Movies

[Rusty]

665 - Toto the Hero (1991) - 8/10 - Thomas is an elderly man who lives in a care facility. He has been convinced his entire life that he was switched as a baby during a hospital fire with a boy named Alfred who grew up next door. He therefore resents Alfred for 'stealing' his life. The film features Thomas in the present plus flashbacks to his childhood and adult years with quite a bit of fantasy mixed in from his imagination. Thomas still has an active imagination as an old man and the movie is funny and entertaining.


666 - Beauty and the Beast (1946) - 8/10 - This is a good adaptation of the classic fairytale and was directed by Jean Cocteau.


667 - The Lady from Shanghai (1948) - 5/10 - Michael (Orson Welles) saves a wealthy woman (Rita Hayworth) from an attack and later gets hired by her husband to work aboard his yacht during (a very strange) excursion in the Pacific. Michael later gets involved in a plot to fake a murder. I didn't really enjoy this movie much and loathed the character of Grimsby (perhaps by design). I wasn't overly impressed with the acting of Welles or Hayworth either. The end of the film was pretty good as were a couple of parts in the courtroom scene, but the rest wasn't that great. Maybe I'm just not a fan of Welles as a director since I didn't like Citizen Kane or The Magnificent Ambersons either.


668 - Days of Heaven (1978) - 6/10 - In 1910, a steel mill worker (Richard Gere) flees Chicago after accidentally killing another man. He takes along his girlfriend and younger sister and they find work on a farm in Texas. He comes up with a plan for his girlfriend to marry the farmer who is sick with supposedly not long to live. The film is beautifully shot, but is pretty dull, especially earlier in the picture. It did get a bit better in the second half and I liked the narration from Linda Manz.


669 - Le Franc (1994) - 6/10 - A street musician who has trouble paying his rent buys a winning lottery ticket from his dwarf friend. Unfortunately, he glued it to his door for safe keeping and can't get it off so he has to carry the whole door with him to collect his prize.


670 - Police Story 2 (1988) - 8/10 - Chan and May are being harassed by some of the bad guys from the first movie. Chan also has to deal with a group of people who bombed a mall and are trying to extort money from the company that owns the mall, threatening to bomb other properties. I liked this movie a lot more than the first one. The fight scene at the end was pretty cool and even had a bit that seemed straight out of Donkey Kong.


671 - In the Mood for Love (2000) - 7.5/10 - The Chans and the Chows move in to apartments next door to each other on the same day in 1962 Hong Kong. Mr. Chow and Mrs. Chan are cordial when they see each other, but eventually start spending more time with each other when they realize that their spouses are sleeping with each other. The two develop feelings for each other over time as they try to figure out how the situation came about. The look of the film and the use of music are each very good. I thought that the story was lacking a bit, but it was still good.

[Rusty]

672 - The Lin Family Shop (1959) - 7.5/10 - In northern China in 1931, threats of war with Japan are causing a downturn in business for the Lin Family Shop since they sell Japanese goods in their store (as do other merchants) and there is a strong anti-Japanese sentiment. The Lins also owe money and have to get creative to try and pay their bills and stay in business. Shady tactics from their competitors and those in authority also cause problems. This is a pretty good melodrama and you can see the problems sort of cascade.


673 - The Yellow Scarf (Zólty szalik) (2000) - 6/10 - A man fighting alcoholism just before Christmas has dinner with his son and keeps putting off the visit to his mother he does every year. His relatives are always giving him yellow scarves because he likes them, but is always losing them. It was a decent film.


674 - Sabotage (1936) - 7/10 - A saboteur is loose in London and Scotland Yard is on the case. The main suspect is the owner of a local cinema in this Hitchcock thriller. It isn't Hitchcock's best, but I thought it was a pretty solid and entertaining film.


675 - Blood Simple (1984) - 8/10 - I appreciated the film a bit more on the rewatch.

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676 - The Round-Up (1966) - 7/10 - Set around 20 years after the failed revolution in Hungary in 1848-1849, locals are rounded up by the Austrians in an attempt to find members of a gang of guerrillas who have been committing robberies and murders. The people they are looking for are suspected of being former revolutionaries. The Austrians use informants and other tactics to try and discover their true suspects. It's pretty bleak, but effective.


677 - The Postman Always Rings Twice (1946) - 6/10 - A drifter (John Garfield) ends up getting a job at a diner after hitching a ride with the local district attorney. He ends up in a relationship with the wife (Lana Turner) of the diner's owner who talks him into a plot to kill her husband. Complications ensue. The movie wasn't bad, but It didn't really work for me that well, especially with the 30+ year age difference between the married couple. There were some bright spots, including Hume Cronyn in his brief role.


678 - People on Sunday (1930) - 7.5/10 - Two men take two young women out on Sunday for a picnic and to spend time swimming, boating, and listening to records. We also get to see scenes of everyday life for other people in Berlin around town and at the beach. Then Monday it is back to work. It was pretty interesting seeing Berlin a decade before WWII. The movie had little dialogue and had non-professional actors portraying themselves. Billy Wilder wrote the screenplay and Curt Siodmak and Robert Siodmak were involved as well.


679 - Harlan County U.S.A. (1976) - 8.5/10 - A film crew documented the coal miner's strike at the Brookside Mine in Kentucky which started in 1973 and lasted for over a year. They wanted a union contract, but the power company wouldn't agree to it. The strike became violent at times with people hired by the company occasionally shooting at strikers or their homes. The film also looks some at the national picture to broaden the perspective. It has a very effective use of music and was put together pretty well.


680 - Dead of Night (1945) - 8.5/10 - An architect arrives at a home out in the country and finds a gathering of people inside. He then remembers a recurring nightmare that he has been having which perfectly fits this situation, though each night he forgets the nightmare soon after he wakes. He even recognizes the people and is able to predict events before they happen. Each person there then relates a story of the supernatural from their past. I thought the individual stories were each pretty entertaining...not necessarily scary, but good. The framing story was also nice.

[Rusty]

681 - The Killing (1956) - 7/10 - Johnny is about to get married, but wants to pull off one big job first. He recruits a number of people and they create a meticulously timed plan to rob the racetrack of millions of dollars. It's a pretty good noir film from Stanley Kubrick.


682 - Adalen 31 (1969) - 5/10 - This film is about a strike in Sweden back in 1931 where the army had to be brought in to protect strikebreakers from strikers and a few people died when the strikers marched on the barracks and would not turn back. The story is told with a focus on one family and there are things to like in the film, but so many of the threads seem incomplete with things left out or left kind of unclear.


683 - 12:08 East of Bucharest (2006) - 7/10 - It's been 16 years since the revolution that led Ceausescu to flee in a helicopter. Jderescu has a local television station and tv show and wants to settle whether or not there was a revolution in their town. He brings on two men as guests - Manescu, a history teacher who is always in debt and drinks too much and Piscoci, an older retired man. The acting is sometimes amateurish and the atmosphere is somewhat bleak, but the show is funny at times. There is also a theme with people buying cheap firecrackers and setting them off all over the place.


684 - Harry and the Butler (1961) - 7.5/10 - Harry Adams is an older man who lives in an automobile scrapyard and serves as a watchman, though he lets kids do pretty much what they want there. He also works for a grocer. He inherits some money unexpectedly and decides to hire a butler so that he can be pampered while the money lasts. This is a charming film and was fun to watch.


685 - The Earrings of Madame de… (1953) - 8/10 - Louise is the wife of a wealthy French general, but she needs money to pay off debts. She secretly sells a pair of valuable earrings given to her by her husband as a wedding present. She pretends to lose them at the opera, but this sets off a chain of events as the earrings change hands a number of times and leads to trouble. Very well shot and acted and a pretty good film.


686 - She's Gotta Have It (1986) - 6/10 - Nola Darling is a young graphic artist who lives in Brooklyn. She's seeing three men with different qualities and doesn't see any reason to stop. She's honest with them, but the men aren't really happy with the situation. Spike Lee filmed this on a very low budget. It's not as good as many of his later works, but it wasn't bad.

[Rusty]

687 - All That Heaven Allows (1955) - 8/10 - Cary Scott (Jane Wyman) is a suburban widow who lives in a nice house, has two college age kids who visit on weekends, and spends quite a bit of time with her country club friends. When she falls in love with a younger man (Rock Hudson) who tends her trees, her friends and children turn on her in disapproval. This is a nice film that looks beautiful. The colors seem very rich.


688 - Caesar Must Die (2012) - 7/10 - Inmates at a high security prison in Italy prepare for a production of Julius Caesar with their theater program. They spend months practicing before giving a performance for the public. They do a great job and the film captures the practices and it is clear that the inmates can relate to the play on a personal level.


689 - Roger & Me (1989) - 7/10 - Michael Moore spends the film going to a number of places trying to get an interview with GM CEO Roger Smith and to get him to visit Flint. Moore also juxtaposes film of people getting evicted and other evidence of the city's decline with people at country clubs and failed attempts at civic improvement. Then there's the woman on social security who raises rabbits for pet or meat. The film is fairly effective, but I think it went on a bit too long.


690 - The Lodger: A Story of the London Fog (1927) - 7.5/10 - A serial killer calling himself The Avenger has been targeting blond women on Tuesday evenings. Suspicion falls on a mysterious man who rents a room in a lodging house, but Daisy, the daughter of the house, is attracted to him and believes that he is innocent. This early Hitchcock silent film is pretty good.


691 - Band of Outsiders (1964) - 8/10 - Franz and Arthur are friends and small time criminals who plan a heist using information they got from a young woman named Odile that Franz met in English class. A man in the home where Odile lives keeps a large amount of money in an unlocked room in the home. There is a nice dance scene in a cafe and a brief visit to the Louvre mixed in to the three hanging out and planning the theft.


692 - Bob le flambeur (1956) - 9/10 - Bob is a well known and liked gambler who once did time for a bank job, but has been straight for 20 years. He has a run of bad luck and decides to assemble a crew and rob a casino. Unfortunately, word leaks out. This was very well done.


693 - Out of the Past (1947) - 8/10 - Jeff Bailey (Robert Mitchum) runs a gas station in California, but has a secret past that catches up to him one day. He was a private detective working for a powerful gambling boss (Kirk Douglas) when he ended up having to hide out after a job went wrong. He relates the story to his girlfriend (Jane Greer) and then finds himself back in with the same crowd looking for a way out. It's a classic example of film noir.

[Rusty]

694 - Batch '81 (1982) - 6/10 - Sid is a pre-med student who decides to join the Alpha Kappa Omega fraternity. He and the rest of his pledge class who don't wash out are subject to six months of hazing that takes a variety of forms, often with humiliation involved and sometimes with violence. I'm sure that many (most?) fraternities didn't go to these extremes back then, but I don't regret not joining one when I was in college.


695 - The Long Goodbye (1973) - 7/10 - Philip Marlowe gets involved in a case where a friend is accused of murdering his wife. He's also looking for his cat. Marlowe's neighbors were certainly interesting. The movie was good, but I did get tired of the overuse of the song, stylistic choice or not.


696 - Cría cuervos… (1976) - 8.5/10 - The film is shown from the viewpoint of 8 year old Ana (Ana Torrent) who listens to her father die of a probably heart attack and then watches his mistress leave late one night. Her mother died earlier so Ana's aunt and grandmother come to live with Ana and her two sisters. Ana is a sad child who is keenly aware of death. I thought this was an excellent film and one that I liked a lot more than the other films that I've seen from Carlos Saura. The use of the song Porque te vas was also very good here.


697 - Ivan's Childhood (1962) - 8/10 - Ivan is a young boy who has lost his parents and sister to the Germans during WWII. He is small and able to sneak across enemy lines and gather intelligence which he passes on to his friends in the Russian army. There are three soldiers who look after Ivan and try to protect them as much as they can. They want to send him away from the front lines, but he threatens to run away and return on his own if they do. It's a pretty bleak childhood, but Ivan has memories of better times. I thought it was a very good movie and I liked it more than Tarkovsky's later Solaris.


698 - The Rules of the Game (1939) - 8/10 - This comedy of manners from Jean Renoir involves a group of upper class individuals and their servants spending a weekend at a country estate, hunting, socializing, and enjoying entertainment. There is a fair amount of flirting, cheating, and jealousy going on as well. Fortunately the film was restored almost to its original length after being shortened due to an initial poor response. It's a very good film.


699 - Alice in Wonderland (2010) - 6/10 - I didn't think that Tim Burton's version of the Alice story was quite as bad as some reviews that I've read. I liked the opening part up through the mad tea party and then after that it was just okay.


700 - Open Doors (1990) - 7.5/10 - In 1937, an Italian man who was recently fired kills his former employer, a former coworker, and his wife. At trial, he seems eager to get the death penalty, but one of the judges is opposed to killing people and seeks a way to keep it from happening. A well acted and entertaining film.

[Rusty]

701 - Turkish Delight (1973) - 6/10 - Rutger Hauer makes his debut here as an artist who is picking up and screwing just about any woman he comes across. Then the story flashes back to his relationship with Olga which started with her picking him up while hitchhiking. There is a ton of sex and nudity along with wild antics. There were plenty of funny parts, but overall just an okay movie.


702 - Belle Epoque (1992) - 8/10 - In 1931, a young man has left the army and is headed for Madrid. Along the way, he ends up at a country farmhouse and befriends the older man who lives there. He is about to depart when the older man's four lovely daughters arrive by train and he somehow misses his own train. The movie is a lot of fun throughout and is a pleasant watch.


703 - Letters from Marusia (1975) - 6/10 - In 1925, miners in Marusia, Chile went on strike due to poor working conditions and low pay. They were met with troops sent in to end the strike. The miners fought back with dynamite and more troops were sent in, leading to a massacre as the army asserted control.

[Rusty]

704 - Phantom of the Opera (1943) - 7.5/10 - While not as good as the Lon Chaney silent version, I enjoyed this take on the classic tale. It made good use of the technicolor through much of it (not as much in the sewer scenes) and there was good music and decent performances.


705 - Lone Wolf and Cub 4 - Baby Cart in Peril (1972) - 8.5/10


706 - Lone Wolf and Cub 5 - Baby Cart in the Land of Demons (1973) - 8/10


707 - Lone Wolf and Cub 6 - White Heaven in Hell (1974) - 7.5/10 - Things get a bit ridiculous in the final episode with enemies who can move underground like swimming in water and a big ski battle going down a mountain against 100 members of the Yagyu, though it was still fun. There also wasn't any real resolution in the end, but unfortunately this was the last in the series. The manga continued for 2 more years after this came out.

[Rusty]

708 - Samurai II - Duel at Ichijoji Temple (1955) - 7.5/10 - We jump ahead a bit and Musashi has improved in the way of the sword and is challenging the Yoshioka school, though the disciples are a bit underhanded in trying to protect their masters. We also get to meet Kojiro Sasaki. This was good, though I liked the first movie a lot more. It had more humor and was more entertaining.


709 - Samurai III - Duel at Ganryu Island (1956) - 7.5/10 - Musashi decides to travel and take up farming, putting off his duel with Sasaki for a year. I liked this one a bit more than the second film, but it still didn't equal the first film.


710 - Dune (2021) - 7.5/10 - The movie has great visuals and is a pretty solid adaptation as far as it goes. I also like the cast. However, the deliberate pacing left me a bit bored at times.

[Rusty]

711 - Tales from Earthsea (2006) - 6/10 - This Studio Ghibli film is somewhat lackluster and generic. It's my least favorite film from them so far. It is sort of an adaptation of Ursula K. LeGuin's books, but with a lot of stuff changed.

[Rusty]

712 - Earwig and the Witch (2021) - 7.5/10 - A girl is left at an orphanage as a baby with a note that her name is Earwig. She grows up there and is later adopted by a witch who wants to use her as an extra pair of hands. This Studio Ghibli film has pretty low ratings, but I enjoyed it. I liked the main character and the music.

[Rusty]

713 - My Neighbors the Yamadas (1999) - 7.5/10 - This movie is a series of short sketches featuring the Yamada family - Takashi and Matsuko along with their children, Noboru and Nonoko plus Shige (Matsuko's mother). We get to see the humor in their daily lives through the sketches. The art style is very different from other Studio Ghibli films and it may take a while to get used to it, but I liked it. It isn't the best Ghibli film, but it was pretty good overall.

[Rusty]

714 - Eternals (2021) - 7/10 - Overall, I liked the film, but it is my least favorite MCU film so far. I never got into the Eternals characters in the comics so that may have played a small role. There were good parts interspersed, especially in smaller character scenes. The battles with the deviants generally weren't all that interesting. The movie felt like it could have used more editing to tighten it up and cut the run time.

[Rusty]

715 - La tregua (1974) - 7/10 - The film starts on Martin's 49th birthday. He's been a widower for 20 years and lives with his three grown children. He works in an office, but has a pretty dull life overall. Things perk up for him when he starts dating a woman half his age. I was somewhat bored through the first part of the film, but it picked up after he started dating the young woman and it became more interesting after that. Overall it was a decent film.

[Rusty]

715 - Tango (1998) - 7/10 - A director is recovering from a broken leg and from his wife leaving him while also trying to put together a film featuring tango music and dance. He also has to put up with requests from the investors in his film. Quite a bit of the film features the rehearsals and planning of the film with a somewhat thin story of a romance with a young dancer. There is plenty of good music and dance and I enjoyed the film, certainly a lot more than Blood Wedding and more than Carmen as well. Those films were also directed by Carlos Saura and have similarities to Tango in terms of structure. This film is much more polished than those two films, though.