Forbidden Planet (1956)

 Second viewing, and first one with original audio and correct aspect ratio; previously viewed on or a little after September 28, 1985.

A crew travels to a distant planet in search of survivors from a previous trip which never returned to Earth. They find that the only survivors are a scientist and his daughter, and that said planet was inhabited eons ago by an advanced race. Meanwhile, they witness strange occurrences.

Sci-fi with philosophical and psychoanalytical undertones. The design of both interiors and exteriors is very sophisticated, and the plot has some interesting concepts, but it does not bear overthinking about it. The scientist does not want to share his findings with Earth precisely because he thinks its people are too primitive; this is somehow in contradiction with his primitive self (Id) employing violence to achieve his goals. Also, it's not clear what exactly I.Q. boosting has to do with empowering the Id, if anything.

Rating: 54 (down from 59)

Chinatown (1974)

 Second viewing, and first with original audio and correct aspect ratio; previously viewed on or a little after January 25, 1986.

A private detective is hired on a case of adultery and stumbles upon a corruption scheme involving the water supply in 1937 California.

Here's the still which Christopher Mulrooney chose to illustrate his notes about this film:

Moderately entertaining drama whose structure transplants to the hard-boiled universe the Oedipus Rex idea of a hero trying to avoid a catastrophe and in the process causing it; here there is the added twist that it's the second time the protagonist goes through that tragic process. Also like that old play, it has some incest in the plot, though here it's not the final catastrophic element.

Rating: 66 (down from 75)

The Andromeda Strain (1971)

 Second viewing, and probably first with original audio and correct aspect ratio; previously viewed on an unknown date before 1987, probably on or a little after April 2, 1984.

A satellite falls in a little town releasing a deadly microorganism. Scientists gather inside a biosafe laboratory to study it, knowing it may have already spread.

Science fiction which is highly plausible at some parts and highly implausible at other parts. I can't find much to say about it; it is very well made at the technical level, and mostly effective as a suspense thriller, though a little boring at some points. Here's an interesting scientific evaluation of it I have found on the web:

Steven’s Science in Cinema: The Andromeda Strain (1971) – JFR Blog

Aside from those considerations, another nonsensical notion is that of an organism which not only survives the heat from an atomic explosion but even gets stronger from it.

Rating: 59 (unchanged)

The Big Sleep (1946)

 Second viewing, and first one with original audio; previously viewed on or a few days after March 29, 1986.

A private detective is hired to handle a case of blackmail targetting an upper class household; the case leads to another, concerning the disappearance of an employee of said household.

While this film is not exactly unwatchable, it has such serious problems that it is impossible to consider it a good one. People say that plot doesn't matter, but that is not entirely true. In the case of this film it clearly matters to some degree, and the heavy limitations imposed by the Hays code, and possibly even by commercial considerations, have made the plot incomprehensible at its most basic elements, unless one has read the novel and fills the missing points by oneself. The pornography angle was entirely omitted, and Carmen is fully dressed at the time of Geiger's murder. One is left wondering what Geiger's blackmail was based on. The homosexuality angle was also left out, which makes the motivation for the killing of Brody unaccounted for. One flaw which probably has nothing to do with the moral code is in the ending, which is very implausible in the movie. In the novel Marlowe has empirical evidence which points him to the murderer; in the movie he simply jumps to the conclusion, based on God knows what. Even if one disregards those problems, the film doesn't really have anything remarkable, except for the sequence of the first meeting of Marlowe and Carmen Sternwood, which is really good, and is actually better than in the novel. Though competently made at the technical level, most of the film consists of people talking, or pointing guns to one another, or some other routine element of criminal narratives (and melodramas, which this is also, to some degree). Most of the enjoyment is derived from the novel's virtues which survived the adaptation -- and bowdlerization -- process.

Rating: 48 (down from 58)