The Towering Inferno (1974)

Previously it was a watery death that an ensemble star cast had to run from, now it's a fiery one. They're opposing elements, but the end result is a similar kind of disaster movie, again produced by Irwin Allen (Dir. John Guillermin).
With a story adapted from two different novels (The Tower by R.M. Stern; The Glass Inferno by T.N. Scortia and F.M. Robinson), the script doesn't rush to the big event, but nor does it dally. An epic establishing scene effectively gets us to where the (hot) shit goes down. Thereafter the two male leads, Paul Newman and Steve McQueen, are cleverly kept apart for the longest time but are dependent on each other's skills at crucial moments throughout.
The villains of the piece are hobnobbing rich folks who feel that their life is somehow worth more than that of the average Joe.

3½ corners cut out of 5

The Bourne Identity (1988)

A two-part adaptation of Robert Ludlum’s novel (1980) of the same name. Richard Chamberlain is Bourne, a man for whom identity is a problem. Having been shot and lost his memory all he knows is that he's handy with a gun and people want to kill him. It's a cliché, no doubt, but the turns in the story, particularly near the end, are strong enough to overcome the familiarity.
Bourne's journey to uncover his past takes him to high class hotels and seedy, graffiti covered motels, aided by Charlie's Angel Jaclyn Smith.
It would be a terrifying ordeal not knowing who you are. The two parts try their best to illustrate that on a TV Movie budget.

3 puzzle pieces out of 5