The Falcon and the Snowman - 1985

"They're just as paranoid and dangerous as we are. I don't know why I ever thought any differently."

Don't let the quirky trailer fool you, this is a really great film that tells the true story of a disillusioned military contractor employee and his drug pusher childhood friend who became walk-in spies for the Soviet Union.

As a CIA employee in charge of guarding top secret documents, all-American Christopher Boyce (Timothy Hutton) becomes disillusioned with his country and decides to make a deal with the Soviet Union. Boyce drags his childhood friend Daulton Lee (Sean Penn) into the arrangement, but the drug-addicted Lee's reasons for committing espionage are strictly monetary. John Schlesinger directs this provocative and sometimes humorous account.

Man on the Train - (L'homme du Train) - 2002

Hollywood's recent remake of this film reminded me of the original French film from 2002. Johnny Hallyday and Jean Rochefort are quite good as two men who find themselves intrigued with each other's life.

A poet. A thief. Two strangers with nothing in common are about to trade their lives for a chance to cheat their destinies.

A weathered old gangster (Johnny Hallyday) arrives by train at a small French town to rob the local bank. But he soon discovers there's no room at the local inn in which he'd hoped to stay while he plans his crime. Taking up the kind offer of an elderly teacher (Jean Rochefort) to stay in his mansion, the two men soon discover that they each might have been better suited for the other man's way of life.

Stand By Me - 1986

A must-see for any boy between the age of five and sixteen. Stand by Me is a 1986 American drama film directed by Rob Reiner. Based on the novella The Body by Stephen King, the film takes its title from the song of the same name by Ben E. King (which plays over the end credits). The film is narrated by an author, Gordie Lachance (Richard Dreyfuss), writing the memoir about his youth. Set in the fictional town of Castle Rock, Oregon, over Labor Day weekend in September 1959 young Gordie (Wil Wheaton) is a quiet, bookish boy with a penchant for telling stories and writing. He is rejected by his father, following the death of his football-star older brother Denny (John Cusack) in a jeep accident. Denny paid Gordie much more attention than his parents did. Gordie spends his time with three friends: Chris Chambers (River Phoenix) who is from a family of criminals and alcoholics and is usually stereotyped accordingly, even though he does not conform to the perceptions and stigmas attached to his family; Teddy Duchamp (Corey Feldman) who is eccentric and physically scarred after his mentally unstable father held his ear to a cooktop; and Vern Tessio (Jerry O'Connell) who is overweight and timid and often picked on.