Movies

[Rusty]

140 - Bird (1988) - 7.5/10 - Forest Whitaker does a pretty nice job here as Charlie Parker in this biopic which focuses on Parker's career along with his demons and family life. It gets a bit jumbled at times, but Whitaker's performance and the music are well worth watching.


141 - The Broken Circle Breakdown (2012) - 7.5/10 - A couple struggles with losing their daughter to cancer. It's a decent film on a tough subject with a lot of nice bluegrass music since they are both in a band.


142 - Waltzing Regitze (1989) - 8/10 - Karl Aage and his wife Regitze host a garden party during the summer for their family and friends. The event is pretty lively and Regitze is the life of the party, but Karl Aage spends much of the time lost in thought, thinking back on his marriage from the time he first met Regitze during the war, living together, raising a son, and so on. It's very nicely done.


143 - Footnote (2011) - 6/10 - Uriel Shkolnik is a popular and successful college professor and researcher of Jewish scripture. His father Eliezer is also a college professor and researcher and researcher of Jewish scripture, but is stubborn, abrasive, old fashioned, and hasn't received acclaim for his work. This one didn't really work for me all that well, even though it's well shot and the acting isn't bad for what they have to work with.


144 - Placido (1961) - 6/10 - It's Christmas Eve in a small Spanish town. The wealthy women of the town have an event where they invite homeless people to eat dinner with them and they also bring in actors to be auctioned off for charity. Placido is hired to provide some transportation during the event. He is worried about making the first payment on his motor car since it is due that day, but events keep delaying him from doing this, This is a black comedy and seems to be somewhat highly regarded, but I didn't really find it very entertaining.

Shorts
On My Mind (2021) - 8/10 (18 minutes)
Ala Kachuu - Take and Run (2021) (38 minutes)
BoxBallet (2020) - 8/10 (15 minutes)

[Rusty]

145 - Water (2005) - 7/10 - In 1938, Chuyia is an 8 year old girl who was married off to a man who subsequently died. She was sent off to an ashram for widows where they were expected to live for the rest of their lives. Chuyia befriends some of the widows there and a young man in the town who is a follower of Gandhi


146 - Twin Sisters (2002) - 7.5/10 - Anna and Lotte are twin sisters whose parents die in 1926 when they are six years old. One of the twins goes to live with relatives in Holland who are well to do and the other is sent to live with relatives who are farmers in Germany and keep her from going to school so that she can work on the farm. The two girls don't meet up again until they are adults and they live in two different worlds, but still feel close to one another. However, the war serves to separate them in a number of ways.


147 - King Kong (1976) - 6/10 - A fairly uninteresting remake of the 1933 film.


148 - Dancer in the Dark (2000) - 7/10 - Bjork plays Selma, a Czech immigrant who is going blind. She is saving him so that her son, who has the same condition, can have an operation to correct the problem when he turns 13. She has a love for musicals and often daydreams musical numbers when she is troubled.


149 - Tin Pan Alley (1940) - 7.5/10 - Harrigan and Calhoun are songwriters and pubilshers who become acquainted with two singers, sisters Katie and Lily Blaine (Alice Faye and Betty Grable) just before the U.S. enters the first world war. This is a decent musical with plenty of good music and likable characters.


150 - Rogue Cop (1954) - 7.5/10 - Chris Kelvaney (Robert Taylor) is a police detective who takes bribes from the mob. His younger brother Eddie is also a cop, but is a straight arrow. When Eddie witnesses a murderer escaping after a job, his life is in danger and his brother sets out to try and protect him. This is a nice noir film with a good performance from Taylor.

[Rusty]

151 - I Even Met Happy Gypsies (1967) - 7/10 - Unlike the English title of this movie, you won't find any happy gypsies here. Instead, you will find poverty and a tough life in the countryside. Bora makes his living buying and selling goose feathers. He also drinks, gambles, and hits on younger women. It's a good film, but is very unsentimental.


152 - Voice in the Wind (1944) - 5/10 - A concert pianist who escaped after being tortured by the Nazis has lost his memory and hides out on the island of Guadalupe. Not a very good movie, unfortunately.


153 - I nuovi mostri (1977) - 7/10 - An Italian sketch comedy with a number of different episodes, some better and some worse.


154 - Paw (1959) - 7.5/10 - Paw is a young boy whose father was Danish and his mother was West Indian. When his parents die, he is sent to live with his aunt in Denmark, though she really doesn't want him and neither do many others in town due to his darker color. When his aunt gets ill, he moves in with a poacher and later an orphanage where he doesn't plan to stay for long. There is good nature footage here, but I also enjoyed the story.


155 - Bachelor Mother (1939) - 8/10 - Polly Parrish (Ginger Rogers) is a department store clerk who is mistaken for the mother of a baby left at a foundling center. The center enlists the son of the department store owner (David Niven) to try and convince her to keep 'her' baby rather than giving it up. This was a fun romantic comedy.


156 - The Blue Bird (1940) - 6/10 - Two kids (Shirley Temple and Johnny Russell) are transported to a fantasyland by a fairy so that they can search for the blue bird of happiness. The film seems to be an attempt to capitalize on the popularity of The Wizard of Oz. Unfortunately, it's not a very good film, though it does look nice.


157 - Timbuktu (2014) - 8/10 - The story takes place during the time that Islamist militants had taken control of Timbuktu and were enforcing their own religious views on the people there, including banning music and football plus requiring women to wear socks and gloves. One of the main characters is a cattle farmer who lives with his wife and daughter in the dunes outside the city. He gets into an altercation with a fisherman. The film has kind of a laid back style while still dealing with serious matters. I think it is a very good film.

[Rusty]

158 - The Man Without a Past (2002) - 8/10 - A man arrives in Helsinki by train and before he can get settled in is attacked, beaten severely, and left for dead. He somehow survives, though he has has lost his memory. He sets out to make a new life there among the down and out, but has trouble getting work due to his lack of identity. It's a bit of an odd film, but I liked it.


159 - Children of Nature (1991) - 7.5/10 - An elderly man is put into a retirement home by his daughter. He meets an old girlfriend there and decide to escape and make their way back to the west coast where they grew up.


160 - 'G' Men (1935) - 7.5/10 - Cagney stars as a lawyer who was put through law school by a gangster friend, but refuses to have anything to do with the mob. He becomes a federal agent after a friend dies and helps track down the killers.


161 - Paix sur les champs (1970) - 7/10 - Stanne's mother was thought to be a witch and Stanne is thought to have murdered his girlfriend Lodia over 20 years earlier. Now Stanne's son has fallen for Lodia's (much) younger sister and things finally come to a head after all this time.


162 - 102 Dalmatians (2000) - 5/10 - Watchable, but unnecessary and not very good.


163 - Hooper (1978) - 7/10 - Fairly typical Burt Reynolds fare. This one is about an aging stuntman working on a picture with a demanding director. It's not great, but I enjoyed it.


164 - Bread, Love and Dreams (1953) - 7/10 - A marshal (Vittorio De Sico) is sent to a remote Italian town. He is a bachelor, but everyone in town seems intent on fixing him up with a local girl. He is also interested in marrying and sets his sights on one young woman (Gina Lollobrigida), but she is in love with one of the riflemen under the marshal's command. This is a decent romantic comedy and Lollobrigida was the best part of it.

[Rusty]

165 - Arabian Nights (1942) - 7/10 - Haroun, the Caliph of Baghdad, is in love with the dancer, Sherazade, but Haroun's brother, Kamar, wants her for his bride as well. We get plenty of action here with Haroun having to hide in a circus troupe after Kamar takes power. Having Shemp as Sinbad the Sailor doesn't hurt either. It's a fun movie with nice 3-strip Technicolor.


166 - The Sheep Has Five Legs (1954) - 6/10 - In order to boost tourism, a small town in France sets out to reunite an old man with the quintuplet boys he hasn't seen in nearly 40 years. The godfather of the boys is sent out to invite each of them back for a 40th birthday celebration at which the President of the Republic will also be a guest. Fernandel plays the father and all five sons. It isn't very funny at first, though I did like the stories with the sons who were a ship captain and an advice columnist.


167 - Belfast (2021) - 9/10 - Kenneth Branagh wrote this based on his memories growing up in Belfast in 1969/1970. The Troubles are in full swing and start to affect the street where Buddy, our protagonist, lives. It's a mixed neighborhood of Protestants and Catholics and they seem to get along fairly well until agitators show up with their ultimatums. I thought it was a very nice film with solid performances all around, especially Caitriona Balfe as Buddy's mother. Jude Hill, Jamie Dornan, Judi Dench, and Ciaran Hinds were all really good as well.


168 - It Should Happen to You (1954) - 8/10 - Judy Holliday stars as Gladys Glover, a model who recently lost her job. She meets Pete (Jack Lemmon), a documentary filmmaker and strikes up a friendship while walking in Central Park. Soon after, she gets the idea to rent a billboard and put her name on it, thus setting off a series of events that get her pretty well known in the city. I thought Holliday and Lemmon did a very nice job and this is a pretty entertaining film.


169 - Down Argentine Way (1940) - 7.5/10 - Betty Grable stars as Glenda Crawford, an American heiress who falls for Ricardo Quintana (Don Ameche), the son of a horse breeder from Argentina. However Quintana's father holds a longstanding grudge against Crawford's father and refuses to have anything to do with the family. There is plenty of music and dance in this romantic comedy.


170 - The Pink Panther Strikes Again (1976) - 6/10 - I thought the first half of the film was pretty dumb, but I did enjoy the second half.

[Rusty]

171 - Ladies in Retirement (1941) - 7/10 - Ida Lupino plays Ellen Creed, housekeeper and companion to a wealthy older friend. Ellen invites her two eccentric sisters to visit after receiving a letter threatening to call the police on them due to their behavior. Their stay eventually annoys the friend whose house they are staying in, leading to more trouble. It's a decent noir film.


172 - Holiday Inn (1942) - 7.5/10 - Jim Hardy (Bing Crosby) decides to leave show business to live on a farm, leaving behind his partners Ted Hanover (Fred Astaire) and Lila Dixon (Virginia Dale). He eventually decides to turn the farm into an inn that is only open on holidays and recruits Linda Mason (Marjorie Reynolds) as his partner. There's plenty of singing and dancing along with romantic intrigue. It also featured the premiere of White Christmas and apart from an unfortunate blackface number, is a pretty entertaining film.


173 - For Me and My Gal (1942) - 6.5/10 - Judy Garland and Gene Kelly star as Vaudeville performers who get involved with each other, but circumstances get in their way, including world war. It was a so-so musical.


174 - Twin Sisters of Kyoto (1963) - 6/10 - Chieko was abandoned as a baby and raised by a cloth merchant. She discovers that she has a twin sister named Naeko when she encounters her at a fair, though Naeko had a much harder life. Chieko tries to get to know Naeko better, but Naeko has some reticence due to her life to that point. It's a pretty slow and somber film, though it does give an interesting glimpse into an aspect of Japanese society at the time. Shima Iwashita does a good job in both roles. Iwashito would also play a woman named Chieko in Noboru Nakamura's later film, Portrait of Chieko. Unfortunately, Portrait of Chieko is difficult to find and is the only Foreign Film nominee that I haven't found yet.


175 - Lone Survivor (2013) - 6.5/10 - Four Navy Seals insert into a remote region of Afghanistan on a mission that goes wrong, forcing them into a firefight in a mountainous area.


176 - The Black Dahlia (2006) - 6/10 - The investigation into the death of Elizabeth Short leads to one homicide detective becoming obsessed with the case. L.A. Confidential this isn't.

[Rusty]

177 - The Eddy Duchin Story (1956) - 7/10 - A decent biopic starring Tyrone Power as the pianist/bandleader from the 1930s/40s.


178 - All is Lost (2013) - 8/10 - Robert Redford stars as a veteran sailor whose sailboat strikes a random floating cargo container, thus creating a hole in the side of his ship. He manages to seal the hole, but the seawater has damaged his radio and other equipment. He spends the next week or so doing what he can to survive as his situation worsens. There is very little dialogue in the film and Redford does an excellent job in the role.


179 - The Grandmaster (2013) - 7/10 - A story based on the life of Wing Chun master Ip Man with Tony Leung in the starring role. It's a decent movie, though I don't think it really lives up to the promise of it's first pre-war segment. The film certainly looks nice, though.


180 - Von Ryan's Express (1965) - 7/10 - Colonel Ryan (Frank Sinatra) ends up in an Italian POW camp in 1943 after his plane is shot down. He takes over command of the prisoners from a British Major (Trevor Howard) and the two butt heads on a number of issues. Later, they engineer an escape by hijacking a train. Not the best POW escape film, but decent.


181 - The Four Musketeers (1974) - 6/10 - The Four Musketeers once again go up against the machinations of Cardinal Richelieu and Milady de Winter. The film had its moments, but overall I didn't think it was very good.


182 - The Bear (1988) - 8/10 - In 1885, a bear cub loses its mother and starts following around an adult male bear. The adult bear has been wounded by hunters who continue to track the bear in hope of collecting its hide. It's a pretty nice film with good 'acting performances' by the bears.

[Rusty]

183 - Curse of the Golden Flower (2006) - 7/10 - This Chinese historical film deals with an emperor who tightly controls his country and his family. He has three sons including two from his second wife who also helped raise the oldest son. There are affairs, plots for rebellion, poisoning, and plenty of intrigue. The costumes and pageantry are all very good.


184 - Call Me Madam (1953) - 8/10 - Ethel Merman is a socialite who is appointed as ambassador to Lichtenburg, a small European duchy. I saw the stage musical many years ago and this was a lot of fun. My favorite scene is the one with Donald O'Connor and the balloons.


185 - The Four Feathers (1939) - 7.5/10 - A British officer resigns his commission shortly before his company is sent to the Sudan in 1895. He is branded a coward by his friends and fiancee. He decides to travel to the area in question, disguise himself as a native, and attempt to aid his fellows in secret. It's a nice film, even if I find the premise incredibly outdated.


186 - Damn Yankees (1958) - 7/10 - A Washington Senators fan makes a deal with the devil to help his favorite team win. He gets changed into a young man with lots of ability to hit and field and the devil arranges for him to tryout for the Senators. It's a decent musical, but far from my favorite.


187 - Qivitoq (1956) - 8/10 - A teacher travels from Denmark to surprise her fiance, a doctor, in Greenland only to find that he is now in a relationship with his nurse. She is embarrassed and wants to get home as quickly as possible, but the next ship is at least a week or more away. She ends up spending her time in a small fishing village and gets to know the manager of the trading post there. There is a lot of great scenery, including glaciers and icebergs, and it is a decent story as well.


188 - Nine Lives (1957) - 8/10 - Jan Baalsrud was a Norwegian commando who was trained in England and was part of a commando team into Norway in 1943 on a mission that went wrong. He was the only one to escape the Germans and survived with the aid of Norwegian patriots while also battling against snow, ice, frostbite, gangrene, and having to cross mountains and water to get to safety in Sweden. The movie does a good job depicting his ordeal.

[Rusty]

189 - Born Free (1966) - 7.5/10 - In Kenya, a game warden and his wife care for three orphaned lion cubs. Two get sent off to a zoo when they become too big, but the wife has become attached to the runt of the litter so they hang on to her for longer. However, it eventually becomes apparent that they must either teach her to survive in the wild or send her to a zoo. This is a pretty nice film with good music.


190 - Private Life (1982) - 7.5/10 - A middle aged company director loses his job when his company merges with another. He doesn't know how to handle this sudden retirement since he has no hobbies and doesn't really know his wife and kids. He sets out to figure how to get his life in order and decide what to do next. I thought this was a good Soviet drama.


191 - Beyond the Forest (1949) - 6/10 - Bette Davis stars as Rosa, a woman who is unsatisfied in her marriage to the town doctor (Joe Cotten). She thinks that she deserves more and forces her way out of the marriage to pursue a better offer from a wealth man in the city. Unfortunately, I didn't think this particular noir film was very good.


192 - Double Feature (1984) - 5/10 - Two writers spend all of their time thinking and talking about their next feature film. They debate the script and a number of aspects of the production. They do this to the detriment of their relationships with their family and the wife of one of the writers even leaves him to join a convent. It is very boring, unfortunately.


193 - Theeb (2014) - 8/10 - During WWI, a young Bedouin man is asked to guide an Englishman across the desert on some sort of mission. The man's younger brother accompanies them on the trip and it turns into much more of a fight for survival than expected. It's a bit of a slow burn, but I enjoyed it.


194 - The Face of Genius (1966) - 7/10 - This documentary was Jason Robards and covers the life of playwright Eugene O'Neill. It's fairly standard, but is decent enough.


195 - Affair in Trinidad (1952) - 7.5/10 - Rita Hayworth stars as a nightclub singer in Trinidad whose husband is murdered. She decides to work for the police to uncover who killed her husband and why he was murdered. Her husband's brother (Glenn Ford) arrives in town and starts investigating on his own as well. It is a pretty good film.

[Rusty]

Psychiatric Nursing (1958) - 7.5/10 - A surprisingly good film for its age about taking care of mental patients in a women's ward.


196 - Valley of the Dolls (1967) - 5/10 - The film starts with a young woman (Barbara Perkins) looking to get a secretarial job at a law firm that specializes in theatrical law and contracts. She becomes friends with a young singer (Patty Duke). Sharon Tate and Susan Hayward also have roles in the film. I thought it started with some promise, but it degenerated from there and was hard to watch, especially Patty Duke's character.


197 - Let's Make Love (1960) - 7/10 - Yves Montand plays billionaire Jean-Marc Clement. He goes down to take a look at a new musical which is supposed to mock various celebrities, including himself, and accidentally gets cast as...Jean-Marc Clement. He falls for the star of the show (Marilyn Monroe) and thing progress from there. I thought it was a fun film. Not a great one, but certainly charming and entertaining enough.


198 - The Gates of Paris (1957) - 7.5/10 - Juju likes to drink and spends much of his time hanging around the local bar and with his friend, Artist. A search starts for a criminal who is suspected to be in the neighborhood and the two meet him at gunpoint in Artist's house. Soon, they help him of their own accord when he becomes ill.


199 - Tlayucan (1962) - 8/10 - Most of the people in this small Mexican town are mired in poverty, but get by somehow. The church shames them to give more than they actually have to give. One man is driven by desperation to steal when his son is deathly ill, but it doesn't turn out as expected. There's a wealthy and lecherous old man, a blind beggar, and others as well who add to the drama and humor of the story.


200 - Madame Rosa (1977) - 8/10 - Simone Signoret plays a retired jewish prostitute who survived Auschwitz and now cares for the children of prostitutes, though money can be a bit of a challenge. The oldest child in her care is an Algerian boy nicknamed Momo who has been with her for 11 years. I liked this version more than the recent version with Sophia Loren titled The Life Ahead, though that was a good movie too.


201 - The Moon and Sixpence (1942) - 6/10 - A stockbroker leaves his wife and becomes an artist. He moves around a bit, eventually ending up in Tahiti. He's pretty cold to many people and focused only on his painting for which he has a lot of talent. The novel this adapts was based loosely on Paul Gauguin. I didn't find the movie all that interesting.

[Rusty]

202 - The Deep (1977) - 7/10 - Nick Nolte and Jacqueline Bissett are on vacation in Bermuda when they find a few artifacts near a shipwreck while scuba diving. There are ampules of morphine from a WWII wreck, but there might also be older and much more valuable treasure there as well. They attract the attention of treasure hunters who want the wealth for themselves. The Louis Gossett, Jr. gang seemed a bit cartoonish, but I enjoyed the movie. The underwater scenes were pretty well done.


203 - The Sea Inside (2004) - 7/10 - Ramón Sampedro was injured in a diving accident in 1968 at the age of 25 which left him a quadriplegic. He fought for nearly 30 years for the right to end his life using assisted suicide since he was unable to do it on his own. Javier Bardem does a really nice job as Sampedro.


204 - Departures (2008) - 8.5/10 - A cellist loses his job when the orchestra he is in dissolves due to poor attendance. He and his wife return to the town where he grew up to live in the house his mother left him when she died. He answers a help wanted ad and ends up working for a company that prepares the deceased for casketing in a special ceremony.


205 - The Missing Picture (2013) - 7/10 - The film mostly uses models, archival footage, and narration to tell the story of the Khmer Rouge taking over Cambodia and forcing many people into re-education camps where they often perished. The narrator was a 13 year old boy when it started and tells of his experience. It's interesting, but moves at a very slow pace and seems like a short film that has been stretched out to feature length.


206 - Yesterday (2004) - 7.5/10 - This is a fairly simple, but good film about a South African woman named Yesterday who lives in a remote village. Her husband is away for long periods of time working in Johannesburg. Yesterday has been feeling ill for some time and makes the long trip to see the doctor only to discover that she has AIDS and will likely die soon. She makes preparations for her young daughter and plans to live long enough to see the daughter attend the new village school. Leleti Khumalo gives a very nice performance as Yesterday.


207 - Hero (2002) - 7.5/10 - A nameless man defeats three assassins in the time before China was unified. He is granted an audience with the King of Qin to relate his story and be granted a reward. The movie has great cinematography and effects, though I recall enjoying it more when I saw it in the theater.

[Rusty]

208 - Arise, My Love (1940) - 7.5/10 - Tom Martin (Ray Milland) is an American pilot about to be executed in Spain for fighting on the wrong side of the civil war. He is saved in a daring rescue/escape by news correspondent Augusta Nash (Claudette Colbert). They are each interested in their career and each other in a pretty good romance/dramedy. Colbert and Milland each turn in good performances as well.


209 - Queen Bee (1955) - 6/10 - Joan Crawford stars as a manipulative Southern woman who dominates her household, including her alcoholic husband, his sister, and her former lover. When her young cousin comes to stay with them, it takes the cousin a while before she sees the manipulation that is going on.


210 - Carrie (1952) - 7/10 - A young woman moves to Chicago early in the 20th Century and ends up working in a sweat shop. Things don't start to look up until she moves in with a traveling salesman and falls in love with the man who runs a local restaurant. Problems soon turn up, however.


211 - The Proud and the Beautiful (1953) - 8/10 - A French tourist dies of meningitis while in a Mexican town and this is the start of an epidemic. His wife doesn't seem to feel anything with his death, but finds herself attracted to the town drunk, a former doctor who dances for alcohol. I enjoyed this one quite a bit.


212 - Animas Trujano - The Important Man (1961) - 7/10 - Toshiro Mifune stars as an irresponsible Mexican peasant who likes to drink, gamble, and cheat on his loyal wife. The wife is the one who really keeps the family going. He wants to be respected so he gets the idea of being Mayordomo, an honor usually given to the wealthy because it costs a lot of money.

The Boy and the Eagle (1949) - 8/10 - (15 minutes) - A boy with an injured leg sees an eagle get wounded. He brings the eagle home, cares for it until it is well, and then sets it free.

Day of the Painter (1960) - 6.5/10 - (14 minutes) - An abstract painter creates his artwork along the riverbank.

The Fly (1980) - 8/10 - (3 minutes) - The life of a fly from the fly's point of view.

[Rusty]

213 - Mirror Mirror (2012) - 7/10 - Another version of Snow White. It's not great, but it's not bad for what it is. I liked Lily Collins and the various dwarves.


214 - No (2012) - 8/10 - Gael García Bernal stars as an advertising executive in Chile who is brought in to worth with the 'No' campaign in the 1988 plebiscite to determine whether Pinochet would rule for the next 8 years. He doesn't think that a sober look at atrocities and problems under Pinochet's regime will work and is determined to have a brighter, happier, and more upbeat campaign to win over those who are undecided whether to vote. It's a very good film and mixes in archival footage pretty seamlessly.


215 - The Great Beauty (2013) - 6.5/10 - The film looks great and has a nice soundtrack, but it didn't really engage me much of the time and I felt pretty bored with it by the end.


216 - The Nest (1980) - 7.5/10 - Don Alejandro (Hector Alterio) is a wealthy widower who leads a somewhat lonely life. One day in the woods, he is left notes by a bright 13 year old girl named Goyita (Ana Torrent) that give him clues that he follows. This starts a (platonic) relationship between the two that is dominated by the girl. Alterio and Torrent are both really good here and the film is also very good, even if it doesn't rise to the level of The Spirit of the Beehive and Cria Cuervos.


217 - Beyond the Walls (1984) - 5/10 - In an Israeli prison, Jewish and Palestinian prisoners generally do not get along. The leaders of the two factions find common cause against the guards, though, when they realize that the guards are responsible for deaths in the two cells and encouraging the two sides to fight. I didn't think the quality of the acting and technical aspects of the film were that great.


218 - What Happened to Santiago (1989) - 6.5/10 - A retired widower with three adult children meets a younger woman in the park one day, though she doesn't tell him her name. They encounter each other a few more times and start a relationship. It was kind of dull early on, but got more interesting as it progressed.

[Rusty]

219 - Bugsy Malone (1976) - 7.5/10 - A gangster film with kids using whipped cream shotguns. It has a nice soundtrack and was pretty entertaining. The gimmick does start to get a bit old toward the end, but the film has a nice finish.


220 - Bells are Ringing (1960) - 7.5/10 - Judy Holliday stars as a lady who works at an answering service. She is really popular with the customers, but is very shy with guys in real life. She decides to help out an out of work actor, a dentist with musical aspirations, and a playwright with writer's block. It's a fun musical, thought its stage roots are pretty obvious.


221 - A Man Called Ove (2015) - 8.5/10 - Ove is a grumpy old man who is very particular about things. He used to run the condominium association where he lives until he got voted out. He is strongly affected by his wife's recent death and is looking forward to joining her. His life changes when a young woman named Parvaneh and her family move in. I enjoyed this one a lot.


222 - The Best of Everything (1959) - 6/10 - The young secretaries at a publishing agency are interested in romance and marriage. The men are lechers, drunks, two-timers, etc. There are some decent parts, but it is very dated.


223 - The Assault (1986) - 7/10 - Anton is a 12 year old Dutch boy in Haarlem in January 1945. A collaborator is killed and then moved in front of his family's house one night and his family is killed in retaliation along with others. Over the next 40 years, Anton meets people who add pieces to the story of what happened that night. The first segment of the film works the best. The rest isn't bad, but it's pretty melodramatic and doesn't work as well.


224 - Song Without End (1960) - 6/10 - This is a biography of composer and piano virtuoso Franz Liszt. The music is excellent and the costumes and sets are good. Unfortunately, the same can't be said about the rest of the film.

[Rusty]

225 - A Majority of One (1961) - 7/10 - Rosalind Russell plays a Jewish widow who accompanies her daughter and son-in-law to Japan to live while on a mission for the government. During the voyage, she befriends a Japanese man who will be important to the negotiations her son-in-law will be involved with. Overall, I enjoyed the movie, though it definitely had some problematic casting issues with Alec Guinness playing a Japanese man and Marc Marno as a stereotypical houseboy. Some might have problems with Russell playing a Jewish woman as well. There were a few other issues as well, but it's enjoyable enough otherwise.


226 - Mephisto (1981) - 7/10 - An actor gets caught up with the Nazis when they come to power for the fame and great roles that they bring to him, even though his wife and many of his fellow actors are fleeing Germany.


227 - Funny Lady (1975) - 6.5/10 - Barbra Streisand reprises her role as Fanny Brice in this sequel to Funny Girl. I liked Funny Girl and the songs in the sequel weren't bad, but this film just wasn't nearly as good or interesting as the first one.


228 - The Fox (1967) - 5/10 - Two women have a chicken farm in Canada, but are having a problem with a fox raiding the place. The grandson of the farm's former owner shows up one day and stays on to help out for a while. He pursues one of the women and asks her to marry him, upsetting the lesbian dynamic in play. I didn't really care for the film. The acting seemed kind of subpar at times and it was way too melodramatic.