May 5 2000 GLADIATOR opens. In concert with Russell Crowe's buffed Spartacus doppelganger & a CGI-ed cast of thousands, Ridley Scott excavates the sword, sandals & toga epic from Hollywood's long mothballed Roman Empire past & sends it into battle in the multiplex Colosseum.

May 5 1976 BABY BLUE MARINE opens. Dir. John Hancock. In 1943, a rejected would-be Marine wearing, through an unfortunate incident, the uniform of a decorated serviceman, gets an heroic welcome in a small Colorado town. A solid Jan-Michael Vincent anchors a commendable curio.

May 6 1977 THE WHITE BUFFALO opens. Dir. J.Lee Thompson. Melvillian metaphors abound in strange, allegorical Western teaming Charles Bronson's Wild Bill Hickok & Will Sampson's Chief Crazy Horse on obsessive fever dream quest to take down titular myth shrouded beast.

May 6 1994 CLEAN SLATE opens. Dir. Mick Jackson. Frivolous, screwball caper with SNL alumnus Dana Carvey as a soft-boiled, private eye with short term memory loss goof-balling his way thru murder investigation centering on a snarling gangster & his imperiled, sexy strumpet.

May 6 2011 THOR opens. Dir. Kenneth Branagh. 1st entry in Marvel's new franchise finds Chris Hemsworth's blonde, hammer-wielding beefcake stripped of his powers & banished to Earth after incurring father Odin's ire. Norse mythology dumbed down & commodified for multiplex masses.

May 6 1983 DOCTOR DETROIT opens. Dir. Michael Pressman. Dan Aykroyd elevates a slapshot, goofily entertaining romp as a nutty, mild mannered college prof. who, in order to save 4 hookers from a crime lord, is inveigled to assume the guise of the titular fearful syndicate boss.

May 7 1975 THE DAY OF THE LOCUST opens. Dir. John Schlesinger. An ill-starred gallery of talent-compromised, fringe-dwelling has-beens & wannabes swarm like Boschian locusts in period perfect adaptation of Nathanael West's hatchet job on the seamy underbelly of 1930s Hollywood.

May 7 1993 DAVE opens. Dir. Ivan Reitman. When a philandering POTUS suffers a stroke, the Secret Service recruits Kevin Kline's unassuming look-alike to temporarily take his place. Capra-worthy slice of feel good escapist fun buoyed by Kline's impeccable sense of comic timing.

May 7 1999 THE MUMMY opens. Dir. Stephen Sommers. Tongue in cheek, 1920s-set, Raiders inspired reimaging of Karloff's 1932 horror classic with Brendan Fraser as Egyptian desert adventurer fighting CGI flesh-eating beetles & titular resurrected, 3 millennia old mummy Imhotep.

May 7 2010 IRON MAN 2 opens. Dir. Jon Favreau. Robert Downey Jr. amps up the obnoxiousness in loud, talky, perfunctorily plotted sequel that finds the titular Avenger-to-be battling health issues, a duplicitous rival inventor & a lumbering Russian thug harboring a family grudge.

May 7 2004 VAN HELSING OPENS. Dir. Stephen Sommers. Handsomely mounted but souless, CGI heavy homage of sorts to the Dracula, Wolfman, Mummy classics of the 1930s with Hugh Jackman in full Indiana Jones mode as the titular monster hunter sent to 1887 Transylvania to kill Dracula.

May 8 1992 ONE FALSE MOVE opens. Dir. Carl Franklin. In a lonely, Arkansas backwater, 3 on-the-run killers & 3 cops face a bloody showdown. One the 90s' finest crime thrillers: tightly wound, hair-triggered, bluntly violent. With an excellent Bill Paxton & Billy Bob Thornton.

May 8 1998 DEEP IMPACT opens. Dir. Mimi Leder. The better of the year's 2 dueling, effects heavy, comet-on-a-collision-course-with-Earth disaster epics (see July's Armageddon) with POTUS Morgan Freeman & astronaut Robert Duvall desperately plotting a long-shot counter offensive.

May 8 2009 STAR TREK opens. Dir. J. J. Abrams. Chris Pine headlines a strictly workmanlike big screen reboot of the classic franchise rejigged for the millenium multiplex as a time travelling prequel riff playing fast & loose with series' time lines & venerable aesthetics.

May 8 1987 GARDENS OF STONE opens. Dir. Francis Ford Coppola. In 1968 a frustrated veteran US Army Sgt. ignominiously assigned to Arlington National Cemetery takes a young, Vietnam-bound soldier under his wing. James Caan is the saving grace in muted, oblique war-at-home parable.

May 9 1972 J.W. COOP opens in NY. Cliff Robertson writes, directs & stars in moody, langourously meditative, vignette driven character study of a former promising rodeo star looking to shoehorn himself back into the business after a 9 year jail stretch. With Cristina Ferrare.

May 9 1980 THE NUDE BOMB (a.k.a The Return of Maxwell Smart) opens. Dir. Clive Donner. Don Adams (minus Barbara Feldon) gamely reprises his signature role in a painfully unfunny, budget compromised attempt to bring the popular 1965-70 spy spoofing TV series to the big screen.

May 9 1980 FRIDAY THE 13TH opens. Dir. Sean S. Cunningham. Defying the limitations of its shoe-string budget & bland cast of unknowns, grisly slasher exploitationer becomes runaway hit paving the way for newly minted boogeyman Jason to ply his gruesome handiwork in 12 sequels.

May 9 1997 FATHER'S DAY opens. Dir. Ivan Reitman. Forced, flat-footed H'wood remake of Francis Veber's winning 1983 French farce Le Comperes, with Robin Williams & Billy Crystal in uncharacteristically lack-lustre form as a couple of "fathers" searching for their runaway son.

May 9 1997 THE FIFTH ELEMENT opens. Dir. Luc Besson. In the 23rd century an ex-Marine now a flying cab driver & a cloned female alien must stop the Great Evil from annihilating Earth. Bruce Willis oversees hyperactive, visually exhaustive, CGI-ed to the hilt sci-fi fantasy.