Francis Ford Coppola

Not specifically in a Soderbergh film, but in “The Conversation” (where Gene Hackman played a solitary surveillance snoop who realizes he may have recorded a murder), and in a handful of other cinematic references that Soderbergh does winking homage to: “Blow-Up,” “Rear Window,” “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo” — and, in a funny way, the recycling spirit of Brian De Palma, who’s evoked through the film’s voluptuous old-fashioned musical score, by Cliff Martinez, which sounds like an homage to the Hitchcock/Herrmann homages of Pino Donaggio.

It borrows familiar elements of voyeurism from Rear Window (1954) and combines them with the paranoia and omnipresent recording of The Conversation (1974) and Blow Out (1981), and it reinvigorates these ideas.

With “Kimi,” Soderbergh pays homage to Hitchcock (in particular “Rear Window”) and the 1974 classic “The Conversation” in a lean, no-frills psychological thriller featuring some of the finest work in Zoë Kravitz’s career.

This is far more character-driven and introspective, but its themes and approach echo film classics from John Ford’s The Searchers to Apocalypse Now, and even the father-son dynamic that was so movingly a part of Field of Dreams, all movies in which our key player in on a mission that takes detours beyond what you might normally expect from big-budget Hollywood movies.

The common touchstone on that point seems to be the work of Terrence Malick, but Francis Ford Coppola’s Apocalypse Now (1979) is far more fitting as Roy makes his long, frightening journey towards the Col. Kurtz-like goal that is his father.

Gray and his fellow scribe, Fringe' s Ethan Gross, are clearly aiming for ( The Tree of Life 's Terrence) Malick-meets-Kubrick ( 2001 's Stanley) by way of Joseph Conrad ( Heart of Darkness , the book that inspired Francis Ford Coppola's Apocalypse Now ).

As in episodes one through three of the “Star Wars” franchise, Reeves is operating in revisionist-prequel mode, filling in the calamitous backstory that leads to a depressing present reality — except that in this case, he’s less concerned with mythology, approaching this chapter as an elaborate homage to such manly classics as “The Great Escape,” “The Bridge on the River Kwai” and “Apocalypse Now,” starring monkeys.

"War for the Planet of the Apes" references many films - "The Great Escape," "Apocalypse Now" and "The Searchers" to name a few - but its larger grasp is historical, a new civilization forming as an old one wanes.

Here, he’s pitted against The Colonel, played by Woody Harrelson, and if Caesar is in “A Man Escaped,” Harrelson is planted firmly in “Apocalypse Now,” down to the black face paint and ‘70s rock (the film even has some fun with the reference, with “Ape-pocalypse Now” graffiti’d on tunnel walls).

When Christopher Walken’s power-hungry giant ape King Louie appears in the shadowed interior of a crumbling ruin, rubbing his temple precisely like Marlon Brando in “Apocalypse Now,” it’s a brilliant moment of suspense and a superb inside joke.

There’s also King Louie (Christopher Walken), a hulking orangutan who’s a cross between the Godfather and Marlon Brando’s Col. Kurtz from “Apocalypse Now.”

And then there’s Christopher Walken doing his Christopher Walken thing as King Louie, the grotesque and oversized orangutan who “welcomes” Mowgli into his dark and forbidding lair with all the oily menace of Colonel Kurtz in “Apocalypse Now.” Walken’s rendition of “I Wan’na Be Like You,” made famous by Louis Prima in the 1967 film, might be amusing to adults (I found it a bit tedious) but will most likely have children fidgeting with their 3-D glasses, waiting for the story to get moving again.

We see a holistic compound run by a hippie yak (Tommy Chong), a tiny shrew of a mob boss (Maurice LaMarche) who is a funny tribute to Don Corleone from "The Godfather" and wolves who suffer from chain-reaction howling.

The screenplay hits that sweet spot where it manages to appeal to kids with its bright colors (brighter if you sensibly forgo the unnecessary 3-D option), cute characters and slapstick humor while keeping older views amused as well with its amiably crackpot mystery narrative and pop culture jokes that are actually funny instead of annoying (even a spoof of something as old as "The Godfather" manages to inspire some unexpectedly big laughs).

It manages to nimbly balance its lesson teaching with its storytelling, mixing in references to “The Godfather” and “Breaking Bad” that come off witty, not like cheap throwaways.

The better it gets -- and the drama grows in power over its quasi-epic course of 157 minutes -- the more it brings to mind the truly great gangster films of American movie history, starting with "The Godfather" and extending back to such landmarks as "The Public Enemy" and "Scarface."

American Gangster reminds one of The French Connection, The Godfather, Scarface; some have called it Super Fly vs. Serpico -- the list could go on and on, really.

Actually, I'm not at all sure how anyone can watch this film and not recall The Godfather films, Friedkin's The French Connection , De Palma's Scarface , Leone's Once Upon a Time in America , Scorsese's GoodFellas , Joel Coen's Miller's Crossing , "The Sopranos," or even Cronenberg's current Eastern Promises .

Barbie deliriously draws inspiration from a wide range of cinematic sources, with references to The Umbrellas of Cherbourg , Groundhog Day , The Matrix , Toy Story , and, most hilariously, The Godfather .

Along the way, Gerwig and Baumbach find both humor and nuance in everything from mini-fridges to the Matchbox Twenty hit “Push,” the male urge to explain “The Godfather” to the Supreme Court, the limits of modern feminism to neon-bright Rollerblades.

Sin lugar a dudas el último acto de la epopeya es el mejor porque ahí la directora afloja un poco con el sarcasmo permanente y hoy caduco de posicionamiento de marca a lo La Gran Aventura Lego ( The Lego Movie , 2014), de Phil Lord y Christopher Miller, y Super Mario Bros.: La Película ( The Super Mario Bros. Movie , 2023), opus de Aaron Horvath, Michael Jelenic, Pierre Leduc y Fabien Polack, e impone un enfrentamiento bastante simpático entre hembras y machos que implica una semi revolución de Ken y los suyos -distintas caras pero todos llamados Ken- contra el contingente de Barbies en cuestión -asimismo con rostros diferentes pero respondiendo al mismo nombre- como si se tratase de una versión remozada y fantástica de la screwball comedy o comedia alocada de lucha de sexos de los años 30 y 40, aunque en esta oportunidad filtrándolo todo desde la efervescencia del cine picaresco de los 60, 70 y 80. Gerwig se esfuerza demasiado por presentarnos una especie de blockbuster intelectual o simplemente a…

It’s pointless to compare "Jarhead" with the host of late 20th century war genre classics that include "Apocalypse Now," "The Deer Hunter," "Platoon" and the end-all-be-all of Stanley Kubrick’s "Full Metal Jacket."

In one scene, the Marines are energized and inspired by watching a screening of the Wagnerian helicopter flights in Francis Ford Coppola’s Apocalypse Now (1979).

In one of the most telling scenes, the jarheads gather to watch the anti-war film Apocalypse Now and roar with delight at a helicopter scene that shows Americans mowing down Vietnamese villagers with eager bloodlust.

Written and directed by Marco Bellocchio, THE TRAITOR tells the story of the man from Corleone whose testimony and depositions revealed the structure and operations of the Sicilian mob and led to 366 arrests, including in 2006 Bernardo Provenzano, il Capo di Tutti Capi (“Boss of All Bosses”)—the head of the Corleonesi, and inspiration for Mario Puzo’s novel and Coppola’s film adaptation of The Godfather.

Perhaps a TV format would have better suited the meaty story, but Bellocchio delivers cinematic grandeur that's undoubtedly alluring and he nods to big screen classics like The Godfather and Goodfellas without feeling too cripplingly in their debt.

Classics like “The Godfather” and “GoodFellas” have written the Mafia into cinematic legend.

One can see some subtle borrowings from such war classics as Apocalypse Now and Platoon, but nothing so blatant as to be construed as copying those films' styles.

For another like it you have to go all the way back to Coppola's Apocalypse Now (1979) or even Malick's last movie Days of Heaven (1978).

About as blatantly antiwar as they come, this film has much more in common with the disillusionment-filled "Platoon" (Oliver Stone) and "Apocalypse Now" (Francis Ford Coppola) than Steven Spielberg's equally disturbing, but strongly patriotic "Saving Private Ryan."