-rated revisionist Western.

May 25 1983 RETURN OF THE JEDI opens. Dir. Richard Marquand. The 3rd & arguably best episode in the storied franchise brims with weight and a new maturity as an enboldened Luke Skywalker struggles to rescue Han Solo & bring his father Darth Vader back from the dark side.

May 25 1979 ALIEN opens in limited markets. A lethal alien entity bursting out of John Hurt's chest becomes the singular defining cinematic image in director Ridley Scott's hair-raising, much copied, never equalled descent into Grand Guignol sci-fi horror. With Sigourney Weaver.

May 25 1977 STAR WARS opens in 32 theaters. With a film nerd's nod to the 1936 Flash Gordon serials & Kurasawa's Hidden Fortress, dir. George Lucas' landmark space opera lays seige to the box office & launches cinema's foremost sequel/spinoff franchise cash cow.

May 25 1969 MIDNIGHT COWBOY opens in NY. Dir. John Schlesinger. Amidst the flotsam & jetsam of a seedy NYC, a guileless Texan hayseed (Jon Voight) & a gimpy, verminous, part-time pimp (Dustin Hoffman) form an unlikely friendship. Oscars for picture, director & screenplay.

May 24 1991 HUDSON HAWK opens. Dir. Michael Lehmann. Bruce Willis’ outsized ego sinks a cartoonish, slapstick heavy, continent hopping, unfunny comedy crime caper centering on a just released cat burglar who is blackmailed into stealing a number of Leonardo Da Vinci artworks.

May 24 2000 MISSION IMPOSSIBLE 2 opens. Dir. John Woo. Hyper stylised, poorly scripted sequel to De Palma’s paranoia fueled original finds Cruise’s one man IMF team in Sydney, Australia on the trail of a rogue agent in possession of a dangerous genetically engineered virus.

May 24 1974 THUNDERBOLT AND LIGHTFOOT opens in NY. Michael Cimino’s engaging, offbeat writing/directing debut with Clint Eastwood as an inveterate, on the run bank robber who accidently hooks up with Jeff Bridges’ young car thief to help him retrieve his previously heisted loot.

May 24 1995 BRAVEHEART opens. Dir. & star Mel Gibson takes substantial creative license with brutally compelling 13th century medieval action epic charting rebel knight William Wallace's bloody 8 year fight to free Scotland from England's hegemony. BO blockbuster wins 5 Oscars.

May 24 1991 THELMA & LOUISE opens. Dir. Ridley Scott. Susan Sarandon & Geena Davis put a fist pumping, anthemic feminist spin on the buddy-cum-road movie as a couple of bored gal pals whose larky weekend getaway abruptly devolves into an ill-fated, flight from justice.

May 24 1989 INDIANA JONES AND THE LAST CRUSADE opens. Dir. Steven Spielberg. Snarling Nazis (incl. a Hitler cameo) & Sean Connery as Indiana Jones' dad bring some welcome Raiders magic to franchise's 1938-set 3rd installment centering on the search for the legendary Holy Grail.

May 24 1985 A VIEW TO A KILL opens. Dir. John Glen. Bond #14 finds an ageing Roger Moore shepherding his 7th & final 007 outing thru a ludicrous scenario involving a loony industrialist’s plans to destroy Silicon Valley. Blonde Christopher Walken provides the cartoon villiany.

May 24 1973 EMPEROR OF THE NORTH (POLE) opens. Dir. Robert Aldrich. In Depression era Oregon a sadistic, hammer wielding railway guard becomes the scourge of the train-hopping hobo community. Ernest Borgnine & Lee Marvin brutally slug it out in one of the 70s' unsung gems.

May 23 2014 X-MEN: DAYS OF FUTURE PAST opens. Dir. Bryan Singer. In a future where mutants are facing annihilation by robotic Sentinels, the X-Man decide to send Wolverine back to 1973 to assassinate the machines’ creator. The 7th & probably one of the franchise's better sequels.

May 23 2003 BRUCE ALMIGHTY opens. Dir. Tom Shadyac. A disgruntled TV reporter given to blaming God for his ongoing misfortunes, gets more than he bargained for when God endows him with his devine powers. A manic Jim Carey riotously carries a sappy premise to the top of the BO.

May 23 1984 INDIANA JONES AND THE TEMPLE OF DOOM opens nationally. Dir. Steven Spielberg. Colonial India's Thuggee cut-throats replace Nazi goons as the obligatory villians in a markedly darker prequel to 1981's Raiders with Ford's Indy on the trail of a stolen magic talisman.

May 23 1980 THE SHINING opens. Dir. Stanley Kubrick's contentious, much analized adapt. of Stephen King's haunted house gothic with Jack Nicholson as a blocked writer negotiating an inexorable descent into madness after assuming caretaker duties at shuttered, snowbound hotel.

May 23 1973 PAT GARRETT & BILLY THE KID opens in NY. Dir. Sam Peckinpah's studio-mangled (now restored) "revisionist" Western classic with James Coburn & Kris Kristofferson as lawman & outlaw fatefully presiding over a haunting, meditative elegy to the passing of the old West.

May 22 1981 THE LEGEND OF THE LONE RANGER opens. Dir. William A. Fraker. Handsomely mounted but failed attempt to pay a non revisionist tribute to television’s most iconographic Western heroes with the never to be heard from again Klinton Spilsbury riding Silver into the sunset.

May 22 2008 INDIANA JONES AND THE KINGDOM OF THE CRYSTAL SKULL opens. Dir. Steven Spielberg. Franchise's belated, much maligned, late '50s set, quasi sci-fi-ish 4th outing finds Harrison Ford's foremost intrepid archaeoligist fighting Russians & dodging a nuclear armageddon.

May 22 1996 MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE opens. Dir. Brian De Palma. Blockbuster franchise opener all but sidelines the teamwork aesthetic of the classic '60s TV series positioning Tom Cruise's resouceful, continent-hopping Bond/Bourne surrogate front & center as the IMF's prime operative.

May 22 1981 OUTLAND opens. Dir. Peter Hyams. On a grimy, corruption rife mining colony on one of Jupiter's moons a beleaguered federal marshal takes a Gary Cooper High Noon stand against trio of hit men. Solidly crafted sci-fi Western anchored by Sean Connery's charisma.