The Great Escape (1963)

A number of new inmates arrive at a WWII German POW camp, a place designed to hold men who have attempted, and in some cases succeeded, in escaping from one or more of the many other POW camps. Naturally, the determined prisoners make their first priority a coordinated escape plan.
US actor Steve McQueen adorns the front cover of most home editions, even though he's just one small part of a superb ensemble male cast. McQueen does have a memorable role to play, but the best part of the film for me is a less action-orientated, more tragic scene than McQueen's legendary moment.
All things considered, everything about The Great Escape is... well... great, made ever more memorable by a famous Elmer Bernstein score.

5 socks full out of 5

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 Blob (1958)

It's unlikely that The Blob would be remembered if it didn't have Steve McQueen as the leading man, rallying the troops and being selflessly heroic. Steve wasn't yet the great actor he would go on to be but he's slightly better than the rest of the cast, although that's not saying much.
The gelatinous, faceless terror is as silly as they come, which gives it a kind of temporary charm. You'll need an appreciation of that kind of thing to enjoy it because it’s no better than some of the other 1950s 'monster from space' movies. In fact, it actually has less to offer than some of the others.
I got some jollies laughing at the idiots poking the alien rock with a stick. Mankind no longer lives in caves but we still love our poking-sticks.

2½ squeezy holes out of 5

The Magnificent Seven (1960)

Hollywood swapped east for west, B+W for colour and katanas for guns in their reworking of Akira Kurosawa's Seven Samurai (1954). In doing so they managed to come up trumps in every way with the first film in the series.
The John Ford-esque clique; the men beholden to nothing but their own moral code; recurring good and bad guy themes (by Elmer Bernstein); and even the split between the recruit, preparation and battle phases are all instantly recognisable pre-existing elements to fans of both the Western and Chanbara genre, but it’s still indelibly iconic in its own 'magnificent' way.
Much of the appeal can be attributed to the cast. The seven protagonists and the man in their gun-barrel sights, the inimitable Eli Wallach, each remain cool under pressure; if they don't it's because the story demanded it.

4½ civic improvements out of 5

THE SAND PEBBLES [1966]

Actor Steve McQueen is arguably at his absolute best in director Robert Wise's intimate war drama, The Sand Pebbles, based upon Richard McKenna's novel of the same name.
The lengthy film tells the 1926 story of a hard-to-get-along with US Navy engineer who's transferred to a gunboat smack in the middle of a war torn China.  It's a film that works on an intimate level about a man who knows how to do his job well but struggles to understand his place within others and his purpose.  On a larger scale, it mirrors the racism and questionable involvement of the U.S pretty much any war they've stuck their overly proud noses in, past and present.  Considering it's length, the impact of the story struggles to maintain it's quality but is mostly upheld by it's colorful photography, powerful performances from McQueen, Richard Crenna & Mako and great early score composed by Jerry Goldsmith.

3½ homes away from home out of 5