Spider Baby or, The Maddest Story Ever Told (1968) - ★★★★

Director: Jack Hill
Writer: Jack Hill
Stars: Lon Chaney Jr., Carol Ohmart, Quinn K. Redeker, Beverly Washburn, Jill Banner, Sid Haig

Spider Baby is without a doubt, the best 'bad' movie I've ever seen. My family and I were in stitches, laughing at the madness that unfurled in this movie. The story is savagely hilarious, the dialogue is damned funny, the performances hit all the right notes, and most importantly, the events that take place are wickedly entertaining. From seeing a group of mentally challenged cannibals all locked up in a basement, to watching Carol Ohmart running around a field in nothing but her lingerie, Spider Baby truly does have it all. It's a cheaply produced, badly acted piece of cinema... but it's the funniest, most entertaining bad film you'll probably ever see. Ed Wood eat your heart out, this is bad cinema done right!

Once Upon a Time in the West (1968) - ★★★★

Director: Sergio Leone
Writers: Sergio Leone, Sergio Donati (Screenplay), Dario Argento, Bernardo Bertolucci, Mickey Knox
Stars: Henry Fonda, Charles Bronson, Jason Robards, Claudia Cardinale, Gabriele Ferzetti

It took me a while to warm up to this film, but in the end I really liked Once Upon a Time in the West. It has a rating of 8.7/10 on the International Movie Data Base (IMDB), making it one of the highest rated movies of all time. I wouldn't give it that title, not until I at least watch it again. The first hour of the film was flat to me. My energy levels depleted slowly but surely until I actually turned off the movie (a sin against cinema, I know). I decided that I should finish it today. Let's just say that the last hour and a half slowly built up this film in my esteem, until it reached a stunning climax that had my excitement and film fanaticism going wild. There were a couple of other big problems I had with it, but the ending was so masterful that it almost redeemed any fault I found with the movie.

The Lion in Winter (1968) - ★★★★½

Director: Anthony Harvey
Writers: James Goldman
Stars: Peter O'Toole, Katharine Hepburn, Anthony Hopkins, John Castle, Nigel Terry, Timothy Dalton, Jane Merrow

The Lion in Winter is the first film I've decided to watch for my Epic Movie Marathon, and I must say, it is a spectacular film. I wouldn't quite call it an epic, seeing as it had a small cast and a running time of 134 minutes, but my God did it feel epic! The performances are up there with the very best I've ever seen. It had a plot filled with venom and betrayal, spoken with spine-chilling dialogue. O'Toole and Hepburn are two of the greatest actors of all time, and they finally meet their match when they butt heads as the King and Queen of England. I loved the twists and turns, the intelligence, depth and eloquence to the characters, and the way it made me feel like a fly on the wall. It's submersing, it's thrilling, and it's one of the best movies of 1968.