When will you make an end?

THE AGONY AND THE ECSTASY

1965

Directed by Carol Reed

Written by Philip Dunne (based on the novel by Irving Stone)

Spoilers: Michelangelo did, in fact, finish the Sistine Chapel ceiling

Chimpan-A to Chimpan-Z: Almighty bomb

BENEATH THE PLANET OF THE APES

1970

Directed by Ted Post

Written by Paul Dehn and Mort Abrahams

Spoilers: severe

Chimpan-A to chimpan-Z: You who are reading me now are a different breed, I hope a better one

PLANET OF THE APES

1968

Directed by Franklin J. Schaffner

Written by Rod Serling, Michael Wilson, and John T. Kelly (based on the novel by Pierre Boulle)

Spoilers: oh, c'mon

We know the limits of nature. We know—or are we just afraid to test the limits of our certainty?

THE AWAKENING

1980

Directed by Mike Newell

Written by Cliff Bryant, Allan Scott, and Clive Exton (based on the novel The Jewel of the Seven Stars by Bram Stoker)

Spoiler alert: moderate

You love a fight your style, but I wonder if you've got the stomach for it, gentleman-style

THE BIG COUNTRY

1958

Directed by William Wyler

Written by James R. Webb, Sy Bartlett, and Robert Wilder (based on the novel Ambush at Blanco Canyon by Donald Hamilton)

Spoiler alert: dreams stay with you, like a lover's voice, 'cross the mountainside (okay, okay, moderate)

What a disaster: God and General Dynamics

GRAY LADY DOWN

1978

Directed by David Greene

Written by Frank P. Rosenberg, James Whittaker, and Howard Sackler (based on the novel by David Lavallee)

Spoiler alert: moderate

What a disaster: I don't like Sundays

TWO-MINUTE WARNING

1976

Directed by Larry Peerce

Written by Edward Hume (based on the novel by George LaFountaine)

Spoiler alert: moderate

What a disaster: Earthquakes bring out the worst in some people, that's all

EARTHQUAKE

1974

Directed by Mark Robson

Written by Mario Puzo and George Fox

Spoiler alert: moderate

What a disaster: Climb, baby, climb!

AIRPORT 1975

1974

Directed by Jack Smight

Written by Don Ingalls

Spoiler alert: moderate

What a disaster: Nobody dies on my airplane, not me, not him, not them—not even you, you son of a bitch

SKYJACKED

1972

Directed by John Guillermin

Written by Stanley R. Greenberg (based on the novel Hijacked by David Harper)

Spoiler alert: moderate

G-d Week: Truly this man was the son of God.

THE GREATEST STORY EVER TOLD

1965

Directed by George Stevens

Written by James Lee Barrett and George Stevens

Spoiler alert: very very N/A

G-d Week: Life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, burn for burn, stripe for stripe.

THE TEN COMMANDMENTS

1956

Directed by Cecil B. DeMille

Written by Aeneas MacKenzie, Jesse L. Lasky Jr., Jack Gariss, and Frederic M. Frank (based on the books by Philo, Josephus, various rabbis, Dorothy Clarke Wilson, J.H. Ingraham, A.E. Southon, and God)

Spoiler alert: he lets the people go; it all worked out great

And I've heard it might not even be gluten free

SOYLENT GREEN

Soylent Green is a masterpiece, and I kind of wish it wasn't.

1973

Directed by Richard Fleischer

Written by Stanley R. Greenberg (based on the novel Make Room! Make Room! by Harry Harrison)

Spoiler alert: get real

Cardboard Science: I married Colonel Kurtz!

THE NAKED JUNGLE

A throwback even for 1954, this romantic creature-feature does the romance better than just about any "proper" sci-fi film, and does its creatures fair justice, too.

1954

Directed by Byron Haskin

Written by Philip Yordan, Ranald MacDougall, and Ben Maddow (based on the story "Leiningen Versus the Ants" by Carl Stephenson)

With Charlton Heston (Christopher Leiningen), Eleanor Parker (Joanna Leiningen), Abraham Sofaer (Incacha), William Conrad (The Commissioner), and John Dierkes (Gruber)

Spoiler alert: moderate

I tell you, they're drunk with religion

BEN-HUR

Perhaps the finest of its breed, Ben-Hur is a smashing entertainment, an Old Testament kind of story set against the backdrop of the New.  It is fueled by a sharply-drawn and deeply-satisfying tale of revenge, animated by enormous sums of money, realized by some of cinema's all-time finest talents, electrified by its star, and, finally, glommed onto a good-enough Christian fable... just in case you felt like taking a nap after the chariot race (though, speaking personally, I think this part's reasonably swell, too).  Ben-Hur is everything you could ever want out of a Biblical epic (and probably more!), and it represents the Golden Age of Hollywood at its very best.

1959

Directed by William Wyler

Written by Karl Tunberg, S.N. Behrman, Maxwell Anderson, Christopher Fry, Gore Vidal, Andrew Marton, and Yakima Canutt (based on the novel Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ by Gen. Lew Wallace)

With Charlton Heston (Judah Ben-Hur), Haya Harareet (Esther), Martha Scott (Mariam), Cathy O'Donnell (Tirzah), Sam Jaffe (Simonides), Finlay Currie (Balthazar the Egyptian), Hugh Griffith (Sheik Ilderim), Jack Hawkins (Quintus Arrius), and Stephen Boyd (Messala)

Spoiler alert: sadly, the Kingdom of Judea is not freed in any conventional or meaningful way