A weekend full of eating, shopping, football and leftovers leaves many of us grateful for an opportunity to collapse on the sofa and watch a movie at home.Friday in encore presentation of Up to Date, DVD Gurus Jason Heck and Mitch Brian offer a list of films for which they're thankful. Think of them as the "comfort food" of movies, the ones you can come back to again and again to enjoy.
Included in their list of timeless selections: The Godfather, Red Heat, Robin and Marian, Big Trouble in Little China, The Blues Brothers, Payback: Director's Cut, and Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid.
Mitch Brian has written screenplays and teleplays for major Hollywood studios, television networks and independent producers. He co-created and wrote episodes for Batman: The Animated Series and co-wrote the NBC miniseries The '70s. He has written screenplays for directors Chris Columbus, Oliver Stone and Robert Schwentke, as well as producers Geena Davis, Mike Medavoy and Dino De Laurentiis. Brian directed the award-winning short film James Ellroy's Stay Clean as well asHang Ups and Rhubarb Pie. He contributed essays to Harper Collins' The Book of Lists: Horror, and teaches screen writing and film studies at the University of Missouri, Kansas City. He writes for 435 South magazine. When not commenting on cinema with Steve Kraske and Mitch Brian, Jason Heck is a film critic for the Kansas City Star as well as a part-time clerk at Hollywood at Home, Kansas City's oldest movie store. He enjoys windsurfing, backgammon, women who aren't afraid to cry, and finds traveling a breeze, as he's a licensed airplane pilot. His fantasy crushes include Famke Janssen, TV's Wonder Woman and Cate Blanchett. His favorite films include Lawrence of Arabia, Black Belt Jones, The Big Combo and Pee-wee's Big Adventure.
