A tale with some eerie similarities to its real-life character, filmmaker Carl Theodor Dreyer set out to make a motion picture on the legendary Joan of Arc. Upon its completion in 1928 (The Passion of Joan of Arc), he was hounded by French nationalists, French government censors and the Archbishop of Paris, first complaining that a Dane (who is not Catholic) could not do justice to the greatest of French stories, then taking aim at the film itself – whitewashing the narrative (the French premiere eliminated the nastiness of the Judge and religious theologians and priests, as well as any other edgy visuals), thus leaving it in a truncated form that truly disgusted the screenwriter/director (a semblance of being tried by jury). Then, a truly disastrous event occurred – the original film negative burned in a fire at the UFA Studios in Berlin (a truly bizarre coincidence). . . the filmmaker distraught, was forced to piece the entire film back together by way of all of his discarded footage and alternate takes (a perfect example of the director’s extensive attention to detail, the movie was reconstructed to a very similar state that very few would be able to differentiate – though obviously Dreyer was less than pleased). Fate once again reared its ugly head when a lab fire burned this copy, leaving just a few extremely damaged prints (based upon both the original first and second cut) that had been circulated across Europe. Edited and changed by future hands, it was long believed that no one would ever see the man’s original vision again (the prints that survived were often missing twenty plus minutes, were chopped up and were changed to suit the meddling hands of re-releasers – some had added narration, others injected Baroque scores and changed the intertitles).

An oft-used motif in the sports genre is the underdog story – Rocky, Rudy, Miracle (about the 1980 U.S. Olympic hockey team), and so many others feed off of the audiences love of cheering for the expected loser (as is the case with the stories these films are often based on). One such feature that follows this well trodden path yet finds some new ground to surprise is David O. Russell’s 2010 feature, The Fighter. Based on real life boxer “Irish” Micky Ward (Mark Wahlberg), the Lowell, Massachusetts native has become a stepping stone for other boxers making their way up towards a title opportunity. Managed by his domineering mother, Alice (Melissa Leo), and trained by his character of a half-brother, Dicky Eklund (Christian Bale) – a former boxer who had potential (going head to head with Sugar Ray Leonard in 1978 – actually knocking the icon down. . . the legend makes a cameo in the film), but has become a crack addict.

They first appeared late one night, which then led to the dawn of a new, more frightening day. . . now, they own said day – the third in George A. Romero’s anthology zombie franchise, 1985's Day of the Dead finds a small group of desolate individuals attempting to survive the ever growing and encroaching human eating hordes, a task that is easier said than done. Featuring a three pronged attack, Romero (who writes and directs) utilizes touches of German Expressionism, 60s psychological horror (think Roman Polanski’s Repulsion) and brutal gore to keep his audience on its toes. Our survivors are cloistered away in an underground military camp – a ragtag team pieced together in the final days of organized chaos to search for some sort of cure for the growing number of undead. They do, from time to time, head out in their helicopter, searching for survivors – the famed Edison theatre in Fort Myers, Florida, can be seen in the opening sequence.

Finding its cinematic milieu somewhere between The Big Chill and The Hangover, 2018's Tag is at times infantile, crude, and must be described as all-around silly, yet, despite this, director Jeff Tomsic pieces it all together in a surprisingly entertaining way – hitting the right chord by way of its stylized action set pieces, clever dialogue and its unique plot (childhood comradery maintained over thirty long years by way of a simple kid’s game). Written for the screen by Mark Steilen and Rob McKittrick (and based upon a Wall Street Journal article entitled, “It Takes Planning, Caution to Avoid Being It” by Russell Adams – meaning that this is another based on true events tale), it tells the story of a group of friends who have been playing the same game of tag for thirty years (each May being the month where the all-out warfare happens). Now living in different cities, the group is comprised of an overly cocky businessman named Bob Callahan (Jon Hamm), a divorced, unemployed druggie, Randy ‘Chilli’ Cillano (Jake Johnson), a mentally fragile, outside the box thinker, Kevin Sable (Hannibal Buress), and the heart behind keeping the guys united, Hogan ‘Hoagie’ Malloy (Ed Helms). . . then there is their long hunted target, the hot-shot of the gang, Jerry Pierce (Jeremy Renner) – a man who has never been tagged in the three decades they have been playing (through a clever combination of speed, smarts, and feral brawn).