Suspense, people! Suspense is what makes life exciting—the hollow, wrung out pit in your stomach and the stinking jitters of an overactive imagination. A world of confusion is jumbled before you, tiny mismatched puzzle pieces of tension and worry, and in order to get to the end of this, your very own choose-your-own-adventure, you must sleuth and scheme to finally turn over that missing piece. The Paramount knows how to create dramatic, palpable tension and they plan to do it with vigor tonight and Friday with their screenings of two salacious flicks that will sucker punch you in the anxiety glands with a double shot of Robert Redford. Thankfully, your banker won't slip into payment paranoia as you can get the double feature for a cool $7.

Hoffman and Redford sniffing out the story....

Seemingly obliterated by the "right here, right now" insurgence of online journalism, the idea of a traditional "scoop" is a thrilling proposal, especially when the words espionage and presidential are thrown into the mix. Based on the true story of Washington Post investigative reporters Carl Bernstein (Dustin Hoffman) and Bob Woodward (Redford), All the President's Men recounts how the dirty deeds of the White House were uncovered, and how the Watergate scandal would eventually topple the Nixon administration, and needless to say, after the Post was done with him, all of the president's men couldn't put Nixon back together again.

The film itself is quite possibly the most exciting depiction of journalism that has been or ever will be made. Redford himself actually urged Woodward and Bernstein to pen their story in book form for the express reason that he wanted to make a movie out of it, seeing the inherent nail biting possibilities of a plot centered around shadows and surveillance, the report of typewriter keys quickening the pace. Now, of course, there are glaring omissions and factual discontinuity when compared with the true story of the Watergate scandal (key players completely cut from the story and dramatic elements added for tension), but these concessions were made willingly to keep the film moving at a frantic pace. Nominated for the Oscar (but KOed by Rocky), All the President's Men is an absolute, 100% must see, if for nothing else than the glorious mugs of mid-70s Hoffman and Redford. Journalists are hawt.

Three Days of the Condor.
Wednesday, July 23rd @ 9:45PM
Friday, July 25th @ 7PM

If you can't get enough of Redford's rusty locks, never fear! Double features are what the Paramount does best and the second offering in this duo is the late, great Sydney Pollack's spy classic Three Days of the Condor.

Just imagine—it is your turn to go pick up lunch for the office and when you return, take-out in hand, every one of your co-workers is laying in a pool of their own blood, mowed down unceremoniously by an unknown assassin. Well, actually you can't imagine it accurately because you probably don't work for the Central Intelligence Agency, but nonetheless, it would be at least a little disconcerting. In one moment Joseph Turner (aka Condor, aka Redford) a "reader" for the CIA (which means that the man has knowledge out the yin-yang about every subject under the sun) becomes a hunted man looking for any port in this life-altering storm. He doesn't want to solve any mysteries, he just wants to live, which makes this cat-and-mouse flick all the more interesting as it barrels on, leaving the audience wondering if the Condor will meet the same fate as his office mates.