Movies

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1301 - Clash By Night (1952) - 6.5/10 - Barbara Stanwyck stars as Mae, a woman who left town 10 years ago with big dreams, but now returns home disillusioned and moves in with her brother. She gets married as an escape, not because of love, but later falls for her husband's friend.


1302 - Cry of the City (1948) - 8/10 - Richard Conte stars as Marty, a criminal who is in a secure hospital room after killing a cop. He escapes after a crooked lawyer threatens his girlfriend and he sets out to protect his girl and get out of town. Pursuing him is a police detective (Victor Mature) who was also a childhood friend. Conte did a very nice job and the film moved at a nice pace.

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1303 - Fallen Angel (1945) - 5/10 - A drifter ends up in a small town after not having enough money to make it all the way to San Francisco. He falls for a waitress and also gets involved with another woman for her money. This film didn't really click for me and I couldn't really get into the story at all.


1304 - Human Desire (1954) - 7/10 - Jeff Warren (Glenn Ford) returns home from the Korean War and gets his old job back as an engineer on a train. He gets involved with Vicky (Gloria Grahame) whose jealous and alcoholic husband beats her and is capable of sudden violence. Ford and Grahame give nice performances and it is a solid film.


1305 - Pitfall (1948) - 7.5/10 - An insurance investigator (Dick Powell) is happily married with a young son, but a brief fling with the girlfriend (Lizabeth Scott) of a criminal in jail due to one of his cases threatens that happy life. Raymond Burr makes a good bad guy in this as a private investigator with his own eye on the girlfriend.


1306 - Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence (2004) - 8/10 - A cyborg detective and his new partner investigate a case where doll-like robots malfunction and kill before destroying themselves. The film has good visuals and a nice soundtrack. I liked it more than the first film.


1307 - Giovanni’s Island (2014) - 8/10 - At the end of WWII, Soviet soldiers land on a small Japanese island and disrupt life there where most of the residents are involved with fishing. A Russian girl and two Japanese brothers form a friendship that crosses various barriers, including language and culture.


1308 - Memories (1995) - 7.5/10 - Three short stories are included in this anthology film. I liked the first two pretty well. The third one had nice visuals, but I didn't find the story to be all that interesting.


1309 - The Place Promised in Our Early Days (2004) - 5.5/10 - In this alternate world, Japan was divided up with the north controlled by the Soviet Union and the south by the United States. Three ninth graders become friends and are curious about a large tower that is built just over the border to the north. Then one of the friends disappears. The visuals were fine, but I didn't care for the pacing or story very much.


1310 - Urusei Yatsura 2: Beautiful Dreamer (1984) - 8/10 - The film does a very nice job capturing the zaniness of the manga. I first started reading the series back in 1989 and have been reading the recent omnibus collections. I'll admit that the series is tough for me to binge read, but this film was a good length, though the first half was more fun than the second half.

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1311 - Criss Cross (1949) - 7/10 - Burt Lancaster stars as a man who returns home after a number of years and gets his old job back for an armored car company. He also looks up his ex-wife (Yvone De Carlo), even though she is married to a gangster (Dan Duryea). The story is a bit slow at times, but ultimately isn't bad.


1312 - Murder, My Sweet (1944) - 7/10 - Dick Powell stars as private detective Philip Marlowe. He's hired to find the girlfriend (Claire Trevor) of an ex-con and also gets hired to try and locate a stolen jade necklace. He also gets involved with the daughter (Anne Shirley) of the owner of the jewels. It's a decent film and I definitely enjoyed it more than Lady in the Lake, though not as much as a few other Marlowe films with other actors.


1313 - Odds Against Tomorrow (1959) - 7/10 - Three men who are down on their luck plan a bank robbery. The plan is good, but will luck be with them. One of the men (Robert Ryan) is upset when he discovers that one of the partners is a black man (Harry Belafonte).


1314 - The File on Thelma Jordon (1949) - 7/10 - Wendell Corey stars as an assistant district attorney who falls for a woman (Barbara Stanwyck) who manipulates him as part of a plot she has to steal from her wealthy aunt. It took a while for this film to get going and I didn't full buy the relationship between the two leads at first, but the film got better as it went along.


1315 - The Street with No Name (1948) - 7.5/10 - An FBI agent goes undercover during a crime wave to try and infiltrate the gang they think is responsible. It is filmed in documentary style at times and is a pretty good film. I certainly liked it a lot more than its predecessor, The House on 92nd Street.


1316 - Thieves' Highway (1949) - 7.5/10 - Nick Garcos returns from WWII to find that his father was robbed and crippled by a crooked businessman who runs a fruit and vegetable market. He sets out to get even, but ends up partnering with the guy who bought his father's broken down old truck. The two have a deal to pick up a load of apples and Nick plans to use this to get the money his father is owed. Nice performances from Richard Conte and some of the supporting cast, including Millard Mitchell and Lee. J. Cobb.

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1317 - Colorful (2010) - 7.5/10 - A spirit gets a second chance at life and is placed in the body of a 14 year old boy named Makoto who attempted suicide. It is an opportunity to find out what his mistake was in his previous life and he has an 'angel' to provide occasional support. He settles into Makoto's life and slowly discovers what Makoto and his life were like. The film is a good look at a variety of things, including depression.


1318 - Gundam Wing: The Endless Waltz (1998) - 6/10 - This was fairly dull.


1319 - Mobile Suit Gundam: Char’s Counterattack (1988) - 7/10 - This was definitely more interesting than Endless Waltz.


1320 - Mobile Suit Gundam F91 (1991) - 7/10 - I actually enjoyed this. The art was good and the story was mostly understandable, though it certainly would have benefitted from the decompression of a full tv series as was planned.


1321 - A Thousand and One Nights (1969) - 7.5/10 - The story kind of meanders at times, but wasn't bad, though the nudity and sex sometimes seemed gratuitous. I liked the animation and soundtrack.


1322 - Redline (2009) - 8/10 - In the distant future, the Redline is a top of the line and dangerous auto race that takes place in various places around the galaxy every 5 years. The vehicles have been souped up and even have weapons installed in some of them. This year it is going to be on Roboworld, whether the residents there want it or not. The animation and music were great and I enjoyed the story as well. It was a lot of fun.


1323 - Venus Wars (1989) - 6.5/10 - Venus has been terraformed and now two rival nations exist. A reporter from Earth arrives just as the other nation invades the one she is in. She gets involved with a group of teenage motorcycle riders who eventually encounter the resistance movement. This wasn't bad, though I think it could have been much better. I remember liking the manga when I read it 30 years ago. Maybe I should dig that out and reread it.


1324 - Sword of the Stranger (2007) - 8.5/10 - A boy and his dog are on the run from a group of warriors who want the boy for an arcane ritual. The boy encounters a nameless ronin and the two eventually become friends. There is a good story here with nice animation, including decent sword (and other) fights.

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1325 - The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya (2010) - 7.5/20 - Kyon is a member of the SOS Brigade and has had plenty of crazy experiences. However, one day he wakes up in an alternate world where Haruhi and others no longer know him. He sets out to find out what happened and to set it right. I haven't seen the tv series, but I have read the manga so I'm familiar with the characters. However, that probably isn't really needed to enjoy the film. I liked the film, though it was a bit longer than it really needed to be.


1326 - Tekkonkinkreet (2006) - 7.5/10 - Black and White are orphans in Treasure Town. White can be a bit slow and Black can be violent, but the two look out for each other. When a company looks to change their home into an amusement park, it upsets the balance. The backgrounds were very cool here and I also enjoyed the story and action. I enjoyed the manga this is based on as well.


1327 - The Boy and the Beast (2015) - 8/10 - A runaway human boy follows two people from the beast world through a passage to their home and becomes the apprentice of a powerful, but ill-tempered warrior. The story isn't necessarily all that original, but I thought the movie was fun and I enjoyed it.


1328 - Samurai X: Trust and Betrayal (1999) - 7/10 - I loved the Rurouni Kenshin manga so it was interesting to see his origin story, though I was a bit bored with it at times.

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1329 - Crayon Shin-chan: The Adult Empire Strikes Back (2001) - 8/10 - Shin-chan and his family visit the Museum of the 20th Century which brings back feelings of nostalgia in his parents. Soon afterward, the director of the museum unleashes a plot to force adults to abandon their responsibilities and regress to how they were as kids in the 20th Century. The movie was a lot funnier than I was expecting.


1330 - Dexter the Dragon & Bumble the Bear (1983) - 6/10 - A wealthy bear who lives in a castle adopts a baby dragon that hatches from an egg that he finds. The dragon causes all kinds of problems due to his nature and youth. It's an okay kids movie.


1331 - The Flight Before Christmas (2008) - 6.5/10 - Niko is a young reindeer who has been told that his father is one of Santa's flying reindeer, but no matter how much he practices, Niko can't fly. He sets out to find Santa and his reindeer one day when learning of a plot by a group of wolves that will threaten Santa.


1332 - McDull, Prince de la Bun (2004) - 5/10 - I didn't like this as much as the first film. It was pretty boring, though some of the settings and backgrounds were interesting at times.


1333 - Millennium Actress (2001) - 8/10 - A director tracks down a famous actress in order to interview her for a documentary about her life. He gives her a key that he found in the studio which used to belong to her and it sparks many memories which are shown interspersed with the present day. It's a very solid film.


1334 - Perfect Blue (1997) - 8/10 - A pop idol gives up her singing career to try and become an actress. She starts getting mixed up with her sense of reality when the roles she gets are demanding and an obsessed stalker starts killing people close to her.


1335 - Okko's Inn (2018) - 8/10 - A 12 year old girl survives a car accident that kills her parents. She moves in with her grandmother at her hot springs inn. The girl soon discovers that she is able to see the ghosts who inhabit the area. She also ends up training to be the junior innkeeper in order to help her grandmother out. The film has a lot of charm and has nice animation. I enjoyed it quite a bit.

Paranoia Agent 1-13 (2004) (320 minutes) - This was very good, though I thought there was a bit of a lull during a couple of the later episodes.

[Rusty]

1336 - Kindaichi Case Files Movie 1: The Opera House Murders (1996) - 7/10 - A decent adaptation of the first Kindaichi mystery. I enjoyed the manga more, but this was good.


1337 - Barefoot Gen 2 (1986) - 8/10 - This takes place several years after the first film. Gen is living with his mother and adopted little brother, but his mother is sick. Gen becomes friends with a group of homeless kids and does his best to provide for his mother. This is more upbeat than the first film, though it still touches on a number of serious topics. The first film is better, but this was almost as good.


1338 - In This Corner of the World (2016) - 8/10 - Suzu is an 18 year old girl who liked to draw. She lives near Hiroshima in 1943 and leaves home to get married. The film follows her life over the next couple of years with various trials and tribulations. It's a nice film.


1339 - Vivo (2021) - 7/10 - A Cuban singer passes away before he can get his new song to the woman he loved. His pet kinkajou (who is also musical) and his grandniece take it upon themselves to deliver the song. The movie grew on me as it went along. The songs were decent.


1340 - The Croods: A New Age (2020) - 7/10 - The Croods come across the Betterman family who have created a paradise with a barricade around it. Just one rule: Don't eat the bananas. I don't think this was quite as good as the first movie, but it was fun.


1341 - City of Fear (1959) - 7.5/10 - An escaped criminal evades the police with what he thinks is a large stash of heroin, but is really a deadly radioactive substance. A manhunt is on in order to save the criminal and the public. It was pretty good.


1342 - Nightfall (1956) - 7/10 - An innocent man is being pursued by the police for murder and by criminals for the stolen $350,000 they think he has. A fairly solid noir starring Aldo Ray and featuring Anne Bancroft.

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1343 - Straight Up (2019) - 7/10 - Todd has extreme OCD in a number of areas and most people think he's gay. He experiments without much success and decides to explore whether he is straight on the advice of a therapist. He meets an actress named Rory who has her own issues and the two hit it off. I wasn't really enjoying the film up until Todd and Rory meet. After that, it was a pleasant enough film, but not one that rose to greatness.

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1344 - A White, White Day (2019) - 8/10 - The police chief in a small town in Iceland is on leave after his wife dies in a car accident. He spends his days remodeling a home for his daughter and her family while frequently taking care of his pre-teen granddaughter. There is grief and anger inside of him at the death of his wife and the turmoil increases as he finds signs of infidelity. The style here is pretty slow in parts, especially with the opening time lapse scene, but it worked for me and I enjoyed the film. I liked the dynamic between the chief and his granddaughter.


1345 - The Long Walk (2019) - 8/10 - A time travel ghost story with an old man who can see spirits. One of the spirits allows him to travel back in time 50 years to when he was a boy. I loved the atmosphere of the film, though the story could be a bit confusing. Around halfway through, I went back to watch the first part of the film again and it made a lot more sense the second time around.


1346 - Caught in the Net (2020) - 6.5/10 - A documentary crew in the Czech Republic hires three young looking adult actresses to pose as 12 year olds online so that they can do a film about online harassment and sexual abuse of children by predators. I thought the film was okay, though the longest segment of the film where they were interacting with the men online seemed kind of repetitive. I also don't think we needed to see quite so many dick pics and masturbation shots. I'm not really sure what the point of the confrontation was at the end. Overall, the whole thing seemed kind of amateurish, though the sets were pretty well prepared and I didn't have any problems with the actresses themselves.

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1347 - The Atomic Cafe (1982) - 8/10 - A collection of government propaganda and newsreels from the 1940s and 1950s related to atomic weapons, including their use in Japan, testing, the Cold War, and so on. It definitely paints a picture of a different time.


1348 - Fast, Cheap & Out of Control (1997) - 7/10 - A lion tamer, a gardener who shapes bushes into animals, a guy who studies naked mole rats, and a guy who builds robots are all profiled here. Some parts were more interesting than others.

Mimbre (1958) (10 minutes)
Señales de ruta (2000) (30 minutes)
Di Cavalcanti (1977) (16 minutes)
Aruanda (1960) (21 minutes)
Landskap (1987) (36 minutes)
Look at the Face (1966) (10 minutes)
Afrique 50 (1950) (17 minutes)
Toute la memoire du monde (1956) (21 minutes) - this look at the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris was very cool.

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1349 - Reefer Madness (1936) - 4/10 - The dangers of that deadly weed - marijuana - are shown here. The story was boring and the acting was pretty bad.


1350 - Team America: World Police (2004) - 5/10 - There were bits here and there that I found kind of funny, but most of it was just dumb.

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1351 - Bob Dylan: Don't Look Back (1967) - 7/10 - Dylan is on tour in England and the cameras follow him around to rehearsals, his hotel room, the car, concerts, and so on. It's a candid look at his time there without any narration. Dylan is an odd, but interesting character.


1352 - My Winnipeg (2007) - 6/10 - The filmmaker looks back at his beloved hometown of Winnipeg with this film which is part documentary and part imagination. It was okay, but I didn't like it as much as I expected.


1353 - Bal (Honey) (2010) - 7.5/10 - Yusuf is a 6 year old boy with a stutter that makes him self-conscious. His father is a beekeeper who goes missing shortly after his bees disappear. There isn't a lot of talking in the film, but there are some really nice nature scenes plus a number of scenes in Yusuf's classroom. I enjoyed it.


1354 - Climates (2006) - 6.5/10 - Isa is a professor who is on vacation with his girlfriend when he decides to break up with her. They go their separate ways, but later Isa tries to get back together with her. The movie was okay, but not really all that interesting much of the time.


1355 - Anonym (1991) - 5.5/10 - A man finds items left behind in a dumpster after an apartment is cleaned out. He tries to track down the owners and the people shown in pictures and film from the dumpster. I thought it might be decent at the beginning, but is kind of dull.

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1356 - Koyaanisqatsi (1982) - 9/10 - Great footage from around the U.S. with an excellent soundtrack. I loved it and some of the shots certainly brought back memories, such as the ones in the arcade like the one I frequented when the film was made.


1357 - Samsara (2011) - 7.5/10 - There is a lot of beautiful imagery here as well, though I didn't like the soundtrack as much as I did with Koyaanisqatsi. The film also didn't work quite as well as a whole, though it was still good.


1358 - The Gleaners and I (2000) - 7.5/10 - Agnès Varda takes a look at gleaners, people who go through fields that have already been harvested and pick up food that was missed. Some modern gleaners also find good food that has been thrown into dumpsters by markets as well as potatoes and other items that were rejected due to size, shape, or other issues and then dumped. Other items besides food can be gleaned and some due it out of necessity, while others do it for other reasons.


1359 - Distant (2002) - 6/10 - A photographer in Istanbul has a distant relative arrive in town to stay with him for a while. The two don't have much in common other than each leads a pretty boring life. I didn't find the film to be all that interesting. Lots of periods of just sitting around not doing much.


1360 - Three Monkeys (2008) - 7/10 - A wealthy man hits a pedestrian while driving at night. He calls the man that usually drives for him and gets him to take the blame and subsequent jail term in exchange for money. However, a lot can happen while he is away. I liked this a little more than Climates and Distant.


1361 - Billy Jack (1971) - 7.5/10 - Tom Laughlin stars as a half-Native American former Green Beret who protects an experimental school and their land from the crooked people who run the local town. It's a bit heavy handed at times, but is also pretty entertaining.


1362 - Songs from the Second Floor (2000) - 7.5/10 - This Swedish black comedy has a lot of absurd humor, such as the people flagellating themselves in the background during one scene. Usually it made me smile rather than laugh, but it is an interesting film, though not for everyone.

O Dreamland (1953) (12 minutes)
Hôtel des Invalides (1952) (22 minutes)
79 Springs (1969) (25 minutes)
Blood of the Beasts (1949) (22 minutes)


cult - Invocation of My Demon Brother (1969) (10 minutes)

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1363 - Forgotten Silver (1995) - 7.5/10 - Peter Jackson and Costa Bates wrote and directed this New Zealand mockumentary about the discovery of a forgotten film pioneer who invented tracking shots, sound film, and a number of other things before the credited inventions took place. It's all fiction of course, but it's fun nonetheless.


1364 - The Spanish Earth (1937) - 6/10 - The Republicans made this documentary/propaganda film during the Spanish Civil War. Parts of it were interesting.



1365 - The City (1939) - 7/10 - The film shows the frantic pace of city life and contrasts it with the more sedate and pleasant life in the suburbs. Suburban propaganda for sure, but I thought it was interesting to see life in both areas back then.


1366 - The Life and Times of Rosie the Riveter (1980) - 8/10 - Women who entered the workforce as welders, riveters, etc. during WWII are interviewed about their experiences on the job and after the war when they were expected to give up any career aspirations and leave the jobs to the men. Archive footage and newsreels from that era are mixed in to give an added perspective to the story.


1367 - Cane Toads: An Unnatural History (1988) - 8/10 - Cane toads were brought to Australia in an attempt to control the cane beetle, but it turned out that cane toads came with their own set of problems. They multiplied quickly, were poisonous and potentially deadly to native wildlife, and were pretty much impossible to contain. Some people love the cane toad and some hate them. The film shows the humorous side as well as showing how dangerous they can be.

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1368 - Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers - Runnin’ Down a Dream (2007) - 9/10 - I've been a Tom Petty fan since the early 1980s and loved this four hour look into his career. I thought it was pretty comprehensive and I loved all of the interviews and performances.

1369 - Let There Be Light (1946) - This documentary from John Huston was banned for 35 years. It shows combat veterans who are suffering from PTSD due to their experiences during WWII. Their problems show up in a variety of ways including stuttering, apathy, and more. The treatment helps the veterans overcome their issues.


1370 - Senna (2010) - 7.5/10 - This is a good biopic on the career and death of Brazilian race car driver Ayrton Senna. I've never been a fan of car racing, but I heard his name on occasion when he was driving, though I didn't know much about him.


1371 - My Prostitute Love (1968) - 7.5/10 - Halil is a fruit seller who goes to a night club with some friends. While there, he meets and falls for Sabiha, a woman who works at the club as a hostess. She falls for Halil as well, but there are problems. The music was good an the acting was also good.


1372 - Three Friends (1958) - 7.5/10 - In this Turkish version of City Lights, three friends live together in a large abandoned home. They are poor, but eke out a living shining shoes, taking photographs, etc. They come upon a blind girl on the street and take her in and care for her. One of the men falls for her and sets out to get the money to fix her sight. I thought it was pretty well acted and was entertaining.


1373 - Diyet (1974) (Turkey) - 6.5/10 - The film starts with an accident in a factory and attempts to unionize the labor for better wages and working conditions. Then there is a romance as well. I thought the film started out fairly well, but didn't quite live up to the promise it showed. It wasn't bad, though.