This week’s pick is the classic World War II commando caper The Guns of Navarone (1961) directed by J. Lee Thompson, and written by acclaimed author Alistair MacLean, (Where Eagles Dare). The film stars Gregory Peck (Capt. Keith Mallory), David Niven (Cpl. John Anthony Miller), Anthony Quinn (Col. Andrea Stavrou), Stanley Baker (Pvt. “Butcher” Brown), Anthony Quayle (Maj. Roy Franklin), James Darren (Pvt. Spiro Pappadimos), and Irene Pappas (Maria Pappadimos).

The film is set during the rather forgotten Dodecanese Campaign from September 8th to November 22nd 1943. As the Germans had smashed southerly through the Balkans into Greece beginning in late 1940, their Italian allies held several of the Greek islands in the south-eastern Aegean Sea and used them for staging areas to help the Germans conquer Greece next. Fascist leader Benito Mussolini referred to the island of Leros as “the Corregidor of the Mediterranean.”

It was also hoped that Germany could cajole neutral Turkey to enter the war as a member of the Axis. The Allies tried several attempts to capture the islands in order to counter the German push through the Balkans into Greece.

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Many fans may be holding their collective breaths to catch a first glimpse of Jason Segel’s upcoming Muppets film. But before that, he’s getting down and dirty with Cameron Diaz and Justin Timberlake in Bad Teacher from Columbia Pictures.

From Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story director Jake Kasdan, the film mixes a little bit of Bad Santa and a little bit of Porky’s and throws in even more laughs. Here’s the official synopsis:

The films follows foul-mouthed, money hungry teacher Elizabeth (Cameron Diaz) who sets her sights on her colleague Amy (Lucy Punch) who is dating substitute teacher Scott (Justin Timberlake). Elizabeth, having just been dumped, decides to pursue her new colleague, who also happens to be the scion of a watch fortune.

In case you need more convincing than a cast like that, we also have the official “Red Band” trailer for you to set your eyes on after the jump. Bad Teacher is set to hit theaters on June 17th.

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Though 2010 was full of action in the box office, there was one thing missing: aliens. That’s where Battle: Los Angeles looks to be picking up the slack. Consider this film another alien invasion D-Day type scenario with the significant difference here being that the story is told from the side of the military.

With a cast consisting of Michelle Rodriguez, Aaron Eckhart, Bridget Moynahan, and True Blood’s Jim Parrack, the film looks to be this year’s Independence Day. Here’s the full synopsis:

For years, there have been documented cases of UFO sightings around the world – Buenos Aires, Seoul, France, Germany, China. But in 2011, what were once just sightings will become a terrifying reality when Earth is attacked by unknown forces.

As people everywhere watch the world’s great cities fall, Los Angeles becomes the last stand for mankind in a battle no one expected. It’s up to a Marine staff sergeant (Aaron Eckhart) and his new platoon to draw a line in the sand as they take on an enemy unlike any they’ve ever encountered before.

We’ve got a brand new trailer for you, this time showing off more of the Marine Vs. Alien point of view, and much more Eckhart and Parrack. Check out the trailer after the jump, and catch Battle: Los Angeles in theaters on March 11th.

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This week’s pick is a unique look at behind the lines action during the North African campaign in the early days of World War II. Zoltan Korda directs the 1943 Columbia Pictures release of Sahara, a morale booster of a film which was based on a 1936 Soviet film called The Thirteen.

The film stars Humphrey Bogart as the tough and grizzled Sergeant Joe Gunn who is in command of an American tank, which was apart of a small American task force which was sent to get combat experience, and to help the British Eighth Army turn back the famed German Africa Corp during the Western Desert Campaign in June 1942. This occurred just five months before American ground troops landed in North Africa to help turn the tide of the war. The film is dedicated to the American IV Armored Corp which assisted in the technical aspects of the film.

Rounding out the cast of Allied soldiers and the Axis are Dan Duryea (Jimmy Doyle, An American radio operator for the tank), Bruce Bennett (‘Waco’ Hoyt, Tank Driver), Richard Nugent (Captain Jason Halliday, Royal Army Medical Corp), Lloyd Bridges (Fred Clarkson), Patrick O’ Moore (Osmond ‘Ozzie’ Bates), Guy Kingsford (Peter Stegman), Carl Harbord (Marty Williams), Louis Mercier (Jean ‘Frenchie’ Leroux, a Free French soldier fighting with the British forces), Rex Ingram (Sgt. Major Tambul, a Sudanese soldier and desert guide).

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Happy New Year to all you faithful War Movie Monday fans, and thank you for a fantastic year of classic war films. This week’s pick to ring in the start of a new year is the John Milius 1975 classic The Wind and the Lion, which was loosely based on an international incident which led to possible war between the U.S. and European powers in 1904 Morocco. The film stars Sean Connery (Raisuli), Candice Bergen (Eden Perdicaris), Brian Keith (President Theodore Roosevelt), John Huston (Sec. of State John Hay), Geoffrey Lewis (American Ambassador to Morocco Samuel R. Gummere), Steve Kanaly (Captain Eugene Jerome, USMC), and Vladek Sheybal (The Bashaw of Tangier).

The film open up with a sweeping score from famed composer Jerry Goldsmith, who sets the stage for a fantastic adventure film with a tone of modern era warfare between desert tribesmen and the imperial powers of Germany, France, and Great Britain who are trying to establish their own spheres of influence throughout the Arab world.

Mulai Amhed er Raisuli (Connery) is the leader of a band of Berber tribesmen who are opposed to the Sultan and his Uncle (Sheybal) the Bashaw of Tangier who are corrupt and easily influenced by the European powers. The Raisuli plans to embarrass the rulers of Morocco by having his men kidnap an American woman, Eden Perdicaris (Bergen) and her two children from their home in Tangier, and hold them for ransom for gold, rifles, and sovereignty from the Europeans.

Milius wrote and directed the film which was loosely based on an actual account which was known as the “Perdicaris incident” in 1904. An American man and his stepson were kidnapped by Barbary pirates and were ransomed. Both were unharmed and the incident gave President Theodore Roosevelt a platform to wield the “big stick” of foreign policy for his re-election to office that year in November.

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This week’s Christmas war pick is the 1992 release of Keith Gordon’s A Midnight Clear which was adapted from the novel by William Wharton. The film stars Ethan Hawke (Sgt. Will Knott), Peter Berg (Pvt. Bud Miller), Kevin Dillon (Cpl. Mel Avakian), Arye Gross (Pvt. Stan Shutzer), Gary Sinise (Pvt. Vance ‘Mother’ Wilkins), Frank Whaley (Pvt. Paul ‘Father’ Mundy), Larry Joshua (Lt. Ware), and John C. McGinley (Maj. Griffin).

The film tells the story of  a six man U.S. Army intelligence squad which is hand picked by their regimental commander (Griffin) to scout out an old French chateau in the Ardennes forest in December of 1944 which may house forward German patrols who are trying to push through a gap on their way towards Bastogne, Belgium. Sgt. Knott (Hawke) and his men are at the breaking point fighting the war and try very hard to disassociate themselves from the normal chain of command.

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The Tourist really wants to be the perfect Saturday night date movie. It is the kind of film that could be described entirely in clichéd one-liners, but that’s okay because it embraces this and wants to be entertaining nonetheless. Full of intrigue, romance, espionage and glamour, what it is lacking is nothing on the surface.

The problem is that there is nothing more to the film than its exterior. It is stylish, chic and not difficult to watch, but there really isn’t any more substance to it than an unsigned “Wish You Were Here” postcard of Venice.

Directed by Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck, whose film The Lives of Others won the 2007 Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film, The Tourist should be in good hands. It was written by Donnersmarck, as well as two other very capable writers: Christopher McQuarrie (The Usual Suspects) and Julian Fellowes (Gosford Park).

These are people that know how to make a good movie. Add stars like Johnny Depp and Angelina Jolie and something delicious should be boiling at the surface, instead it felt more like a bowl of microwaved condensed soup.

A loose remake of the 2005 French film Anthony Zimmer directed by Jérôme Salle, the film is a giant nod to the great romantic crime capers of the 50s and 60s, most obviously Charade and To Catch a Thief. It is about a tourist, Frank Tupelo (Johnny Depp), a math teacher from Wisconsin who meets a striking, mysterious woman called Elise, played by Angelina Jolie.

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Finally, some more believable casting news for the upcoming Spider-Man reboot. Lately, we’ve been fielding news about names like Sally Field (now playing Aunt May), Martin Sheen (Uncle Ben) and Denis Leary (Capt. Stacey) joining the film, but now we have some more grounded information, as four new names have been added to the film.

Campbell Scott (The Exorcism of Emily Rose), Julianne Nicholson (Kinsey), Irrfan Khan (Slumdog Millionaire), and Annie Parisse (Rubicon) are all now joining the cast. Here’s the scoop from THR.

Scott and Nicholson will be Parker’s parents, who leave their son an orphan. Parker’s parents have rarely been seen in the various Marvel comic book series and have never appeared on-screen. It is unclear if they will appear in flashbacks, in a prologue or during the course of the movie.

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This week’s pick is the 1970 British epic Cromwell which stars veteran actor Richard Harris as the man who led Parliamentary forces to victory during The English Civil War. The film also stars Sir Alec Guinness (King Charles I), Robert Morley (The Earl of Manchester), Timothy Dalton (Prince Rupert), Patrick Wymark (The Earl of Stafford), and Michael Jayston (Henry Ireton).

After years of unjust and unacceptable policies during the mid 1600′s, many members of the dissolved Parliament feel that King Charles I has forsaken his subjects and that England is in need for drastic political change. Oliver Cromwell is a good, god fearing country magistrate who is called upon by his fellow members of Parliament to exact radical change and reform in England for a government for and by the people.

Cromwell is prepared to leave England with his family for a life in the New World until he is persuaded to return to London and to sit once again in the newly resumed Parliament with its members in order to take their grievances to the King who encroaches on their lands and steals it from commoners for the rich, a policy which angers Cromwell and his fellows immensely.

King Charles (Guinness) allows Parliament to resume after eleven years in order to gain their support and to raise money against the Scots and Irish who are threatening England with invasion. Cromwell and the rest of Parliament refuse to grant the King money in order to fight until their demands are met.

Charles fears that if common men were to govern themselves, he would merely be reduced to just a figure head and lose his god given right to rule England and the Church of England which he is a devout member of, even though his French wife is a practicing Catholic. Charles along with his Catholic wife who demands him to stand firm against such an ultimatum from his subjects, refuses to come to terms with Parliament’s requests and the country steers ever closer to civil war.

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This week’s pick is the 1979 least known and only comedy from director Steven Spielberg, 1941 which stars Saturday Night Live originals Dan Aykroyd (Sgt. Frank Tree), and the incomparable John Belushi (Capt. “Wild” Bill Kelso, U.S. Army Air Corp.) Other supporting actors include Bobby Di Cicco (Wally Stephens), Ned Beatty (Ward Douglas), Lorraine Gary (Joan Douglas), Murray Hamilton (Claude Crumm), Christopher Lee (Capt. Wolfgang von Kleinschmidt), Tim Matheson (Capt. Loomis Berkhead) and Toshiro Mifune (Cmd. Akiro Mitamura).

Also on hand are Warren Oates (Col. Maddox), Robert Stack (Maj. Gen. Joseph W. Stillwell), Treat Williams (Cpl. Chuck “Stretch” Sitarski), Nancy Allen (Donna Stratton), John Candy (Pvt. Foley), Slim Pickens (Hollis P. Wood), and Count Floyd himself, Joe Flaherty (Raoul Lipschitz).

The opening of the film informs the audience about the infamous Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941 which hurtled an unsuspecting America into World War II. The West Coast of the United States was fearful that the Japanese would attack California next. These were actual fears that were quickly realized by its citizens, and that extreme caution and observation was needed to thwart any attempt which made invasion possible. The film is set just six days after the Pearl Harbor attack.

In the first few opening minutes of the film, Spielberg, and writers Bob Gale, John Milius, and future director Robert Zemeckis (Back to the Future trilogy) fantastically lampoon Spielberg’s Jaws opening by using the very same actress to re-create her skinny dip scene in the early morning hours. Veteran Spielberg composer John Williams even re-creates his famous theme music. The female swimmer is instantly caught on the periscope of a Japanese submarine which is prowling the California coastline for a worthy military target.

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Stanley Kubrick’s Dr. Strangelove (1964) is the ultimate black comedy, war movie which pokes fun at the absurdity of nuclear war and those responsible for escalating tensions throughout world during the Cold War. The film stars the great Peter Sellers as three of the film’s major characters, Group Captain Lionel Mandrake of her majesty’s R.A.F., U.S. President Merkin Muffley, and as crippled ex-Nazi scientist Dr. Strangelove who tries to educate the president and his staff as to the intentions of the Soviets, and how America can survive World War III.

Other talents include Sterling Hayden as Gen. Jack D. Ripper, (the commander of Burpelson A.F.B.), and George C. Scott as General Buck Turgidson, a fanatically anti-Soviet member of the president’s staff, and loosely based on actual American Air Force Gen. Curtis “bombs away” LeMay who was one of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and a veteran of the Pacific Theater during World War II.

Dr. Strangelove was based on the novel Red Alert written by Peter George. The screenplay was written by Kubrick, George, and satirist Terry Southern as a film which shows just how crazy and simple it truly is for the super powers to plunge the world into nuclear Armageddon. As tensions flare around the world due to Soviet and western policy expansion, Gen. Jack Ripper (a stellar performance from actor Sterling Hayden) orders the air wing of his B-52 bomber squadron to initiate “Wing attack plan R”, a plan which gives lower echelon commanders the authority to launch a nuclear strike against the Soviet Union if the normal chain of command is disrupted, e.g. if the president and Washington D.C. were taken out by a sneak attack.

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Castle Keep (1969) is a very anti-heroic World War II film filled with lots of dark humor and beautiful photography. The film is based on William Eastlake’s novel about a weary squad of American soldiers who come upon a tenth century castle in Belgium in December 1944.

Sydney Pollack, who was still yet an unknown in Hollywood circles, was chosen to direct this large scale film. Veteran Hollywood great Burt Lancaster stars as Major Abraham Falconer, who leads a reconnaissance squad badly in need of R&R. The remaining cast includes Peter Falk (Sgt. Orlando Rossi), Patrick O’ Neal (Capt. Lionel Beckman), Scott Wilson (Cpl. Ralph Clearboy), Tony Bill (Lt. Amberjack), Al Freeman (Pfc. Alistar P. Benjamin), Michael Conrad (Sgt. De Vaca), and wide eyed screen great Bruce Dern (Lt. Billy Byron Bix).

In the opening scenes of the film, the men are trying to maneuver their battered jeep through heavy mud down an old road. The use of slow motion photography of two individuals on horseback establishes the meeting of the two residents of the castle and the American soldiers. The Count of Maldorais (Jean-Pierre Aumont) welcomes the American soldiers and hopes that they will help protect his castle and its vast treasures and art from the advancing Germans who are preparing to counter-attack in the Ardennes Forrest.

Once in the castle, Maj. Falconer (Lancaster) begins fortifying in preparation of the attacking Germans. His adjutant Capt. Beckman (O’Neal) is an art historian who stresses the importance of the Count’s art collection and that the castle holds some of the greatest treasures of Western Europe.

Beckman tries to convince the Major that they should pull back towards the Meuse River and spare the castle from any destruction. Falconer is a career soldier and cares nothing for the statues, paintings, tapestries, and other treasures. Falconer’s men quickly find ways to keep themselves entertained whether its using expensive bottles of wine as bowling pins, defacing bust sculptures, or satisfying certain requirements at the local whore house in the nearby village known as The Red Queen.

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