STRANDED ON A DESERT ISLAND
You could spend some quality time alone with Tom Hanks simply by renting Castaway (2000), a top-notch entry in the “lost on a desert island” category. Mr. Hanks added another Oscar to his bulging trophy case for this splendid performance. Mr. Hanks’ FedEx plane crashes and only he survives with an eclectic but mostly useless amount of cargo. His struggle to endure and prevail both physically and mentally is extremely engaging. Some critics quibble with the opening and closing portions of the film; I disagree and think they add to the drama.
Perhaps Daniel Defoe founded this popular species of story in the 18th century in Robinson Crusoe. Certainly the idea of being lost on a desert island has had immense appeal through the ages. One of the best films of this type is in fact The Adventures of Robinson Crusoe (1954) which features Dan O’Herlihy in a fine adaptation of the Defoe classic. By the way, the 1996 version with Pierce Brosnan is a dog.
Only a small half step back of the 1952 entry  is Crusoe (1988) with Aidan Quinn as Robinson. Beautifully shot in the Seychelles, the story is enriched by making Crusoe a slave trader and Friday a black man. Who needs whom the most?
In The Black Stallion (1979), the desert island inhabitants are a small boy and a magnificent black horse. Though it is quite good throughout, the first hour on the island is cinematic magic. 
In Heaven Knows, Mr. Allison (1957) the strandees are Robert Mitchum and Deborah Kerr. Ms. Kerr is a nun and Mr. Mitchum is not and they are thrown together 
on an island crawling with Japanese soldiers during World War II. The situation is an
intense test of the moral fibre of each and the acting could not be better.
We’re Not Dressing (1934) is the musical rendition of The Admirable Crichton and is far superior to the straight version that surfaced in 1957.  When upper crust folks are stranded with their resourceful servant, the tables are deftly and delightfully turned. With Bing Crosby, Carole Lombard, Ethel Merman, and George Burns and Gracie Allen, this is still a charming treat over 70 years later.
Swiss Family Robinson (1960) features John Mills as the father of an incredibly inventive shipwrecked brood. Chased into a storm by pirates and then cast ashore, they prove adept at making the best of things. Okay, the tamed wild animals and the convenient inventions stretch way beyond the boundaries of belief. But it’s so much fun it doesn’t matter! 
While the 1963 version of William Golding’s classic Lord Of The Flies is better than the 1990 remake, neither is very good. 
All of the movies in this column are available on DVD and for streaming.  All are ok for kids 8 and over, though some might not hold their interest.

                                                          2015 Sleepers
                                                         Part 3

Here’s another batch of under-appreciated 2015 films for your consideration.
Focus begins with Margot Robie and her loser boyfriend trying to scam Will Smith with the old “caught in bed with my wife” trick. He quickly calls them out and they slink away. But then she decides he is an expert scammer (he is) and wants him to mentor her. He does. Their most entertaining scam involves betting the farm on Ms. Robie’’s ability to pick out the number guessed by the Chinese millionaire out of all the football players on the field. And after that it gets complicated!
Phoenix involves a woman who has miraculously escaped from a Holocaust camp. She has reconstructive facial surgery because of a bullet wound, and asks to look just like she did before. That can’t be done, but the surgeon can come close. The fact that she slightly resembles her old face is the key to this film. She reconnects with her former husband. He has thought his wife was killed in the war, and wants to use this woman to collect the “dead” wife’s inheritance. The ending is a stunner. 
Here in America, we have trouble getting our heads around the idea of arranged marriages. Not so in India. Completely Americanized Ravi Patel’s parents are determined to find him the right bride. He resists, but goes along with meeting dozens of candidates, all the while carrying a torch for his blonde California girl. Meet The Patels is a documentary that is both entertaining and instructive, and we can see some benefit for both ways of getting hitched. 
I’ve always liked Mark Ruffalo, starting with the under-rated You Can Count On Me (2000) through last year’s Oscar-winning Spotlight. His sleeper film from 2015 is the frantic, enjoyable Infinitely Polar Bear. He plays a bipolar Dad of two daughters, who are hugely embarrassed by his antics. Zoe Saldana is his loving, dependable wife who wins a scholarship to Columbia and convinces him to stay behind with the kids in Boston. Hijinks ensue but you can’t help but like the guy (and be greatly entertained).
An Honest Liar is a riveting documentary about James Randi, a magician by trade. He tells you he is going to fool you, and then he does. There is nothing supernatural about the magic of true magicians. He despises and sets out to destroy charlatans who bilk the public by pretending they have supernatural powers. How they do their tricks, and how he catches and exposes them, is quite good. 
All of the films in this article are available on DVD and for streaming. All are for mature audiences. Is this the last 2015 sleepers article? Probably not!

                                            MY MOVIE CHILDHOOD

I grew up in Randleman. We had one movie theater, the Fox, which later moved up the street and became the Rand. Both were owned and operated by Mr. Charlie Price, a great American in my book. He operated on the same schedule for years: One movie Monday and Tuesday, another movie Wednesday and Thursday, a single movie on Friday, and a double feature on Saturday. Sunday? Get real...
I might as well admit we’re talking about the 40's and early 50's. The admission price was 9 cents. It gets better. If you wanted to go to the Tuesday movie and you had already been to the same movie on Monday, all you had to do was say “Done saw it, Mr. Price” and you got in free! And I did that- a lot. 
My grandparents took me most of the time during the war (World War II is still The War to people my age). We rarely paid any attention to what was on.  It didn’t really matter. I might not like or understand the movie, but it wouldn’t have sex or excessive violence. 
You may have heard the phrase “This is where we came in.” We never knew, or cared, when the movie started. We just went. When we got to the part where we arrived, someone would utter the magic words and we’d leave (or stay if it was really good). 
When I got older (like 8) I would go by myself or with buddies. Hey, this was a different time. Popcorn was a dime, candy and drinks a nickel each. So if you had a quarter, you could go to the movie, have popcorn and a drink, and still have a penny for bubble gum. 
My favorite was the Saturday double feature. There would also be a newsreel, and a serial (probably Buck Rogers) which hung off a cliff at every ending. The movies would probably be two westerns.
We liked Rocky Lane, Roy Rogers and Dale Evans (and Gabby Hayes!). We loved Red Ryder and Little Beaver (Robert Blake- he was Bobby back then). They always came out of a book that magically opened. We loved Lash Larue, whose major weapon was a bullwhip. We didn’t much care for Whip Wilson, a pale imitation. There was also Hopalong Cassidy. 
During the week there would be Bogart, Gable, Irene Dunne, John Payne (not Wayne yet), Fred and Ginger. I loved them all. I still do. 
The first time I remember Mr. Price varying the schedule was for The Greatest Show On Earth, a 1952 Cecil B. DeMille blockbuster about the circus. It ran a full week. He did NOT jack up the ticket prices, and the Done-Saw-It rule was still in effect. I can’t remember if I saw it three times or only twice.
A lot of people ask me how I could love movies so much. So now you sort of know.