Movies

[Rusty]

746 - Horror Express (1972) - 6/10 - A frozen being is found in a cave and when the body is transported on a train, strange things start happening and people start dying. It was okay, but I didn't find it as interesting as I expected, even with Peter Cushing, Christopher Lee, and Telly Savales.


747 - Za dvoma zaytsiamy (1961) - 6.5/10 - A barber in 1920s Ukraine has massive debts from gambling and is about to lose his shop. His solution is to marry the ugly daughter of a wealthy family so that he can keep his extravagant lifestyle. However, he also tries to court another woman who wants nothing to do with him. The film is amusing at times, even though the main character isn't very likable or funny.


748 - Dil Se.. (1998) - 7.5/10 - Shah Rukh Khan stars as a radio journalist who spots a beautiful woman (Manisha Koirala) at a train station during the rain and becomes infatuated with her. He only saw her for a few minutes, but he tracks her down and essentially starts stalking her, even though she tries to discourage him and have nothing to do with him. Of course, she eventually falls for his charms even though he is kind of a creep, but there is a lot more to the story, including revolutionary activity in one of the outer provinces of India. The story is generally interesting and the song and dance numbers are good. I especially liked the first one on the train.


749 - Applause (1929) - 5/10 - A burlesque dancer has her daughter raised in a convent, hoping that she will have a better life. The daughter grows up and is almost drawn into burlesque as a career, but really wants nothing to do with it. This is a very early talkie and is also very dated. Some of the acting isn't all that good.

[Rusty]

750 - Evergreen (1934) - 7/10 - Harriet Green was a singer and stage star in the early 1900s who disappeared suddenly, but secretly moved to South Africa to have a baby. After her death, her daughter moved to England and struggled to get a break with her own career until one man comes up with the gimmick to have her pretend to be her own mother, having not aged a day since her disappearance. The first part of the film before the impersonation starts is only somewhat interesting. I think the film picks up quite a bit after that and I enjoyed the second half of the film.


751 - True Stories (1986) - 8/10 - David Byrne stars as the narrator who is visiting a small Texas town for its 150th Anniversary celebration. The event is sponsored by a local company that makes microprocessors. What follows is a number of interesting, sometimes odd, but entertaining vignettes. We get a fashion show, a church service, and much more. The music is good and the humor generally worked for me.


752 - Broken Wings (2002) - 8/10 - A midwife and her four children (two older teens, two preteens) are still deeply affected by the death of the father less than a year earlier. All the mother seems to want to do outside of work is sleep. The children show their grief in different ways. I liked this one a lot.


753 - The Band's Visit (2007) - 7.5/10 - A police band from Egypt arrives in a small town in Israel for the opening of a new Arab Cultural Center only to discover that they are in the wrong town with no way to leave until the next day. There is some discomfort at first, but some of the locals make them welcome and give them a place to sleep as they slowly get to know each other. It's a pretty nice film.


754 - Hamsin / Eastern Wind (1982) - 6/10 - A pair of Jewish and Arab farming families in Galilee have gotten along well for many years. However, potential changes in land ownership and other myriad reasons cause tensions to flare. It wasn't really that interesting of a film for the most part.


755 - Hole in the Moon (1964) - 6/10 - This is a strange film with lots of random stuff happening. It's a satire that I might have enjoyed more if I was part of that culture at the time. Setting up a lemonade stand in a desert was funny and there were other bits here and there that were enjoyable, but a lot of it was just kind of odd.


756 - Halfon Hill Doesn't Answer (1976) - 7/10 - Various antics occur at an Israeli Defense Force base in the desert near the Egyptian border. One sergeant is interested in marrying Yaeli, the younger daughter of a man named Victor Hasson who thought he was interested in his older daughter. Yaeli sneaks aboard when the sergeant goes back to base and her father shows up there in pursuit of a man who owes him money. There is plenty of humor, some of it translating better than other parts. The film is apparently immensely popular in Israel and I can see why, but I liked it rather than loved it.


757 - Paratroopers (1977) - 7.5/10 - At boot camp for paratroopers, one of the trainees is having a hard time. He's being hazed by some of the other trainees and his company commander has little sympathy or patience for him which leads to an incident about midway through the film. I enjoyed the film more after this incident, though the part leading up to it was important for what followed.

[Rusty]

758 - Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny (2023) - 8/10 - This was a pretty nice adventure and a good way to close out the series. While it doesn't quite rise to the level of the original trilogy, it is still very entertaining and feels like an Indy film. I thought the de-aging used here was pretty successful. I do wish that the opening scene had been better lit, even though it took place at night.


759 - Carousel (1956) - 5/10 - Some of the music is decent in this film adaptation of the stage musical, but the story and message that hitting a woman is fine aren't that great. The film itself also in't really all that great either.


760 - Shree 420 (1955) - 7.5/10 - A poor college graduate walks to Bombay and becomes interested in a poor school teacher, but also falls in with criminal element who come up with a scheme to con the poor out of what little money they have. The main character seems to be modeled a bit after Chaplin's Tramp character. It's a decent film.


761 - Jailhouse Rock (1957) - 7/10 - Elvis Presley stars as a young man who ends up in jail after accidentally killing a man. His cellmate teaches him how to play guitar and make music. When he gets out, he eventually becomes a very popular singer, but alienates some of those closest to him with his attitude. There were some decent songs and the film was decent.


762 - Ziegfeld Follies (1945) - 6/10 - This is mostly a collection of skits and song/dance numbers. The skits were mostly kind of dumb while the song and dance numbers were okay. There were a lot of big names in the production.


763 - Zouzou (1934) - 7/10 - Zouzou (Josephine Baker) and Jean (Jean Gabin) were adopted as young children by the same man and grew up as brother and sister, though not actually related. Jean works as a stage electrician while Zouzou works in the laundry, but pines for the stage...and Jean. Unfortunately, Jean only thinks of Zouzou as a sister. Later in the film, Jean is arrested for murder and Zouzou works hard to try and prove his innocence. I liked Baker in this film and some of the sets for the musical/dance numbers were also kind of interesting.

[Rusty]

764 - Come On George (1939) - 7/10 - George Formby stars as an ice cream salesman at a racetrack who is mistaken for a pickpocket. While making his escape, he ends up in a train car with a talented racehorse that also happens to be unmanageable...until it meets George. The film is kind of silly, but fun to watch.


765 - The Pajama Game (1957) - 7/10 - A new superintendent is hired at a pajama factory. Worker aren't happy because management won't give them the 7.5 cent per hour raise that other factory workers have been given. The new superintendent tries to settle things and avert a strike while also becoming close with the head of the worker' grievance committee (Doris Day). It's a decent film and I liked the sets and costumes. I think I liked it better as a stage musical, though.


766 - Silk Stockings (1957) - 7/10 - Three Soviet agents have been unable to get a Soviet composer to return home from Paris so a no-nonsense special agent (Cyd Charisse) is sent to bring him back. However, she gradually becomes involved with an American movie producer (Fred Astaire) and becomes somewhat accustomed to western civilization. This is a remake of the 1930s Ninotchka which I liked a little bit more than this version.


767 - Congress Dances (1931) - 7/10 - At the Congress of Vienna following the defeat of Napoleon, the Czar of Russia meets a local salesgirl and the two start a relationship. Prince Metternich of Austria seeks to use this to his advantage.

768 - The Littlest Rebel (1935) - The film has many problematic racist elements, but was still watchable, even if it was just to see what they would come up with next.


769 - The 3 Penny Opera (1931) - 7.5/10 - In London, Mack the Knife is an underworld leader who wants to marry Polly Peachum. Polly's father, the king of the beggars, is against this union and uses his influence to try and destroy Mack. It's pretty good for it's time.


770 - The Hands of Orlac (1924)- 6/10 - A famed pianist loses his hands in a train accident. A doctor transplants the hands of an executed murderer onto the pianist and when he recovers, he feels haunted by the dead murderer. Meanwhile, his wife is struggling with the bills with him unable to play. Conrad Veidt was okay in the lead role, but the actress who played the wife was pretty bad and the story itself was way too long and slow.


771 - Leningrad Cowboys Go America (1989) - 7.5/10 - An eclectic band from Siberia flies to New York City and then drives to Mexico, experiencing some of the seedy side of the U.S. as they go. I enjoyed Total Balalaika Show quite a bit more, but there is plenty of dry humor here to enjoy as well.


772 - Avodah (1935) - 7/10 - This documentary features images of Jewish settlers in Palestine as they farm the land, build roads in Tel Aviv, etc. The film has little dialogue, but does feature a nice soundtrack.

[Rusty]

773 - Homework (1989) - 6.5/10 - A series of young boys from an Iranian school are interviewed and asked about homework, school, being punished, encouraged, and rewarded. Most of their parents seem to be illiterate. They also seem to get far too much homework and most get punished by being hit, often with a belt. Few of them seemed to know what encouragement or rewards were and when questioned whether they preferred homework or cartoons, they chose homework, likely scared of answering otherwise. It is interesting, but also soon become pretty repetitive.


774 - Summer Holiday (1948) - 5/10 - Mickey Rooney stars as a 17 year old with revolutionary ideas in a small Connecticut town in the early 1900s. There's his girlfriend (Gloria DeHaven) plus his family, including an annoying little brother and drunk Uncle Sid. The town celebrates high school graduation and then the fourth of July. The beginning of the film isn't very good and while it does get a bit better, it still doesn't make a very good film. The songs mostly aren't all that good either.


775 - Viktor und Viktoria (1933) - 7.5/10 - Susanne wants to be a singer, but finds it difficult to get hired. She gets her break while filling in for a female impersonator she knows who has a cold. She finds success, but eventually finds the disguise getting in the way of her love life. It's a fairly light and entertaining film.


776 - You and Me (1935) - 7.5/10 - Helen (Sylvia Sidney) and Joe (George Raft) are ex-cons who work at a department store owned by a man determined to give people on parole a second chance. Helen and Joe fall for each other and Joe asks her to marry him and she accepts. However, unlike Joe, Helen's parole hasn't ended and she is not allowed to marry. Helen keeps this as a secret from Joe and it eventually causes a rift between them. I enjoyed this one and we even get an economics lesson late in the film.


777 - The Girl Can't Help It (1956) - 7/10 - A gangster who wrote a song while in prison hires an agent that he knows to turn his girlfriend (Jayne Mansfield) into a popular singer. One problem is that the girlfriend apparently can't sing and another problem is that the girlfriend and the agent fall for each other. This film includes quite a bit of rock and roll music and actual stars in cameo roles performing their songs. It's fairly light, but has good music and is certainly enjoyable enough.

[Rusty]

778 - Fièvres (2013) - 6/10 - Benjamin is a 13 year old delinquent whose mother is sent off to prison. He insists on being sent to live with the father that he has never known. His father lives in an apartment with his own parents and none of them know how to handle the force that is Benjamin. There are some decent elements in the film, but it all seemed kind of underdeveloped. There's a random friendship that Benjamin makes with a poet, Benjamin's disabled uncle who appears on the fringes of the story at times, and the relationships that Benjamin has with his family. Benjamin's behavior doesn't really improve throughout the film and they probably should have made that call to social services.


779 - Pegasus (2010) - 5/10 - A psychiatrist treats a young pregnant woman who was found incoherent on the streets. The story comes out in flashback as the woman remembers. It's a story about a girl who was raised as a boy because her father had no sons. The movie has a few interesting things in it, but overall seemed to be a bit of a mess.


780 - Ali Zaoua: Prince of the Streets (2000) - 7.5/10 - Three homeless street kids who have left a larger gang try to find a way to bury their dead friend. The members of the gang harass them and try to make them return to the fold.


781 - Life is Rosy (1987) - 6/10 - Kourou dreams of being a musician and heads to the capital from his rural village. He enjoys singing, but ends up having to take jobs doing painting, whitewashing, etc. to survive. He also falls for a woman that his boss has his eye on. The songs are good and I liked the main character, but the story itself is less interesting.


782 - Allah Tantou (1992) - 6.5/10 - The filmmaker's father was a UN Ambassador from Guinea during the 1960s. He was arrested for political reasons in 1968 and endured torture and various humiliations while imprisoned. The film uses recreations based on the father's letters home along with old footage and photographs to tell his story. What we get is good and the film has a nice soundtrack, but I think it needed some more context. Since the film is only about an hour in length, adding in this context would still have left a fairly short film.


783 - The Saddest Music in the World (2003) - 5/10 - During the Depression, Canada holds a contest in Winnipeg to find the saddest music in the world. Groups from all over the world travel to Winnipeg for the show. Guy Maddin is going for a 1930s aesthetic which somewhat works, but I'm not really a Maddin fan and didn't like the movie all that much.


784 - A Song of Lisbon (1933) - 7.5/10 - Vasco is studying to be a doctor at a school in Lisbon. However, he enjoys partying more than studying and fails the exam to actually become a doctor. He tells the wealthy aunts who are supporting him that he passed and has to scramble when they come for a visit. This was fun with decent music.

[Rusty]

785 - Ramparts of Clay (1970) - 7/10 - In a small Tunisian village in the desert, the men work in an above ground mine while the women go about their daily chores and lives. One young woman seems to be somewhat of an outcast, not attending school and doing menial tasks such as getting water from the village well on a regular basis. When the colonial administrator of the mine shows up to pay the men their wages, they are unhappy with what is offered and go on strike. The administrator brings in soldiers, but they have little to do since the men just sit down and wait. Their act of rebellion seems to inspire the young woman to go on strike against her own situation. There is little dialogue in the film, but I did like the film, not just for the interesting landscape in and around the village.


786 - Peeping Toms (1972) - 6.5/10 - Gutte works at a beach and tries to keep away the kids who peep into the women's showers. His friend Eli plays guitar and wants to open a night club. The film is a buddy comedy of sorts and is kind of dumb, though it does get better in the second half. Gutte and Eli are each somewhat immature


787 - Lebanon (2009) - 6/10 - A tank crew isn't prepared for war at the beginning of the 1982 Lebanon War. They bicker, freeze under pressure, and don't seem very competent. The whole film takes place in the tank or through the gunsight.


788 - Light Out of Nowhere (1973) - 7/10 - A 17 year old lives with his family in a poor neighborhood. He wants to get out, but is getting conflicting messages from his father and brother. The brother is wanted by the law and is estranged from the father.


789 - Bar 51 (1985) - 7.5/10 - Thomas and Mariana are adult brother and sister who live with their mother. After the mother dies, they are left almost penniless and travel to Tel Aviv to make a new start. Thomas has an unhealthy love for his sister and also gets extremely jealous if other men try to become close to her. They end up living near a bar known as Bar 51 and Thomas gets a job there. Mariana wants to become a dancer and has to decide whether or not to leave her brother..if he will let her leave. The obsession that Thomas has permeates the film.

[Rusty]

790 - At Midnight i'll Take Your Soul (1964) - 6/10 - An undertaker who thinks he can do and get anything that he wants murders a few people and gets away with it until the supernatural decides to take revenge. It's okay, but I didn't really like it all that much.


791 - Dead Snow (2009) - 7.5/10 - A group of medical students head out to a remote mountain cabin for a winter break. Things start out well with fun and games like tubing behind a snowmobile, snowball fights, and other games. Then the nazi zombies show up and ruin everything. There is a fair amount of humor and gruesome action. It's pretty entertaining overall.


792 - Calvaire (2004) - 6/10 - A traveling singer who just finished a gig at a nursing home travels to his next engagement in his van. However, the van breaks down in a remote mountain area. A strange man who is out looking for his dog finds the singer and leads him to an inn where another strange man is the only inhabitant. The villagers in the surrounding area are also rather different than the norm. This is a pretty odd film and it definitely is an ordeal for the man, but I don't think it makes this a particularly good film, though the acting is decent.


793 - Riki-Oh: The Story of Ricky (1991) - 6/10 - Ricky gets locked up and then has to battle quite a few opponents in order to survive. It's very over the top and is humorous as a result, but still not a very good film.

[Rusty]

794 - But Where Is Daniel Wax? (1972) - 7.5/10 - Benny is an Israeli singer who moved to the US a decade earlier and now is returning to Israel with his wife to visit old friends. The one person that he really wants to see, but can't find, is Daniel Wax, the leader of their band of friend back during their school days. Benny visits with a number of old friends, reminiscing about those who have died, and travels all over in his search, neglecting his wife in the process. The film has a sort of wistful melancholy feel about it for something remembered, but lost.


795 - Lovesick on Nana Street (1995) - 5/10 - Victor lives in an apartment with his mother and runs a pirate tv station that seems popular locally. He falls for a young woman that he meets one day and starts stalking her, sending her flowers, trying to see her, etc. When her attempts at discouragement and the police involvement don't work, he is sent to the local insane asylum which is apparently filled with the lovelorn. This is a romantic comedy, I guess, but I didn't find it to be very funny or really all that entertaining.


796 - The Summer of Aviya (1988) - 8/10 - In 1951, Aviya is a little girl who lives with her mother in a village in israel. Aviya is bullied by the other kids, in part because her mother is mentally unstable. Aviya's mother fought as a partisan in Poland during WWII and survived the Nazi concentration camps, but it took a heavy toll on her. Aviya's father died during the war, but Aviya becomes convinced that he did not die after all and is living with his new family in town. The girl who plays Aviya (Kaipu Cohen) was excellent and the woman who stars as Aviya's mother (Gila Almagor) is also very good. The movie is based on a memoir that Almagor wrote about her own life and experiences with Almagor portraying the character based on her own mother.


797 - Or (2004) - 7.5/10 - Or is an 18 year old who work hard as a dishwasher and also collecting returnable cans and bottles to make ends meet. her mother is a prostitute who wants to go right back on the street after getting out of the hospital and Or struggles to keep her from going back out there. Or keeps battling, but it may be a losing battle in more ways than one. This was a pretty bleak, but good film.


798 - Life According To Agfa (1992) - 8/10 - The film follows the customers and employees of a bar known as Barbie. We have a group of obnoxious singing soldiers, a suicidal girl, an undercover cop, people working on a drug deal, and more whose lives intersect one night at the bar. It's pretty well done and the use of black and white instead of color seems appropriate in retrospect.


799 - Fictitious Marriage (1988) - 6/10 - A middle aged man leaves his home in Jerusalem to travel to the US. He changes his mind at the airport, though, and goes to a small hotel in Tel Aviv where he hits on a lady that works there while pretending to be an American. The two start up a relationship. Meanwhile, his abandoned suitcase at the airport gains the attention of a detective. The man later pretends to be a mute Arab and joins a construction crew renovating a home. There's a lot going on in the film and it doesn't really seem to be going anywhere, though there is a sudden resolution to the storylines at the end of the film.


800 - Head (1968) - 6/10 - The Monkees go through a series of mostly unrelated vignettes. This is supposed to be funny, but it doesn't really work. There are a number of interesting bits, but the whole is less than the sum of the pieces. I never watched the Monkees tv show, though I did grow up hearing quite a few of their songs on the radio, none of which was in this film.

[Rusty]

801 - Darktown Strutters (1975) - 6.5/10 - Female bikers doing their thing. This movie is both dumb and somewhat entertaining. It is filled with a number of odd things and it did make me laugh at times. The music isn't bad, too.


802 - Forbidden Zone (1980) - 3/10 - This definitely belongs on the weird list. I thought it was pretty dumb.


803 - Amazing Grace (1992) - 7/10 - The film focuses on a couple of families and their gay (adult) sons. Jonathan is frustrated with his boyfriend who is sleeping around. Jonathan is trying to make it on his own, but also spends time with his family, even though they get on each other's nerves at times. Thomas is back in Israel after spending a long time in the US. Thomas is sick with the implication being that it is complications from AIDS. It's not bad, but gets a bit dull at times in the second half.


804 - When Night Falls (1985) - 6.5/10 - Giora runs a bar and wants to open a restaurant nearby. A criminal is trying to shake him down for protection money, his marriage is having some problems due to his infidelity, and his father has come to visit after leaving his mother. The film is okay, though I think it had the potential to be a lot better.


805 - The Tune (1992) - 7/10 - Del has 47 minutes to finish a song before he needs to make a presentation to his boss. As he rushes to work, he somehow ends up in the strange musical land of Flooby Nooby. The music and animation are pretty entertaining, though I liked the opening and closing segments more than the actual parts in Flooby Nooby.

[Rusty]

806 - Atash (2004) - 6/10 - A Palestinian father tightly controls his family, including his wife, two adult daughters, and son. They moved out into the middle of nowhere a decade ago due to something that happened with one daughter that is not fully explained. They survive by turning wood into charcoal to sell, but don't have much of a life out there. There is a simmering resentment that starts to come to the forefront when the father pays to install a pipe to illegally tap into water supplies. The film is well made, but is also kind of frustrating. Some will like it for the way it maintains the tension and tries to keep everything mysterious, but I think that this could have been a much better film if some elements were a little more in the open rather than closed up.


807 - Kazablan (1973) - 7/10 - A former soldier turned gang leader is interested in Rachel, a woman who lives in the rundown neighborhood with her father. A shoe store owner in the neighborhood feels that he is entitled to marry Rachel instead. The city is also threatening to tear down the neighborhood. Money is raised to stave this off, but is stolen. There are plenty of songs and dances and while it certainly isn't great, I thought it was fairly entertaining.


808 - Year Zero (2004) - 8/10 - The lives of a number of people in Tel Aviv intersect in a variety of ways. A single mother loses her apartment and job and must resort to other means to provide for her son. A blind man's dog is run over and the man responsible feels guilty and starts helping him out. A sound technician meets a friend of his parents and tries to get a punk rock program to air at the radio station where he works. It was pretty good.


809 - Rage and Glory (1984) - 7/10 - The film follows members of a Jewish group of freedom fighters who battle against the British forces in Tel Aviv during WWII. They are against the British for not letting Jewish refugees land in Palestine to escape Nazi Germany. They bring in an assassin to try and take out the British leader. There is a fair amount of action and it was good overall.


810 - Sh’Chur (1994) - 5.5/10 - Cheli is a tv talk show host with a good career. She gets a phone call that her father died and travels to the funeral with her sister and adopted daughter. Cheli's sister is mentally unstable and has been institutionalized since Cheli was a teenager. Cheli was really mean to her at times before she was sent away and this is shown in flashback. Cheli's daughter is a preteen who doesn't talk, sucks on a pacifier, and was apparently adopted out of an institution herself. Why Cheli and her husband would adopt a child like that considering Cheli's treatment of her sister is not explained. Cheli's parents are also kind of odd as shown in the flashback sequences. The movie doesn't really seem to go anywhere, though I guess it can serve as a slice of life film of sorts for an immigrant family in Israel since the family was originally from Morocco.


811 - Shiva (2008) - 5/10 - A (very) large extended family gathers during the Gulf War after one of the brothers in the family dies. The family gathers in a large house for a seven day period of mourning (Shiva). The film is well made, but watching the family argue for nearly two hours isn't all that much fun. I didn't really care about any of the characters.


812 - Late Marriage (2001) - 5.5/10 - Zaza is 31 years old and studying for a doctorate in Humanities. His parents subscribe to an old tradition that he needs to marry a young virgin so they are constantly trying to fix him up for marriage, but he isn't interested since he is already seeing a woman closer to his own age who is divorced with a young daughter, two things his parents would definitely not approve of. The first half hour wasn't bad as we follow the family on one of the visits for a prospective bride. After that, the horrible family behaves very poorly and I didn't enjoy the film very much from that point on.


813 - Late Summer Blues (1987) - 8/10 - Graduation is near for the class of 1970 when word comes that a former schoolmate was killed while serving his mandatory time in the army. The students are generally happy about the end of school, but a few of them are not looking forward to serving their time since they have been drafted. The film takes a more serious turn and the students look for ways to express their feelings about the situation. The music is very good and I enjoyed the film quite a bit.

[Rusty]

814 - Meet the Feebles (1989) - 6.5/10 - The Muppets as interpreted by Peter Jackson. I expected to like this a lot more than I actually did. It does pick up in the last 20 minutes or so as we get the payoff. I enjoyed that part quite a bit.


815 - Three from the Filling Station (1930) - 7/10 - Three friends who live together are broke and have lost most of their belongings to creditors. They decide to open a gas station along a popular road out in the country and slowly build up their business with each man taking a turn as the attendant. The daughter (Lilian Harvey) of a wealthy man stops frequently for gas and flirts with each of the three friends without the other knowing. It's a light musical comedy and a decent early talkie.


816 - Hairspray (1988) - 8/10 - Tracy Turnblad wants to join the dancers on the Corny Collins show in 1962 Baltimore. The show is popular, but is still segregated and Tracy and her friend Penny would like to change that. This was a lot of fun. I hadn't realized that Ricki Lake played Tracy.


817 - A Room in Town (1982) - 7/10 - A metalworker who is part of a group going on strike falls for a woman who wants to leave her mercurial husband of a month. All of the dialogue is sung as in Demy's earlier film, The Umbrellas of Cherbourg (1964). However, I think this gimmick worked better in that film. I was kind of bored with this one for a while, but got drawn into it more as it went along.

[Rusty]

818 - Shivers (1975) - 5/10 - A parasite is loose in an apartment building that causes people to become intensely focused on sexual activity. Others are easily infected by those with the parasite. I didn't really enjoy this one. I had some hope for it at the beginning, but it didn't pan out for me.


819 - Terrified / Aterrados (2017) - 7.5/10 - Strange things are happening in a neighborhood outside of Buenos Aires. A police commissioner and several paranormal investigators look into the events, splitting up (not a good idea) to stay in three separate houses where unexplainable events have occurred. This is a pretty nice film overall with a decent level of tension and good performances.


820 - The Eye (2002) - 7.5/10 - Mun is a concert violinist who has been blind since the age of two. A cornea transplant restores her sight, but she finds that she is now able to see more than she should. She is able to see the spirits of the dead and they start to take notice of her as well. This was pretty entertaining.


821 - Nightwatch (1994) - 7/10 - Martin is a law student who takes a job as a night watchman at a morgue and strange things start to happen. A number of prostitutes have been murdered recently by a serial killer and police start to think that Martin might be the killer. The movie was so-so during the first half, but I thought it got better later in the film.


822 - Lumumba: La mort du prophète (1991) - 7/10 - Patrice Lumumba was the first elected Prime Minister of the Republic of Congo after it achieved independence from Belgium. However, he didn't last long in the role as a rebellion started, backed by Belgium and the US, and he was killed less than a year after taking office. The film uses the personal recollections of the narrator, archival footage, and interviews to fill in the story of what Congo was like in those days and how the events played out.


823 - Hugo and Josephine (1967) - 7.5/10 - Josephine is a little girl who lives on a farm. She is starting 1st grade and has no friends until she meets a boy named Hugo, who seems more at home in the woods than in a school, and they have some adventures together. This is a nice, sweet tale, mostly seen from the perspective of the kids.

[Rusty]

824 - Dead Snow 2: Red vs. Dead (2014) - 7/10 - The sequel picks up where the first film ends with the survivor making their escape from the mountain. They end up with a zombie arm that somewhat has a mind of its own. They also have to figure out what the Nazi zombies are trying to do and how to foil their plans. This film leans much more into comedy than just straight horror and it is a fun film, but I didn't think it was quite as good as the first one.


825 - Mother Joan of the Angels (1961) - 6.5/10 - A priest travels to a convent where many of the nuns are supposed to be possessed by demons. Several priests have already tried exorcism without success. The black and white cinematography is nice here and there some fun moments throughout the film, but the film is also kind of odd and I didn't enjoy the film as a whole. Still, there is enough of interest that I don't regret watching it. It was better than The Devils.


826 - Little Otik / Otesánek (2000) - 6.5/10 - A couple desperately want to have a baby. Everybody else seems to have one or has one on the way, but they haven't had any luck. Then the husband digs up a tree stump and notices that it looks somewhat like a baby boy. His wife treats it as a baby and it eventually comes to life, but is always hungry, eating anything and anybody in reach. A neighbor girl with a strong interest in sex is suspicious. It's definitely a weird film.


827 - Drum (2004) - 6.5/10 - A black journalist gets involved with the movement to fight apartheid in South Africa during the 1950s. We get to witness a number of incidents with the racism of the time showing itself. It wasn't anything special, but it wasn't bad either.


828 - Au nom du Christ (1993) - 6/10 - A pig farmer falls into a river and has a vision. After that, he sets himself up as a prophet and the cousin of Christ , setting out to convert the others of his village and to get rid of their pagan ways. It was kind of boring.

[Rusty]

829 - Cinema 500 km (2006) - 8/10 - When the film was made, there were no cinemas in Saudi Arabia. The ban has since been listed and there are now nearly 500 screens in the country spread over 50+ cinemas. In this documentary, a film fan is going to travel 500 km to Bahrain with friends in order to see a movie in a theater instead of using a vcr or dvd player or watching it on tv. This is his first time seeing a film in a cinema and we follow his journey and learn about how he first got into watching movies. I thought it was pretty interesting.


830 - The Architecture Of Mud (1999) - 7/10- The documentary crew travels to Wadi Do'An in Yemen and interviews builders of the mud brick buildings there, discussing the process of building and maintaining the structures as well as the history and changes to traditions. They sure can make some nice structures out of mud.


831 - Cruel Sea (1971) - 6.5/10 - The first feature film from Kuwait features a young man who wants to become a pearl diver o that he can get married and to help his family. His father was crippled by a shark as a result of pearl diving and wants to forbid his son from risking his own life.


832 - Son of Babylon (2009) - 7.5/10 - A young boy and his grandmother travel across Iraq a few weeks after the US took over the country. They are trying to find the boys father. The father disappeared during the Gulf War like many others and they are hoping to find him in a newly liberated prison. The performances were pretty good.