Movies

[Rusty]

1140 - Radio On (1979) - 5/10 - A man drives from London to Bristol after his brother dies. The film drew me in at the beginning with the David Bowie song, but that soon dissipated since the film was pretty boring and features long stretches with no dialogue. That in itself isn't necessarily a bad thing, but it just wasn't that interesting nor were the people in it. I don't think the use of black and white added anything here and it might have even been a bit better if it had been shot in color.


1141 - Ratcatcher (1999) - 7/10 - James is a 12 year old boy lives in a poor section of Glasgow. There is a strike among those who collect the garbage so garbage is piling up and rats are plentiful. James is quiet and seems withdrawn, especially after his best friend dies. He makes a couple of new friends, including a slightly older girl who has a few issues of her own. It can be a tough film to watch due to the harsh surroundings, but it is good overall.


1142 - Scum (1979) - 8/10 - The film depicts the brutal conditions at an institution for young offenders. Carlin is transferred to this facility after defending himself in his previous placement. He wants to keep his head down and stay out of trouble, but is forced to violence in order to protect himself and his friends. There are numerous fights as well as suicides, rape, and other acts of violence. It's a good film, but not a pleasant one.


1143 - Gallivant (1996) - 7.5/10 - The director drives around the coast of Great Britain with his daughter and grandmother. The film has some offbeat humor at times and is a decent watch.

[Rusty]

1144 - God's Own Country (2017) - 5/10 - A young man works on his father's farm, though he seems to be pretty reluctant about it. His father is debilitated from a stroke and can't do much. The young man has occasional random bouts of sex with other men, but no real relationship. The situation changes a bit when the father hires a Romanian migrant worker to help on the farm. The dreariness of the film turned me off and I didn't like the soundtrack either. I can see why my dad and his two sisters didn't stay on the farm after they became adults.


1145 - Wonderland (1999) - 6.5/10 - The film follows three sisters and their families over a short period of time. One sister is pregnant while another is raising her 11 year old son essentially alone. The film isn't bad, but I didn't really connect with it or come to care about any of the characters.


1146 - The Souvenir (2019) - 5.5/10 - A film student is trying to get her first feature film made, but starts dating a heroin addict who proves to be a drain on her finances. A lot of the technical aspects of the film are pretty good - music, cinematography, etc. - but the story and characters are pretty tedious much of the time


1147 - Maciste in Hell (1925) - 6.5/10 - The strongman, Maciste, ends up in hell where he battles the devils there. Some of the special effects were interesting. It's too bad that so much of the film is lost.


1148 - Foolish Wives (1922) - 6.5/10 - A con artist poses as a Russian Count in order to fleece women of their money. His latest target is the wife of an American diplomat, though he is also stringing along a hotel maid. The film is okay, though a bit dull.


1149 - Saturday Night and Sunday Morning (1960) - 7.5/10 - Albert Finney plays Arthur, an angry young man who works in a factory and doesn't want to end up like his parents. He goes out drinking and womanizing on weekends. One of the women that he is seeing is a bit older and the wife of a coworker. Another is about his own age and is more resistant to his advances. Finney does a nice job and the film is pretty good.
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[Rusty]

1150 - And Soon the Darkness (1970) - 7/10 - Two young women are on a cycling trip through the French countryside when they get into an argument and separate with one of the women riding off on her own. When she returns to look for her friend, the friend is nowhere to be found. It's a decent suspense film.


1151 - Captain Kronos: Vampire Hunter (1974) - 7/10 - Young women are being attacked with their bodies having aged a lot in a short period of time. Kronos shows up at the request of a local friend and starts hunting for the culprit. They decide that a vampire who steals youth rather than blood is at fault. This is a nice variation on the typical vampire film.


1152 - Dr Jekyll & Sister Hyde (1971) - 6.5/10 - In this variation, Dr. Jekyll's potion turns him into a beautiful woman instead of a hideous monster. It was okay, but I thought that it was kind of mediocre and that there was a lot more they could have done with the concept.


1153 - City Girl (1930) - 8/10 - A Minnesota farmer sends his son to Chicago for the first time to sell the family's wheat crop. He insists on not selling below a minimum price per bushel and is real ass when the son returns with a lower price due to a bad market and a wife. It's a nice film, but the son turns really wishy washy when he is back under his father's thumb.


1154 - Little Toys / Xiao Wanyi (1933) - 6.5/10 - This starts out with a talented toymaker who laments that foreign toys are becoming more popular than Chinese made toys. There is some playfulness in the film, but it eventually becomes even more of a propaganda film. It's okay, but I expected to enjoy it more.

[Rusty]

1155 - Elemental (2023) - 8/10 - A fire family emigrates the Fire Lands to Element City where members of the various elemental races all live. Years later, they have built a home and shop for themselves with the father looking forward to the daughter taking over the shop. Then fate takes a hand in things. I enjoyed this one quite a bit. It has a good romance and very nice animation.


1156 - Dr. Phibes Rises Again (1972) - 5.5/10 - This was much less interesting than the first film. The revenge motive from the first film is absent and Phibes kind of seemed to be going through the motions.


1157 - Dr. Terror's House of Horrors (1965) - 7.5/10 - A nice anthology film about five strangers who meet on a train and partake in the tarot readings of another passenger. Their stories/fortunes then play out on the screen.


The Conquest of the Pole (1912) (30 minutes)

[Rusty]

1158 - Dracula (1979) - 7.5/10 - Frank Langella stars in this adaptation of the Bram Stoker novel. I thought it was pretty good.


1159 - Dracula Has Risen from the Grave (1968) - 7/10 - Dracula comes back to life again and starts securing more victims. Christopher Lee doesn't really have a lot to do in this one apart from showing up and looking menacing, but I did enjoy the film. The focus is more on the relationship between the local priest's niece, Maria, and her boyfriend Paul.


1160 - Frankenstein Must Be Destroyed (1969) - 6.5/10 - Peter Cushing is back as Baron Frankenstein. This time he is continuing his experiments in London. The film isn't bad and Cushing is all right, but the film seemed to be a bit lacking compared to some of the other Frankenstein films in the series.


1161 - From Beyond the Grave (1974) - 7.5/10 - Four customers of an antiques shop find that if they cheat the proprietor (Peter Cushing) in some way, they will have to face the consequences of that later. This is a pretty nice anthology.


1162 - Scream and Scream Again (1970) - 5/10 - A serial killer is loose in London who rapes and drains the blood of his young female victims. There are a number of other mysterious things occurring in different locations. . It's all kind of a mess, though it does come together and get a bit better at the end. Vincent Price, Peter Cushing, and Christopher Lee each receive prominent billing despite having relatively small roles in the film.


1163 - Taste the Blood of Dracula (1970) - 6/10 - A fairly mediocre and forgettable continuation of the Hammer Horror series.


1164 - The Blood on Satan's Claw (1971) - 7/10 - A fur covered skeleton is found buried in a field in an early 1700s village. Soon after, the youth of the village come under Satan's spell and start performing rituals in the woods. While not on the level of the Wicker Man, I thought this was good and the use of music was very good.

[Rusty]

1165 - Victim (1961) - 7.5/10 - A prominent lawyer is married, but is a closet homosexual who has tried to stay away from that side of his life for the sake of his marriage. A man he was once close to is being blackmailed due to his relationships with men and the lawyer decides to fight back and track down the blackmailers with the aid of the police. It's a decent social drama, though a bit on the dull side at times. I'm sure it was pretty daring at the time.


1166 - The Brides of Dracula (1960) - 7/10 - A young woman on her way to take up a teaching position in Transylvania spends the night with a baroness during the journey. She comes across the woman's son in shackles and sets him free, not knowing that he is a vampire . This unleashes the problem on the local people. Van Helsing (Peter Cushing) shows up and attempts to set things right. This is a decent entry in the Hammer Horror series.


1167 - The Curse of the Werewolf (1961) - 7.5/10 - The offspring of a mad beggar and a mute servant girl is raised by a wealthy man and his servant. Years later, they discover that he is a werewolf and do what they can to contain it to keep him from harming others. It's the first color werewolf film and is pretty well done.


1168 - The Gorgon (1964) - 7/10 - A young woman is found dead and it is discovered later that her body has turned to stone. There have been a number of mysterious deaths in the town over the past 5 years where the victims also turned to stone. A professor thinks that a gorgon is responsible and starts investigating.


1169 - The Hound of the Baskervilles (1959) - 7.5/10 - Peter Cushing stars as Sherlock Holmes in this adaptation of the famous story by Arthur Conan Doyle. There were some changes from the book, but overall it was pretty good with very nice sets and atmosphere.


1170 - The House That Dripped Blood (1971) - 6/10 - A Scotland Yard investigator looks into unusual cases involving the residents of a rental house. I've enjoyed some of the other Amicus anthologies quite a bit more than this one. It wasn't really that bad, but was kind of boring and mediocre.

[Rusty]

1171 - Suzume (2022) - 8/10 - A 17 year old girl teams up with a three legged chair to save the Earth from destruction. This was on par with the other Shinkai features that I've seen, though I liked a couple of the other ones slightly more.


1172 - The Spongebob Movie: Sponge Out of Water (2015) - 6/10 - I haven't watched Spongebob before, butu this was pretty much what I was expecting. It's reasonably entertaining for what it is.


1173 - Aurora's Sunrise (2022) - 8/10 - Aurora Mardiganian was a teenage girl who survived the Armenia Genocide and escaped the subsequent slavery to eventually make her way to the United States hoping to reunite with her brother. She made a film about her story which was used to raise awareness and money for survivors. Unfortunately, most of that film is now lost. The film uses animated reenactments along with surviving excerpts from the film and an interview that Aurora made before she died in 1994.


1174 - Surviving Life (2010) - 3/10 - I can see why some might like this, but it really wasn't my thing. Did we really need a thousand closeups of mouths talking.


1175 - Berberian Sound Studio (2012) - 5.5/10 - A British sound engineer is brought to Italy to work on a horror film, though he thought that it was going to be about horses. He slowly starts to lose his grip on reality. The sound engineering stuff was kind of neat for a while and I liked a couple of other bits here and there, but it wasn't really all that interesting overall.


1176 - Den Fremmede (1914) - 6/10 - A clerk goes out partying one night, gets drunk, and racks up a huge bill that he can't pay. He eventually goes to a loan shark to get the money for the bill and then has to figure out a way to pay off the loan shark.


1177 - Kill List (2011) - 5/10 - A former soldier needs money to support his family. He teams up with a friend to take on a few jobs as hit men. It takes an odd turn when some of the people they kill thank them before dying. It starts out pretty slow and then gets pretty dark and gory at times.



Ravished Armenia (1919) (24 minutes)
Fatty's Tintype Tangle (1915) - (26 minutes)

[Rusty]

1178 - Paperhouse (1988) - 8/10 - A young girl becomes ill and has fainting spells. When she in unconscious, she finds herself in a dreamland with a house and boy who seem to come from her drawings, except that the boy exists in the real world as well. I enjoyed this quite a bit and think the girl playing the lead did a great job. I liked the earlier Escape Into Night series which adapted the same book, but I liked this version more.


1179 - The Reflecting Skin (1990) - 4/10 - A boy living in a rural area in the 1950s becomes convinced that a woman who lives down the road is a vampire. I didn't really like the pacing, the acting, the music, or the story all that much, unfortunately.


1180 - Night of the Demon (1957) - 8/10 - An American professor flies to London for a conference and gets mixed up in the affairs of a cult who may have killed the colleague he was supposed to meet. The professor is a skeptic at first, but it's hard to discount the things that he sees while investigating. Dana Andrews is good in the lead role and there is a fair amount of suspense.


1181 - Ghostwatch (1992) - 6.5/10 - This pseudo-documentary aired on BBC1 on Halloween. It purports to investigate the paranormal with one house and family in particular. Apparently some people at the time thought it was real. It's decent enough for what it is and the acting isn't bad. It was interesting to see Craig Charles as one of the reporters interviewing people.


1182 - The Lair of the White Worm (1988) - 7/10 - An ancient snake skull is unearthed in the East Midlands of England. It is subsequently stolen by a priestess to a local ancient snake god. A local lord (Hugh Grant) begins investigating a possible giant snake roaming nearby caverns. Meanwhile the snake priestess is fairly active. This is a decent film and a bit offbeat at times.


1183 - The City of the Dead (1960) - 7.5/10 - A college student visits the eerie town of Whitewood, Massachusetts on the advice of her professor. She is researching witchcraft and the town was the site of witch burnings in the late 1600s. Little does she know that a number of residents of the town are Satan worshipers who have been kept alive due to their pact with the devil.


1184 - The Mummy (1959) - 6.5/10 - The Hammer version of The Mummy stars Peter Cushing and features Christopher Lee in mummy costume. The film looks great except for Lee's Mummy costume, but the film itself is a bit lackluster. It's not bad, just kind of sluggish.


1185 - The Children (2008) - 6/10 - Two sisters and their families gather together at a remote cabin for the Christmas holidays. Things seem to be going well until the children get sick and become psychotic killers bent on torturing and killing their parents. There is plenty of evil little action once things finally get rolling, but the film is so-so.

[Rusty]

1186 - Ginger Snaps (2000) - 7.5/10 - Ginger and Brigitte are teenage sisters who make fake death videos and seem to be pretty morbid. Meanwhile, a number of dogs in the area are getting torn apart by an unknown beast. Ginger's life changes dramatically after she gets her first period and is attacked by the creature that is roaming the area. This was pretty good with a fair amount of dark humor.


1187 - It Follows (2014) - 7.5/10 - Jay is a college student who goes on a date with her new boyfriend. It isn't long before she discovers that he has passed a deadly supernatural virus onto her through sex. It takes the form of people that only she can see. It moves at a slow pace, but if it reaches her, it will probably kill her. It was pretty good.


1188 - Mandy (2018) - 2/10 - This was not my kind of movie, that's for sure.

[Rusty]

1189 - We Need to Talk About Kevin (2011) - 6/10 - Tilda Swinton is a troubled mother whose son has done a number of horrible things and she is paying the price in a number of ways. Swinton gives a nice performance, but I didn't really like the story all that much.


1190 - The House with Laughing Windows (1976) - 5/10 - An art restorer is brought in to restore an old fresco in a church in a rural village. He discovers that the artist kidnapped, tortured, and killed people to use as inspiration for his art. The movie is pretty dull for a long time and even when the action starts, it isn't very good.


1191 - The Invitation (2015) - 6.5/10 - Will attends a dinner party with his girlfriend Kira. The party is being thrown by his ex-wife and her new husband. Something seems really off to Will about the party and the way people are acting. Is it just paranoia or is something else going on? The pacing seemed a bit off at times, too, though perhaps that was just a way to make it a little more unsettling. It's okay, but not as engaging as it could have been. I did like the ending, though.


1192 - City of the Living Dead (1980) - 5/10 - A priest's suicide opens up the gates of hell and it must be sealed by All Saints Day or all hell will literally break loose. The soundtrack was decent. The acting and story were not very good.

[Rusty]

1193 - The Stepfather (1987) - 7.5/10 - A man murders his family and sets up a life in another town, looking for that dream of the perfect family. He marries a woman with a teenage daughter, but the daughter doesn't like him and acts out as a result. Is he going to have to start all over again? This was formulaic, but fun nonetheless. Terry O'Quinn was good as the stepfather and so was Jill Schoelen as the daughter.


1194 - The House of the Devil (2009) - 7.5/10 - A college student in the 1980s needs money so she takes a babysitting job at a remote manor. However, she discovers that things aren't quite what they seem. This is kind of a slow burn, but it worked for me.


1195 - Troll 2 (1990) - 5/10 - This was pretty dumb with bad acting, but it was still kind of fun.


1196 - Vampire’s Kiss (1988) - 5/10 - Well that was certainly something. Nic Cage in full wacko mode. There are a few fun things in the last half hour, but I didn't like the movie as a whole that much.


1197 - Black Sabbath (1963) - 5.5/10 - This is a horror anthology that is introduced by Boris Karloff who also stars in one of the segments. The stories were pretty boring for the most part. I did laugh at the bit at the end of the film, though.


1198 - House on the Edge of the Park (1980) - 5/10 - A rapist/murderer gets himself and a friend invited to a party with a few wealthy people and then proceeds to terrorize them throughout the night. It certainly isn't a very nice film.

[Rusty]

1199 - What Scoundrels Men Are! (1932) - 7/10 - This romantic comedy has a mechanic falling for a young woman who works at a perfume store. He borrows his boss's cars to impress her and take her on a date, but things happen to make a mess of it. He continues his efforts, but maybe fate is against him. Vittorio De Sica and Lia Franca are each pretty good here.


1200 - Fists in the Pocket (1965) - 7/10 - A dysfunctional family of three adult brothers and one adult sister live with their blind mother. Only the oldest son seems fairly normal and supports the family with his earnings. The film is kind of bleak, but the characters are interesting.


1201 - An Average Little Man (1977) - 7.5/10 - A civil servant who is nearing retirement wants nothing more than to get his son a job at his workplace so that the son can have a secure living. The son works hard, but is not too bright and has some trouble with the tests for employment. The first half of the film is filled with the father's efforts to help his son and it is of less interest than the second half of the film where circumstances dictate a change in direction.


1202 - The Stolen Children (1992) - 8/10 - A young police officer is assigned to accompany an 11 year old girl and her younger brother to a distant orphanage. The mother of the children was arrested for prostituting the daughter from their apartment. The trip runs into a snag when the orphanage refuses to take the girl and the police officer tries to find another place that will accept the pair. The kids are reluctant to open themselves up to more pain, but slowly bond with their temporary guardian.


1203 - Cops and Robbers (1951) - 7/10 - Ferdinando is a low level con man supports his family with his tricks. He is arrested, but manages to escape. The policeman who lost custody of him now has three months to recapture Ferdinando or else will lose his job despite 30 years of good service. It's a decent film that was a bit hit or miss at times, but got more interesting in the second half.


1204 - The Lodger (1944) - 6.5/10 - Jack the Ripper is loose and may be a boarding house's new lodger. This was okay, but not nearly as good as the 1927 silent version. It's pretty different, too.


1205 - Angel Heart (1987) - 8/10 - Mickey Rourke was really good as private detective Harry Angel who is hired to find a missing man named Johnny Favorite. I remember the controversy back when the film came out, but I never actually got around to watching the film. It goes heavy on style which sometimes works for me and sometimes not. This time it worked, thanks largely to Rourke.

[Rusty]

1206 - Juan of the Dead (2011) - 7.5/10 - Juan lives in an apartment block in Havana and doesn't seem to do much apart from hanging out with his friends and neighbors. The film starts with him on a raft out in the sea when the first indication of the upcoming zombie infestation shows up. There is plenty of humor, though some of it is hit or miss. It still makes for a pretty entertaining film with a fair amount of action.


1207 - The Conjuring (2013) - 7/10 - A family moves into a farmhouse in 1971, but unfortunately for them the house appears to have a malevolent spirit living there as well. I thought the first 40 minutes or so were the best part and it became less interesting once the Perrons got involved.


1208 - Pontypool (2008) - 7/10 - A disc jockey is working the morning show in a small town in Canada when reports start coming in of riots and violence. People seem to be affected with a strange disease that causes them to lose their ability to talk coherently and essentially turn into zombies. It's a bit of a different approach to the zombie apocalypse and isn't bad.

[Rusty]

1209 - Tigers Are Not Afraid (2017) - 7.5/10 - Estrella is a young girl whose life is disrupted when gunfire erupts while she is at school. Her teacher gives her three pieces of chalk which she says will give her wishes. When she returns home, her mother has disappeared, likely taken by the cartels, and she falls in with a group of orphan boys. The acting is pretty good and the elements of magical realism generally work fairly well.


1210 - The Hidden (1987) - 7/10 - A man with no criminal past suddenly robs a bank, killing the security guards and getting into a long and violent car chase. Other similar incidents soon follow. An FBI agent is on the case and knows the real reason behind the sudden changes in people. It's a decent ride.


1211 - Stigmata (1999) - 6.5/10 - A young hairdresser (Patricia Arquette) receives a rosary in the mail that her mother purchased while on vacation. Soon after, wounds start manifesting on her body that replicate those that Jesus endured when he was crucified. A Catholic priest from Rome is sent from Rome to investigate. I didn't like the soundtrack, but I liked the film itself. It has a number of flaws, but was reasonably entertaining.


1212 - I Married a Monster from Outer Space (1958) - 6.5/10 - A woman comes to realize that her husband has been replaced by an alien in human disguise. She learns that other men in town have also been replaced and she has trouble finding people who believe her. It's certainly not a great film, but it is watchable and I liked it for the most part.

[Rusty]

1213 - Pieces (1982) - 4/10 - A little boy kills his mother and continues to play. Forty years later, he's all grown up and starts chopping up female college students with a chainsaw. The police and others investigate while girls continue to get murdered. The acting was pretty bad and so was the story.


1214 - The Burning (1981) - 7/10 - A mean camp counselor gets burned very badly in a prank that goes wrong. He returns five years later terrorize the kids and staff of a summer camp located near the one where he was burned. It's not great, but it was fairly entertaining. It was also interesting to see Jason Alexander and Holly Hunter in their first film roles.


1215 - Silent Night, Deadly Night (1984) - 7/10 - A five year old boy is traumatized when his parents are killed in front of him by a man dressed up as Santa Claus. Life at the orphanage with the strict Mother Superior is further traumatizing. Then he gets his first job at a toy store and the boss makes him dress up as Santa Claus when the guy who was supposed to portray Santa gets injured. I guess this film caused some controversy at the time with the deadly Santa, but that controversy seems really dated these days.


1216 - The Tingler (1959) - 5/10 - A scientist discovers a parasite in humans that feeds on fear. This was a pretty dull film.


1217 - Brain Damage (1988) - 7/10 - A young man becomes the host of a talking alien parasite that secretes a liquid which makes its host high and have visions. The downside is that the parasite needs to feed on the brains of others. This was good and had some interesting visuals at times.


1218 - Treno popolare (1933) - 7.5/10 - A large group of tourists head out from Rome for a quick day trip. Giovanni and Lina are friends who may be destined to be more than friends, except that a man named Carlo inserts himself into their group. It's a fun movie with plenty of humor.


1219 - Acciaio (1933) - 7.5/10 - Mario has been racing bicycles and this has kept him away from home for a couple of years. He finally returns home to his sweetheart Gina, but finds that she has moved on. The story is a little underwhelming, but the attraction here is more in the scenes in the steel factory plus the bicycle racing and occasional scenery.


1220 - Animali pazzi (1939) - 6/10 - A baron must marry his cousin on short notice if he is to get his inheritance from a relative who has recently died. However, the baron already has a fiancée so he enlists a double to substitute for himself. The last 20 minutes or so were fun, but the part before that was less interesting. Totò was already 41 when this came out, though this was just the second of nearly 100 films that he made.