596 - Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted (2012) - 7/10 - I didn't have this one marked as watched, though I wasn't sure how I'd missed it. Sure enough, I could tell right away that I'd seen it, but decided to rewatch it anyway. There are definitely some good bits here - the Monte Carlo casino and choice at the beginning for example. The animals are trying to get back to New York City and join a circus as they try to stay away from the law (animal control). It's a fun movie.
597 - Animal Crackers (1930) - 6/10 - There were some funny bits here and there, but there was also dead air sometimes after attempted jokes, especially earlier in the film. It was like they were waiting for a nonexistent audience reaction. Overall, I thought it was kind of dull and the mystery of the missing painting wasn't all that interesting. There was enough there to make it worth watching once, but it is not one of the better Marx brothers films.
598 - Harakiri (1962) - 10/10 - A ronin shows up at the gate of the Iyi clan in 1630 requesting permission to use their forecourt to commit ritual suicide by harakiri. Times had been tough for masterless samurai since the peace of 1619. A retainer of the Iyi clan relates the story of a man who made the same request in the recent past in likely hope of being given some money, but forced to follow through. The ronin insists that he wants to continue and before the ceremony begins, he relates his story. Tatsuya Nakadi does an excellent job as the aging samurai who has had to scramble to make a living over the past 11 years. The set design and camerawork are also top notch. Highly recommended.
599 - Bitter Rice (1949) - 8.5/10 - Francesca and Walter stole jewels and now Walter is being hunted by the police. He passed the jewels on to Francesca when the police cause them to miss their train. Francesca mixes in with workers taking a different train to work in rice fields as seasonal workers. Another rice worker, Silvana, figures out why Francesca is there and tells her boyfriend Marco, a soldier. Walter eventually shows up and tempers flare and plans are made by Walter to make money there. The film is well acted and is pretty entertaining throughout.
600 - Aniki-Bóbó (1942) - 8.5/10 - Carlitos is a young boy with a crush on Terezinha, a girl who hangs out with the the same group of boys that Carlitos does. However, she seems to like another boy, Eduardo, who is a bit bigger and stronger and is a leader in the group. The two boys fight a couple of times as Carlitos tries to win her affection. It's a very nice film with only a few adult characters of any note - the shopkeeper and the schoolteacher.
601 - Sans Soleil (1983) - 6/10 - The film contains a somewhat random collection of footage from various parts of the world, though much of it was from Japan. The narrator reads letters from a fictitious cameraman and the film is a sort of documentary/travelogue. I found the footage more interesting than the narration, but overall the film was okay.
602 - Go West (1925) - 7/10 - Buster Keaton is down on his luck and can't get a job in New York City so he decides to head west, hopping on a train car since he has no money. He arrives at a ranch and is hired as a cowboy, though he has no skills in that regard. I thought the first part of the film was a bit slow and not really all that funny. However, it got a lot better in the second half and the finale in the city was really good.
603 - Big Trouble in Little China (1986) - 7/10 - I hadn't seen this since the 80s and didn't remember anything about it so I decided to watch it again. Jack Burton (Kurt Russell) is a truck drive who takes his friend Wang Chi (Dennis Dun) to the airport to meet his fiance. The fiance gets kidnapped and they follow the trail to Chinatown which leads to all sorts of problems. The result is a goofy supernatural martial arts action comedy that doesn't really make a lot of sense if you think about it, but is entertaining enough for the spectacle of it.