Movies

[Rusty]

488 - College (1927) - 7/10 - Buster Keaton is a bookish young man who graduates at the top of the class in high school, but the girl he likes rejects him due to his aversion to athletics. In college, he tries all sorts of athletics in order to win her over. It was okay through a good part of the film with a few nice gags sprinkled in, but nothing really special. It comes together nicely in the end, though.

Harold Lloyd shorts

Now or Never (1921) - 8/10 - 36 minutes - Lloyd is rushing back to meet his girl for her 18th birthday. He ends up on a train having to care for a young girl during the trip while his girlfriend is otherwise engaged. It's a pretty funny and entertaining film, especially once they get on the train.

The Marathon (1919) - 7.5/10 - 10 minutes - Lloyd is interested in a girl with many suitors and also has to evade the father, a former heavyweight boxer. This is like a long Benny Hill skit and is pretty funny.

Captain Kidd's Kids (1919) - 7/10 - 20 minutes - Lloyd is recovering from his bachelor party when he ends up going on a cruise.

By the Sad Sea Waves (1917) - 7/10 - 11 minutes - Lloyd is at the beach and becomes a life guard to try and impress a girl. Lots of comedy from other people, but it is a fun short.

Two-Gun Gussie (1918) - 6/10 - 9 minutes - Lloyd is a piano player who gets mistaken for a tough gunfighter. It has its moments, but is so-so.

A Sammy in Siberia (1919) - 6/10 - 11 minutes - Lloyd is a soldier who comes across a young woman who is being chased by a group of Bolsheviks. I enjoyed this, but there isn't really much to this short.

The Non-Stop Kid (1918) - 5.5/10 - 12 minutes - Lloyd is interested in a girl whose father has plans for her to marry a professor so Lloyd goes in search of the professor. It had a few good moments, but was a bit lame.

The City Slicker (1918) - 6/10 - 11 minutes - Lloyd is a city slicker brought in to modernize a rural hotel. There are a few creative bits, but mostly it is so-so.

Next Aisle Over (1919) - 6/10 - 11 minutes - Lloyd becomes a shoe salesman in a department store while in pursuit of a girl. There is plenty of slapstick here.

A Submarine Pirate (1915) - 4.5/10 - 24 minutes - This is really a Syd Chaplin short with Lloyd in an uncredited role. Chaplin is a waiter who overhears a plot to use a submarine to steal gold from a passenger ship. He decides to take over the plan himself. It's not that great.

Bashful (1917) - 6/10 - 10 minutes - Lloyd stands to inherit two million dollars if he has a wife and baby so the girl he likes pretends to be his wife and the butler sets out to find a baby. There are a few good gags here.

Over the Fence (1917) - 5.5/10 - 5 minutes - Lloyd works for a tailor and finds two tickets to a baseball game so he invites his girl, but the tickets are taken. This apparently was the introduction of the 'glasses' character. It wasn't bad, but it was way too short.

Ring Up the Curtain (1919) - 6/10 - 12 minutes - Lloyd is a stage hand who hits on the leading lady of a theater troupe that just arrived. It was okay.

Bliss (1917) - 6/10 - 12 minutes - Lloyd encounters a wealthy young woman on the street and decides to dress up and pay her a visit to court her. Her dad is pretty tough on suitors who aren't noble. There were a few good gags, but nothing special.

Lonesome Luke, Messenger (1917) - 7/10 - 10 minutes - Lloyd and Snub Pollard (who appears in many Lloyd shorts) are messengers who come across a girls boarding school so they decide to stop there. Plenty of Benny Hill antic ensue. It wasn't as polished as his later work, but it was fun.

Luke Joins the Navy (1916) - 4/10 - 5 minutes - Lloyd is a store clerk who decides to join the navy. There isn't much to see here.

Clubs are Trump (1917) - 6/10 - 25 minutes - Lloyd and Snub are hanging out on a park bench when they decide to try and steal a couple of women from their boyfriends without success. They fall asleep and dream of being cavemen with lots of people hitting each other in the head with clubs. They wake up and there is a lot more getting hit in the head with billy clubs courtesy of the police. It was okay.

Spring Fever (1919) - 6.5/10 - 10 minutes - Lloyd works in an office, but is distracted because he has spring fever. He leaves work and causes plenty of mayhem in the nearby park where he happens to find a girl.

Look Pleasant, Please (1918) - 7/10 - 11 minutes - Lloyd works at a corner mart and later ends up being recruited by a photographer whose roving fingers caused a woman to call her husband.

All Aboard (1917) - 6/10 - 11 minutes - Lloyd's girl is being taken on a cruise to Bermuda by her parents so he sneaks on board to be with her and the usual havoc ensues.

That's Him (1918) - 6.5/10 - 11 minutes - Lloyd and his wife are going to take the train to visit his aunt, but he forgot the tickets. He races back home to find them only to get mistaken for a mugger and burglar and chased by the police. It was amusing.

Love, Loot and Crash (1915) - 5/10 - 11 minutes - This is a Keystone Kops film with Lloyd planning to elope with his girlfriend, but there is confusion when a new housekeeper plans to steal from the house and escape at the same time. It had a few good moments.

Move On (1917) - 4/10 - 5 minutes - Lloyd is a police officer who tries to make out with a maid he likes, though his sergeant likes the girl, too. Not very long or good.

A Gasoline Wedding (1918) - 7.5/10 - 10 minutes - Lloyd's girlfriend has plenty of suitor (a common theme with Lloyd) and her father wants to marry her off to a wealthy man. Lloyd and his girlfriend make their escape. I thought this one was pretty good.

Don't Shove (1919) - 5/10 - 9 minutes - Lloyd's girlfriend is having a birthday party, but he gets chased out by the father. Later, they all end up at the roller rink.

The Big Idea (1917) - 7/10 - 10 minutes - Lloyd works at an antique store where business is slow. He comes up with a big idea to drum up business. This one was relatively simple, but fun.

[Rusty]

489 - The Great K & A Train Robbery (1926) - 7/10 - Tom Mix stars as a detective hired to investigate a series of train robberies. He learns that there is an inside man so he doesn't correct the assumption that he is a bandit. There is plenty of action and I thought it was a nice film.


490 - The Toll of the Sea (1922) - 7/10 - Lotus Flower is a Chinese girl who finds and helps rescue an American man who is floating in a tide pool near the sea. They fall in love and marry in the Chinese fashion. He plans to take her back to America with him when he leaves, but is discouraged from doing this by his friends. I thought it was a decent film and it was a very early technicolor feature. The colors and scenery look great.


491 - Temptations of a Great City (1911) - 6/10 - A man with a good job plus additional financial support from his wealthy mother finds himself deep in debt to a loan shark due to his partying and spendthrift ways. The loan shark is aiming for the mother's money. The man complicates things by starting a relationship with the loan shark's daughter. It wasn't bad.

[Rusty]

492 - Reservoir Dogs (1992) - 7.5/10 - A group of criminals pull off a diamond heist, but it goes bad as the cops seem to be waiting for them. They suspect that there might be a rat in their group. I though Buscemi and Keitel in particular were good and it was a good movie, but I didn't think it was in the same class as Pulp Fiction.


493 - South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut (1999) - 8/10 - I've never been that interested in South Park, but this was pretty funny and had lots of good songs parodying various musicals. The March of War bit was a nice touch.


494 - Ghost in the Shell (1995) - 7/10 - I read the manga back in the 90s and enjoyed it, but had never watched the anime. This cyberpunk film has pretty good visuals and a decent story, though it could have been better.


495 - It's Such a Beautiful Day (2012) - 9/10 - Bill has some unspecified illness which causes memory and physical issues. The story is animated, but mixes in real footage here and there. The story is a mix of humor and drama and is told in a stream of consciousness fashion. I thought it was excellent.


496 - Dracula (1931) - 6/10 - Bela Lugosi stars as Count Dracula. The movie isn't bad, but it feels like they left way too much out.


497 - Harold and Maude (1971) - 8.5/10 - Harold is a young man obsessed with death. He fakes realistic suicides regularly and his mother has become somewhat inured to them. He attends funerals of strangers and drives a hearse. He meets 79 year old Maude at a couple of the funerals. She is an eccentric who likes to attend funerals of strangers and randomly steal cars. The two become fast friends. The movie has quite a bit of dark humor and is very entertaining.

[Rusty]

498 - Rush (2013) - 7/10 - Chris Hemsworth is race car driver James Hunt who had a rivalry with fellow driver Niki Lauda (Daniel Brühl) in the 1970s. Much of the film focuses on their battle for the Formula 1 Championship in 1976. Hemsworth is good as Hunt and Brühl is very good as Lauda, but the movie itself didn't really feel that compelling, especially in the race sequences, though they were filmed well. It is a decent and watchable movie, though.


499 - Zero for Conduct (1933) - 5/10 - Four students at a strict boarding school are constantly getting in trouble and decide to rebel on the school's Commemoration Day. The movie isn't really all that interesting and none of the students stand out. There are a few interesting bits here and there, but overall it isn't that great.


500 - Lost in America (1985) - 7.5/10 - Albert Brooks and Julie Hagerty star as a married couple who decide to leave their jobs in California, liquidate all of their assets, and travel the country in a motorhome. Problems arise at their first stop in Las Vegas. This was a pretty solid dramedy.


501 - Kind Hearts and Coronets (1949) - 8.5/10 - Dennis Price stars as Louis Mazzini, a distant heir to the Dukedom of Chalfont. In revenge for their treatment of his mother, Louis decides to murder the eight heirs who are in line of succession ahead of him (all played by Alec Guinness). What follows is a smart black comedy.


502 - Persona (1966) - 7/10 - A popular stage actress named Elizabet (Liv Ullmann) stops speaking for no apparent reason. She is deemed to be otherwise in perfect health physically and mentally. A nurse named Alma (Bibi Andersson) is hired to be a companion to Elizabet and to tend to her needs. Most of the film features Alma talking to Elizabet, sharing personal details, and slowly seeming to lose her sense of self. The movie is very well done for what it is, but it isn't a film that I really enjoyed all that much.


503 - Lonesome (1928) - 8.5/10 - Mary and Jim are lonely New Yorkers who get up early for work and go about their day. They each decide to go to Coney Island after work and they meet and have a wonderful time together. However, fate intervenes to separate them. I thought it was a wonderful film with great leads and creative filming techniques.


504 - Interstella 5555: The 5tory of the 5ecret 5tar 5ystem (2003) - 7/10 - An alien band is kidnapped, brainwashed, and brought to Earth to perform and win an award. I like Daft Punk and didn't know that they had made an entire movie to go along with one of their albums. It was decent.


505 - SuperOutro (1989) - 3/10 - A schizophrenic goes around the city saying and doing strange things. He eventually is inspired by a picture of Christopher Reeve as Superman to dream of flying over the city. I thought the film was weird and didn't really enjoy most of it. If you've ever wanted to watch somebody defecate on screen, though, then this film might be for you.

[Rusty]

506 - M (1931) - 9.5/10 - A serial killer is on the loose in this Fritz Lang classic. The killer abducts and kills young children and has been doing so for months. The police don't have any leads and are cracking down on the criminals in their search for a clue. The criminal organizations decide to track the killer down themselves to relieve the pressure they are feeling. The movie is excellent and definitely lives up to its reputation.


507 - Close-Up (1990) - 7/10 - A poor man with an interest in film pretends to be a well known director and becomes acquainted with a family in Tehran. The film is essentially a documentary with quite a few parts reenacted by the actual people involved. It starts with a journalist covering the arrest of the imposter and then proceeds through the trial and its aftermath. It was interesting at times and a bit boring at other times.


508 - Casablanca (1942) - 8/10 - I decided to rewatch this film since I was a bit underwhelmed when I watched it a long time ago. I enjoyed the film a lot more this time around.


509 - Stormy Weather (1943) - 7.5/10 - The film is a musical romance with Bill "Bojangles" Robinson and Lena Horne in the leads, but that mainly serves just to allow a number of Black performers to make music and dance. In addition to Robinson and Horne, we get to see Fats Waller, Cab Calloway, and many others, including a spectacular dance number from the Nicholas Brothers. It is a fun film with lots of good performances.


510 - Vampyr (1932) - 5/10 - This vampire movie certainly had a lot of atmosphere and while the ending was good, I didn't really care for most of the film. I can see why others might like it, but it wasn't for me.


511 - Badlands (1973) - 8/10 - Terrence Malick directed this film about a teenage girl who goes on the run with her older boyfriend after he kills the girl's father. The two are on the run for quite a while. Sissy Spacek and Martin Sheen were each very good in their roles. The movie is inspired (or loosely based) on the Starkweather killings fro 15 years earlier.


512 - The Nazis Strike (1943) - 7.5/10 - The second Why We Fight documentary looks at the advance of the German war machine as they spread the Nazi ideas through Europe. It had some decent footage and gave a fairly good look at the early stages of the war. I recognized Kazimiera Mika grieving for her sister in a couple of the clips. She was the subject of one of the most famous photos from that time and just passed away in 2020.

[Rusty]

513 - My Darling Clementine (1946) - 8/10 - Henry Fonda stars as Wyatt Earp in this John Ford western based on the shootout at the O.K. Corral. It's got nice performances and good cinematography and is a very good western.


514 - A Matter of Life and Death (1946) - 9/10 - David Niven stars as a British airman named Peter who has to bail out of his airplane without a parachute. The last person he talks to is an American woman named June (Kim Hunter) manning the radio. They fall for each other in their brief time over the airwaves. Due to a mixup in the afterlife, Peter survives and wakes up on a beach the next morning. He quickly locates June, but later discovers that the afterlife wants to rectify their mistake and he must defend his right to stay. Niven and Hunter are each excellent as is the supporting cast. It's a very nice film.


515 - L'Age d'or (1930) - 7/10 - An odd surrealist film that was strange, but somewhat compelling.


516 - Fantastic Planet (1973) - 8/10 - On a distant planet, giant blue humanoids keep small Oms (humans) as pets. A few of the blue aliens think that Oms may be more advanced than just mere pets, but the majority treat tame Oms as pets and wild Oms as pests to be exterminated. Things start to change when one tame Om escapes with a learning device. This was a pretty nice animated film.

[Rusty]

517 - Posle smerti (1915) - 7/10 - Andrei lives with his aunt and doesn't get out much. His friend takes him to see a well known actress performa and he finds her interesting. He becomes obsessed with her a few months later after she dies. It started out a bit sow, but was decent overall.


518 - Picnic at Hanging Rock (1975) - 7/10 - In 1900, a group of schoolgirls visit Hanging Rock for a picnic. Some of them decide to climb the rock and are not seen again. Search parties are sent out as the stories of witnesses come out. I thought it wasn't bad, but I may not have been in the proper frame of mind to appreciate it more.


519 - L'Atalante (1934) - 8/10 - Jean is a barge captain on the Seine and when he marries Juliette, a girl from a small town, he brings her on board to live. Juliette adapts to barge life, but really wants to see Paris, but Jean gets jealous whenever she shows any attention to other men, including members of his crew. This was a pretty nice feature.


520 - Make Way for Tomorrow (1937) - 8/10 - An older couple loses their home and the two are separated as they each move in with a different one of their adult children. The children find them to be a burden and make plans to get them out of their home. It's a good film and the situation is a sad one. The children and their spouses definitely seem ungrateful and somewhat uncaring, but I think the couple deserves blame as well with springing the situation on the kids at the last minute when they had ample warning. Unlike Leo McCarey (and probably many others), I prefer The Awful Truth.


521 - Quixote (1965) - 8/10 - This film was shot by Bruce Baillie during a cross country trip and is presented without narration. It provides a slice of life view of the U.S. at this time and is also interesting in the way the scenes cut from one to the next and perhaps some subtle (or not so subtle) commentary along the way. I enjoyed it.


522 - Flaming Creatures (1963) - 0/10 - What the hell did I just watch?

[Rusty]

523 - Frances Ha (2012) - 7.5/10 - Greta Gerwig stars as a dancer who is struggling to make a living and advance in her career. She lives with her best friend in Brooklyn, but has to find a new place to live when her roommate decides to move to a more expensive area. The film follows her struggles and relationships with others over a period of time in a fairly low key, but pleasant film.

66 Scenes from America (1982) - Short scenes from a cross country trip. Sometimes there is a bit of action. Sometimes it is just people standing there and introducing themselves. It was still somewhat interesting.

un chien andalou (1929) - A surrealist short film that I didn't particularly enjoy.

The House is Black (1963) - A visit to a leper colony in Iran. It was okay.


524 - Birthplace (1992) - 8.5/10 - Henryk Greenberg is an American who was born in Poland who escaped the Holocaust as a young boy, though many of his relatives were not as fortunate. He returns to where he was born to try and find out what he can about the murders of his father and younger brother. It's a very well made and sometimes powerful film.


525 - The Story of Kindness or How to Behave (1987) - 7/10 - This VIetnamese documentary looks at human suffering and the meaning of kindness. It was interesting.


526 - The Quiet Earth (1985) - 8/10 - A New Zealand scientist wakes up one morning and finds that he is apparently the last person on Earth. He tries to find other people without success and eventually starts to lose his sanity until a change occurs in his situation. I thought it was a pretty good science fiction story.


527 - Contratiempo (2016) - 8/10 - A young businessman wakes up in a hotel room with his lover dead and the room locked from the inside as the police arrive to investigate. He is awaiting trial when one of his lawyers shows up to go over the details of the case, including anything that he may have left out of previous testimony. There are a number of twists and turns in an enjoyable locked room mystery.


528 - The Three-Sided Mirror (1927) - 6/10 - A wealthy young man falls for three women from different backgrounds (consecutively, not at the same time). There was some interesting imagery in the second half of the film, but overall I thought it was just okay.

[Rusty]

The Idea (1932) - A man is thinking and comes up with the idea of a nude woman. People are inspired by it, but the authorities try to cover her up without much success.

Hotel E (1992) - This one was interesting, but kind of strange. Apparently it represented the darkness between Eastern Europe and the American Dream.

Tale of Tales (1979) - This is a good animated short told as fairy tales or memories which focuses in part on the losses the Soviet Union had during WWII.

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Gertie the Dinosaur (1914) - Winsor McCay is featured here and also an animated cartoon that he drew featuring a dinosaur. It was good.

Quasi at the Quackadero (1976) - Two ducks visit an amusement park in the future. It had a bit of an odd art style, but wasn't bad.

You Ought to Be in Pictures (1940) - Daffy convinces Porky to quit the cartoon business and try his hand it feature films with predictable results. It was fun.

The Band Concert (1935) - Mickey Mouse is conducting the William Tell Overture at a concert in the park when Donald Duck shows up and wants to join in. Wacky fun.

Clock Cleaners (1937) - Mickey, Donald, and Goofy have a job cleaning a giant clock and clock tower.

The Dover Boys at Pimento University or The Rivals of Roquefort Hall (1942) - A Rover Boys spoof, not that many today would know who the Rover Boys are.

A Corny Concerto (1943) - Elmer conducts a couple of Strauss waltzes which play during two short cartoons.

Red Hot Riding Hood (1943) - Riding Hood is all grown up and performing in a nightclub in this Tex Avery short.

Snow-White (1933) - Betty Boop is Snow White in this musical cartoon.

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La Jetee (1962)

Beastie Boys: Fight for Your Right Revisited (2011) - Beastie Boys past vs Beastie Boys future (courtesy of a DeLorean). Lots of familiar faces here.

Moznosti dialogu (1983) - A strange stop motion/claymation animated short

Yozhik v tumane (1975) - A hedgehog is off to visit his friend, but gets lost in the fog and is scared by what he encounters.

[Rusty]

529 - Eraserhead (1977) - 5.5/10 - A man deals with his mutant baby, his girlfriend and her odd parents, and a neighbor woman all in his bleak landscape. I suppose that this is David Lynch's ode to fatherhood. It definitely has a lot of style and substance and rates very high for that. My problem is that I really just didn't like the film. Lynch can be hit or miss for me. For example, I liked Blue Velvet quite a bit, but disliked Mulholland Drive and Wild at Heart.


530 - Cat People (1942) - 7/10 - Oliver is an engineer who meets a fashion designer named Irena at the zoo. The two start dating and fall in love, but Irena is afraid of a curse from her Serbian homeland that she will turn into a cat and kill her lover. I thought that this was fairly well acted all around and it was an entertaining film.


531 - Point Blank (1967) - 8/10 - Lee Marvin stars as a man who was betrayed by his partner during a job and left for dead. He survived and sets out to get the money that he is owed. It is a nice action film and Marvin does a nice job along with the supporting cast which includes Angie Dickinson.


532 - The Spirit of the Beehive (1973) - 8.5/10 - In a small village in 1940 Spain, a young girl gets a bit obsessed after seeing the 1931 movie Frankenstein. Her parents are a bit distant and her older sister can't resist playing into the girl's fears/beliefs a bit. I thought the movie was beautifully shot and had pretty nice performances from the two girls.


533 - Killer's Kiss (1955) - 6/10 - A boxer relates the events that happened to him over the previous few days, including a boxing match, meeting a girl, and crossing her underworld friend. There is a nice chase and fight scene at the end of the film, but much of it is pretty uninteresting.


534 - Nothing But Time (1926) - 7/10 - A day in the life of Paris with minimal commentary. I thought it was well put together and interesting to see a bit of the city life from nearly a century ago.

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535 - The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1996) - 7.5/10 - Disney did a nice job with this animated musical adaptation of the Hunchback story.


536 - If....(1968) - 7.5/10 - Malcolm McDowell stars in this story about a British boys boarding school where the students return for the new term. Three of the older boys decide to rebel in their own fashion due to the callousness of those in charge. Their actions get increasingly violent at times and the ending is something to behold.


537 - Another Girl, Another Planet (1992) - 5/10 - A guy in an East Village apartment has a lot of women who visit him. It was shot on a toy Pixelvision camera. It can be a little bit interesting at times, but not that much.


538 - Gregory's Girl (1980) - 7.5/10 - A girl named Dorothy tries out for the boys soccer team at a school in Scotland and is better than many of the boys. Gregory becomes somewhat infatuated with her, but Dorothy and the other girls in Gregory's life are more in control of the situation than he is, including his younger sister Madeleine. This is an enjoyable coming of age drama/comedy.


539 - Total Balalaika Show (1994) - 9/10 - This was a fun concert film featuring the Leningrad Cowboys. I love the hair, too.


540 - Diamonds of the Night (1964) - 8/10 - Two Jewish boys escape from a train transporting them between concentration camps. They travel through the woods, but are eventually hunted by older, armed locals. The difference between these men and the two boys is stark. It is a fairly tense and good film.


541 - Afghan Alphabet (2002) - 4/10 - This film takes place in Afghan settlements along the border in Iran. Children and teachers are interviewed, but the questions seem pretty repetitive and pointless. I think the point was to show the problems that children who wanted to attend school faced under the Taliban, but it was not a very effective film


542 - Sweet Dream (1936) - 5/10 - I think this is the oldest Korean sound film stlll in existence and it really shows its age. A housewife feels confined in her family life so takes up shopping (with her husband's money). The husband is upset with her behavior and they fight so she leaves, also abandoning their young daughter. She takes up with a shady character who is pretending to be wealthy. Of course, her actions come back to get her in the end. It's not really a very good film, though it is interesting in places.

[Rusty]

543 - My Childhood (1972) - 8/10 - In 1945, Jamies is growing up in a coal mining town in Scotland. He lives with his older half brother and his aging grandmother. His life is marked by poverty and loneliness. This is the first of a trilogy of autobiographical films by Bill Douglas and is shot in black and white. It is pretty effective and well done.


544 - Run Uje Run (2020) - 7.5/10 - This autobiographical film from Sweden stars Uje Brandelius, a happily married father of three who is a radio talk show host and member of a pop band called Doktor Kosmos. His world is upended when he is diagnosed with Parkinson's Disease and he is afraid to tell anybody about it. Uje and his family and friends all portray themselves in the film and I thought it was pretty good.


545 - L'Avventura (1960) - 8/10 - A group of wealthy Italians have an outing on a boat in the Mediterranean. They stop at a rocky deserted island to sunbathe and relax, but one member of their party, disappears. After a long and fruitless search, Anna's lover, Sandro, and best fried Claudia (Monica Vitti) fall for each other. The people in this group seem kind of bored and like they are looking for things to keep themselves occupied. It was a good film.


546 - The Wages of Fear (1953) - 9/10 - The movie starts in a small and remote South American town. It's a lot easier to get there than it is to leave. They are far from anywhere to speak of and a ticket out costs a lot, especially without much in the way of jobs available. A big fire at an oil field gives an opportunity to four men to drive truckloads of nitroglycerin 300 miles through the jungle and hills to the site to help put out the fire. It's a dangerous and tense journey with a number of obstacles to overcome. It's also an excellent film.


547 - Alphaville (1965) - 4.5/10 - A secret agent arrives in the future city of Alphaville to look for a missing agent and to find the creator of Alpha 60, the intelligent computer that runs Alphaville. The lead actor wasn't bad, but the movie is pretty dull and uninteresting.


548 - The Secret Formula (1965) - 7.5/10 - This Mexican experimental film has a good soundtrack and some interesting imagery.


549 - The General (1926) - 9/10 - This was a rewatch and I liked it even more the second time around. Definitely a classic.


550 - Chircales (1972) - 8/10 - This documentary follows a family of brickmakers in Bogotá, Colombia. These brickmakers are stuck in a cycle of serfdom where they have to work long hours in dangerous conditions for very low wages and still end up in debt to the landlord. The landlord can also kick them out at any time, leaving them with almost nothing. It was a sad situation, but a good film.

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551 - The Diamond Arm (1968) - 7.5/10 - Semyon Gorbunkov is sent off by his wife and kids on a cruise to Turkey. He befriends a fellow passenger who is part of a smuggling operation for jewels. Through a mishap, Semyon ends up with a cast on his arms that contains the jewels his friend was supposed to pick up. Semyon realizes what is going on and reports it to the State when he returns home and they recruit him to try and catch the smugglers. There is a lot of slapstick here and there are probably things that only a Russian audience can fully appreciate, but I thought it was a fun and fast moving comedy and I enjoyed it.


552 - Margarita y el lobo (1969) - 6/10 - The film starts with the divorce of Margarita and Lorenzo and then proceeds from there with flashbacks to their relationship. At first, Margarita fell in love with Lorenzo, but then she came to realize that he was trying to mold her into the perfect housewife without any of her own personality left. There are plenty of songs throughout as Margarita sings about the relationship. It's interesting, but doesn't feel totally complete.


553 - Inside Llewyn Davis (2013) - 8/10 - Oscar Isaac stars as a man trying to make it as a folk singer in New York City in the early 1960s without much luck. He isn't really a very likable guy, but he does have some talent singing, though nothing to show for it. He hops from one acquaintance's couch to another and for a while has to keep track of a friend's cat that he accidentally let out. I enjoyed it.


554 - A Star is Born (1976) - 4/10 - This was kind of painful to sit through at times. The story was dull and I didn't find Streisand very convincing in anything other than actual singing (and I''m not a fan of that either). Easily the worst of the A Star is Born films.


555 - The Great Ecstasy of Woodcarver Steiner (1974) - 7/10 - This documentary looks at Walter Steiner, one of the best in the world at ski flying in the 1970s. It highlights the dangers involved in jumping long distances, especially if the wind or course increase the risk.


556 - The Cameraman (1928) - 8/10 - Buster Keaton stars as a man who takes tintype photos of people on the street. He buys a newsreel camera to impress a girl who works at MGM and does his best to capture good footage and the affections of the girl, though of course a number of things go wrong. It was a pretty entertaining film.


557 - Kagemusha (1980) - 8.5/10 - A petty thief is captured who bears an uncanny resemblance to Lord Shingen of the Takeda Clan. He is enlisted to serve as a second double for the lord. When Shingen dies in 1573, Kagemusha is convinced to pretend to be Shingen in front of the whole clan with only the generals and a few others in on the secret. The movie is long at three hours, but never seems to lag, and is an excellent film from Akira Kurosawa.

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558 - One Hundred Children Waiting for a Train (1988) - 7.5/10 - This Chilean documentary looks at a film class taught on weekends to groups of children. They learn the elements of what make motion pictures work and construct their own zoetropes, film strips, and other things. They also get to watch movies. I thought it was pretty interesting.


559 - Man with a Movie Camera (1929) - 8/10 - A man with a movie camera wanders around several cities in the Soviet Union in this experimental film. It is very fast paced with lots of cuts and documents lots of things happening in these cities. It uses a lot of techniques that were either new or uncommon at the time, but have since become fairly standard.


560 - Amores Perros (2000) - 7/10 - Three stories intersect with a car crash. Octavio is in love with his brother's wife and also gets involved in a dog fighting ring. Daniel leaves his wife for a supermodel girlfriend, Valeria. El Chivo is a hitman who looks like a vagrant. It's a good movie, though the stuff with the dogs was pretty hard to watch.


561 - Zemlya (1930) - 5/10 - Life in a farming community is changed with the arrival of a new tractor. There's a murder and collectivization is at hand. There are some decent scenes, but the acting wasn't that great and a lot of the movie is fairly dull.


562 - Hellzapoppin' (1941) - 7/10 - A musical comedy about two stage comedians who want to turn their Broadway hit into a movie. They're told that they have to add a romance into the picture. There are a ton of gags, breaking of the fourth wall, and other zaniness throughout the picture. I thought it was a lot of fun, though it started to get a bit old toward the end. The dance sequence just past the midpoint of the film was very good.


563 - Raven's End (1963) - 7/10 - An aspiring writer named Anders lives with his parents in a poor neighborhood in 1930s Sweden . His father is an alcoholic and his mother works hard doing laundry to make ends meet. Their situation is somewhat bleak and Anders hopes to break out of it. It's a decent film.


564 - To the Forest of the Firefly Lights (2011) - 8.5/10 - Hotaru befriended a forest spirit on a mountain near her uncle's home during the summer she was six years old. She spent quite a bit of time with him that summer and every summer after that up through the present time when she is entering high school. Gin looks like a young man, but doesn't age like humans do. If he is touched by a human, he will disappear. The movie is relatively short, but is very well done.

[Rusty]

565 - The Maltese Falcon (1941) - 7/10 - I didn't really like this movie when I watched it the first time. I decided to give it another chance and i did like it more this time, though I still didn't love it.


566 - Avanti popolo (1986) - 7.5/10 - After the Six Day War ends, two Egyptian soldiers try to make their way across the desert to reach the Suez Canal and get home. They have a number of adventures along the way, including a British reporter, Israeli soldiers, and so on. There is a lot of humor throughout much of the film, but it can also get serious at times. I thought it was pretty good.


567 - What We Do in the Shadows (2014) - 6/10 - I'm not really a fan of mockumentaries or else I'd probably rank this higher. I'd talk about the contents of the film, but for some reason I can't remember anything about what I saw during that hour and a half...


568 - Cano Manamo (1983) - 6/10 - This documentary looks at the flood control project in Venezuela in the 1960s when they built a dam on the Orinoco River. This caused a number of environmental issues and problems for the aboriginal population. Part of the area saw increased salinity due to the Atlantic Ocean tides and this hurt the plants and animals in the region.