Flightplan (2005)

A woman loses her daughter inside an airplane; it's all part of an evil scheme.

One of the most absurd criminal plots ever. The Internet Movie Database Message Board for this film is especially funny.

Rating: 11

The Parallax View (1974)

A journalist investigates the murder of a politician and finds out it was the result of a conspiracy engineered by a secret organization; he infiltrates that organization.

Second viewing. Solidly directed and tense; also, very bleak.

Rating: 56 (up from 46)

Breakheart Pass (1975)

Aboard a train which is bound to a fort are a governor and his mistress, a sheriff and his prisoner, a major and his soldiers. Several strange incidents occur and nobody is what he seems.

Second viewing. An entertaining -- albeit a little far-fetched and not without some poorly explained details -- mystery story in a Western setting; the filmmaking is perfect. I don't recall why I didn't like it as much the first time I saw it.

Rating:56 (up from 47)

Chicken Little (2005)

Inspired by the fable "The Sky Is Falling" which originates from the Daddabha Jataka, one of the Jataka Tales of Buddhist Indian folklore dating from the period ranging from the 6th century Before the Common Era to the 3rd century of the Common Era.

A young chicken causes havoc in his small town when he reports that the sky is falling; they later conclude it was only an acorn which struck him and from then on he becomes the laughing stock of the community.

Weird musical references and an uninspired script are major liabilities here; the animation is good as usual in big studio movies. A possibly alarming twist in regard to the original fable is that they reversed the moral of the story: here the chicken is right all along and everybody else is wrong for not taking him seriously; sign of the panicked, paranoid times we live, no doubt.

Rating: 40

Deja Vu (2006)

A terrorist blows up a ferry full of military personnel; a woman is found dead near the explosion site; the crime investigation makes use of a powerful device that can visualize the past and maybe even send a person to that past.

One of those complicated films which demand an external explanation (4 timelines are involved -- see Wikipedia, for example) for its understanding; after that explanation, they tell you the plot holes which invalidate it. The main flaw is not mentioned there though, namely, what is the motivation for creating a better timeline if ours will either remain shitty or vanish? Anyway, the film has a taut narrative and good direction and I was not excessively bored (even though I would only really understand the intricacies of its plot afterwards).

Rating: 40

Meet the Robinsons (2007)

Loosely adapted from the picture book "A Day with Wilbur Robinson" by William Joyce (1st ed. 1990).

Lewis is an orphan boy with inventing skills who is transported to the future by another boy; they are chased by a villain who wants to steal one of Lewis's inventions; in the future Lewis meets a bizarre but warm-hearted family.

Sufficiently entertaining; on the other hand, the problem with this (and with most present-day animations) is that there is a surface of movement and prettiness and even occasional inventivity all of which revolve around a somewhat trite core.

Rating: 55

Monster House (2006)

A house "eats" those that go near it.

The technique is very good; the characters are very well written and just as well animated. The plot is not exactly brilliant though.

Rating: 67

Wide Awake (2006)

Documentary about insomnia, sort of.

Neither really densely informative nor entertaining.

Rating: 31

Rocket Science (2007)

A high school kid suffering from stuttering is invited by a female colleague to be her partner at a debating tournament (or whatever they call it).

Full of affected quirkiness.

Rating: 23

D.E.B.S. (2004)

A group of female spies faces a crisis when one of them falls in love with a female top criminal.

Its maker strives for the 16-year-old mental age (or maybe has it). Within that scope, it is acceptable as an inconsequential pastime.

Rating: 39

Hostel: Part II (2007)

Some female students doing an art course in Rome are convinced to go to Slovakia by a model. Over there they fall victim to a ring of sadists.

Incompetent on every possible aspect. It is fit to induce vomit or laughter, depending on your temperament.

Rating: 15

Alfred Hitchcock Presents: The Perfect Murder (1956) (TV)

Two men plot the murder of their aunt in order to collect her inheritance.

One of the more predictable episodes so far -- in fact, I predicted exactly what was going to happen in the end; it was nevertheless well written, well acted and well directed.

Boksuneun naui geot (2002)

English title: Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance.

A man kidnaps his former employer's little daughter, expecting to use the ransom money to buy a kidney transplant for his sister.

Weak.

Rating: 35

Happy Campers (2001)

Several characters at a summer camp.

I can't find much to say about this; it goes along very obvious lines, the monitors being the center of the attention. Despite a few attempts at psychological characterization, the film doesn't really take off either as a comedy or as a drama. Anyway, for better things dealing with somewhat similar environments, go for Meatballs or even Les Bronzés.

Rating: 31

Hot Cross Bunny (1948)

A scientist is conducting an experiment in psychic transference; he intends to exchange the psyches between a chicken and a rabbit, and uses Bugs as one of his test subjects.

Great cartoon. Christopher Mulrooney (see link at the right of this page) identified this as a source for the 'Doctor' character in Les yeux sans visage (1960). The similarity of both characters is indeed too striking to ignore.

Le sang des bêtes (1949)

English title: Blood of the Beasts.

Documentary which intercuts the bucolic outskirts of Paris with the depiction of the work in several slaughterhouses situated nearby.

The thematical essence of Eyes Without a Face (means/end dichotomy) was present already in this earlier short: the end is feeding humans, the means is killing animals; the landscape in the vicinity of a slaughterhouse does not betray the brutality going on inside it; moreover, said brutality does not in turn belie the rectitude of character of the men and women who work there. The plain assertion that Blood of the Beasts makes is: most people eat meat (or would if they could), and don't see anything horrible or reproachable in that act; and if most of them would probably be incapable of watching Blood of the Beasts in its entirety, it's OK, that is how society functions, namely by keeping its members in the ignorance of the subjacent violence which is necessary for such trivial acts as feeding oneself. Seen from another angle, this is a film about the human allegiance to humans, which excludes non-humans such as cows, horses and sheep.

Les yeux sans visage (1960)

English titles: Eyes Without a Face; The Horror Chamber of Dr. Faustus.

Based on the novel by Jean Redon (1st edition 1959, apparently)

Second viewing; the previous one was on December 11, 2005.

Spoilers below.

A surgeon whose daughter was horribly burned in an accident kidnaps (with the assistance of a former patient) young women in order to use their skins to rebuild his daughter's face.

Eyes Without a Face is about a man's allegiance to his daughter whom he has accidentally harmed, and a woman's allegiance to the doctor who restored her face; from another angle, this is a film about the dichotomy means/end, and I may be stating the obvious here, but it's important to stress that only superficially it's about a mad doctor and his creepy assistant and a horribly deformed woman. This is actually about how we humans through our actions -- and mostly through our omissions -- cause pain and death to other living beings with the excuse of bringing well-being to those to whom we are bound (by force or by choice) in allegiance. It's fascinating to see how most people need to remain unconscious of this reality in order to stay sane. The formal perfection of Eyes Without a Face has only a tiny stain which may very well be a product of my misplaced expectations (but there was another viewer with a similar opinion; see the IMDB's message board): when Edna rushes upstairs I could swear that she was going to find Christiane and see her (Edna's) own face on Christiane; when she screams, I thought that's what happened but then we find out that she has jumped out the window and no evidence is given that she found Christiane, and furthermore the timing of the sequence just does not seem to allow that to have happened. See also my upcoming review for Le sang des bêtes (1949).

Rating: 76 (unchanged) (13th position in 1960's best)

The Brotherhood (1968)

Two brothers end up on opposite sides inside the American Mafia.

It is about several conflicts of allegiances, and the eventual predominance of one allegiance which is hierarchically dominant over all the others; e.g., one character must choose between honoring the memory of his father on one side and safeguarding his own position in a criminal organization on the other; another character must choose between his brother on one side or his wife and kids on the other. It's tautly narrated and has splendid cinematography.

Rating: 57

The 300 Spartans (1962)

In 480 B.C. the Persians under Xerxes decide to conquer Greece, but Leonidas of Sparta vows to stop him by placing his men in the strait of Thermopylae. He can't get full support from Sparta due to the opposition of the second Spartan king, so all he can count on are the 300 members of his personal guard.

It features the faint notion of a nation in a context where cities were more or less independent (ancient Greece), thus establishing a conflict of allegiances. It's passable but lacks vigor in the battle scenes and inspiration in the dialogue which invokes "freedom" as a general motivation for the Spartans and their allies.

Rating: 35

Saskatchewan (1954)

In 19th century Canada, conflicts arise between the hitherto peaceful Cree natives and the Mounted Police when the latter confiscate the natives' weapons. The situation becomes explosive when the bellicose Sioux cross the border into Canada offering their allegiance to the Crees. The film follows a caravan transporting ammunition across wild territory; they also escort a woman who is facing a murder charge.

It is about the shifting allegiances of a tribe of peaceful natives in Canada. While the natural Canadian landscape has been gorgeously filmed, the plot presents situations which have been explored dozens of times in the Western genre; it does so without much in the way of excitement or surprise.

Rating: 33

Karov La Bayit (2005)

English title: Close to Home.

The friendship and maturing of two young female Israeli soldiers.

It deals with an environment where young Israeli people learn to cope with the notion of the oppression of Arabs as a condition for urban safety. Put in more general terms, it is about the arduous establishment of an allegiance of young citizens to their country. It's quite affecting.

Rating: 67

Thunderbolt and Lightfoot (1974)

Two guys meet on the road; they become friends and do a robbery with some others.

Second viewing. Decent film, although I didn't understand some minor aspects of the plot, most of them related to the job's set-up.

Rating: 55 (unchanged)

The Butterfly Effect (2004)

A guy keeps changing his past and making his life worse.

A trite proposition founded on a truism (actions have consequences which are sometimes impredictable). The individual pieces of the puzzle have some amount of dramatic appeal, but its utter humorlessness makes it wearisome.

Rating: 35

Vendredi soir (2002)

English title: Friday Night.

Man and woman meet during a traffic jam. They spend a glorious night together.

An exercise in dullness. The main characters seem to go through the movie without changing their facial expressions; their sex-making doesn't really look like sex; also, they seem to have lost the ability to talk.

Rating: 14

Omaret yakobean (2006)

English title: The Yacoubian Building.

Several characters living in an apartment building in Cairo: a womanizing old pacha, his imbalanced sister, a homosexual newspaper editor, his young proletarian lover, a pretty young woman who is constantly harassed by her employers, her fiancé who falls under the spell of a fundamentalist preacher.

This ridiculous film is what is usually called a soap, and here goes the definition: the kind of melodrama characterized by stereotypes and a plot which takes realistic elements and distorts them in such a way as to make it completely implausible yet fit to stimulate the emotional identification expectations of its target audience.

Rating: 25

The Russians Are Coming, the Russians Are Coming (1966)

Based on the novel The Off-Islanders by Nathaniel Benchley, first published in 1961.

A Russian submarine gets stuck near the coast of an American island. Its crew goes ashore, causing panic among the local population.

Uneven, predominantly unfunny, yet occasionally intelligent, comedy. This being my second viewing, I must confess it improved a little upon it.

Rating: 42 (up from 30)

Sicario (1994)

A boy growing up in Medellín, Colombia, in 1990, becomes an assassin for the drug cartel.

Unbelievably absurd -- the mob has its operatives kill each other for no reason, among countless other reason-defying events, worthy of the imagination of a 12-year-old; at any rate, the film is professional enough in the technical and acting departments, which makes it kind of endurable.

Rating: 25

Alfred Hitchcock Presents: Back for Christmas (1956) (TV)

Based on a short story by John Collier, first published in 1939.

A man kills his wife and buries her in the basement, on the same day when they were leaving for the U.S..

Nice episode, and, among its niceties, an interesting idea (women seem to value tidiness regardless of its function, as opposed to men), a variation of which is present in Crumb (1994).

Gun Belt (1953)

An ex-outlaw turned rancher is requested by his brother to take part in a robbery. He refuses but certain complications follow which will demand action from him.

B-Westerns like this one are not really memorable, yet fulfill their role of entertaining, no questions asked.

Rating: 34

The Simpsons Movie (2007)

When the pollution in the Springfield lake reaches catastrophic levels, the government decides to put a dome over the city, thus isolating it from the rest of the country.

I guess I would have to see it again in order to make some sense of the above-described plot. In any case, the film is bland, a far cry from the sharp humor displayed in the earlier seasons of the TV show. As a mild form of entertainment, it's OK, although some of the jokes are somewhat irritating.

Rating: 42

The Toughest Gun in Tombstone (1958)

An undercover agent investigates the link between the activities of a cattle rustling gang and the commerce of silver. All this occurs in 19th century Arizona just before it gains the status of State of the Union.

Routine B-Western, with some degree of watchability.

Rating: 31

Mickey One (1965)

A Detroit stand-up comedian owes money to the local Mob and runs to Chicago where he hides under a new identity.

On first viewing it seemed a little uneven, but it can be said without fear of error that it is very well filmed (and equally well scored). Possible imperfections aside, this is a successful study of the psychology of the pursued man, with some hinted allusions to deeper metaphysical themes that I don't fully understand. There seems to be a reference to the Catholic doctrine of the original sin when the girl asks Mickey what he is guilty of, and he answers "of not being innocent". At this article, there are some literary references, but since I haven't read the cited sources, I am still somewhat in the dark. For those who don't care much for these extra dimensions, the film is enjoyable for its set-pieces (the car-wrecking site, the gizmo show, and others) and its general atmosphere and dark humor.

Rating: 65

Sky High (2005)

The children of superheroes attend a special school; those students whose superpowers are considered important are placed as the elite of the school while the others are trained to be their assistants.

While some of it is derivative and cliché, some intelligence can be found in the script. And it is well made.

Saw it dubbed in Portuguese.

Rating: 50

The Dizzy Acrobat (1943)

Woody wants to watch a circus show and is barred by an usher.

Saw it dubbed in Portuguese.

The Reckless Driver (1946)

Woody is reminded by an outdoor sign that his driver's license must be renewed. Wally is in charge of the tests and a conflict establishes between him and Woody.

Saw it dubbed in Portuguese.

Solid Ivory (1947)

Woody is playing pool and one of the balls falls out of the table into a chicken's nest. The latter thinks it's one of her eggs.

Saw it dubbed in Portuguese.

Chinjeolhan geumjassi (2005)

English title: Sympathy for Lady Vengeance.

A woman serves time in prison for the kidnapping and murder of a boy. She is innocent and after she is released she will seek vengeance against the men who put her in that situation.

Even for those who have sympathy for Mr. Park's bizarre mannerisms, this may come off as pretty uninspired and even haphazard at times.

Rating: 20

Only You (1994)

As a girl, Faith asked a Ouija Board for the name of her soulmate and it somehow produced one. Now an adult, and about to get married, she hears that name again and chases its owner all the way to Italy.

Weak story and weak screenplay.

Rating: 20

Alfred Hitchcock Presents: Place of Shadows (1956) (TV)

Man travels to a monastery seeking revenge against another man who took refuge there after having stolen his money.

A weaker episode; still, it's easy to watch, like the rest of the series.

Alfred Hitchcock Presents: Safe Conduct (1956) (TV)

A journalist on a train leaving East Germany gets involved with a soccer player's weird machinations.

Good episode, ingenious and engaging.

Ladybugs (1992)

A man accepts from his boss the task of coaching a girls' soccer team; he puts his stepson -- in drag -- in the team to give it a boost.

Weak comedy which nevertheless has some good one-liners and one or two interesting sequences.

Rating: 35

Efter brylluppet (2006)

English title: After the Wedding.

A charity worker in India has to travel to his native Denmark for an important meeting with a prospective donor. He is then invited to a wedding. During the ceremony some facts are disclosed which lead him to think he is there by design.

Superior melodrama, which benefits from a superb ensemble of actors, doubtlessly very well directed.

Rating: 69

Un mauvais fils (1980)

English title: A Bad Son.

After serving a drug-related prison sentence in the U.S., young man returns to France and reestablishes a link with his father. During his absence, his mother died after a long period of depression.

This is a film without concessions to melodrama, and with no comic relief; it's basically life as a prison cell. The father-son relationship is the stronger side of the film, with very interesting nuances and a marvelous performance by Yves Robert. On the other hand, I found the protagonist's love relationship to be unconvincing and badly done in some aspects. To begin with, it's hardly credible that a government program of rehabilitation and reinsertion would place two former drug addicts close to each other; also, I don't see how he would fall instantly in love with a woman who treats him coldly and has no exceptionally attractive physical traits.

Rating: 58

Freddy vs. Jason (2003)

Freddy Kruger (from "A Nightmare on Elm Street") uses Jason Voorhees (from "Friday the 13th") to become stronger (watch it to know how).

Rather silly as a concept, yet the result is watchable, sort of.

Rating: 30

Das Sandbad (1907)

English title: The Sand Bath.

Early nudie.

Saw it at the Europa Film Treasures portal.

Out for Justice (1991)

A cop goes after the man who killed his friend -- also a cop -- and who is now killing people for no reason under the effect of drugs.

Violent thriller, brutal and not very interesting.

Rating: 30

Saw it dubbed in Portuguese.

Tchao pantin (1983)

A middle-aged gas station attendant befriends a young drug dealer. When the latter is killed by another dealer, the former sets out to avenge him.

A poor screenplay.

Rating: 31

Charlie Wilson's War (2007)

Back in the 80s, a U.S. congressman engages himself in the plight for funding the Afghan resistance against the Soviet invaders.

This story is not as interesting as it purports to be; also, it has few intrinsically cinematic virtues. From the political angle, it has a basic ideological slant which is perfectly expressed in the title itself. Were it named "Joanne Herring's War" it would be truer to fact. For those with a capacity to see beneath the surface, the film hints at how money dictates U.S. politics.

Rating: 61

2046 (2004)

A man gets involved with several women but has a secret inner pain which prevents him from committing to any one of them.

This film has a tendency towards hollow aestheticism; the "science-fiction" angle doesn't work at all.

Rating: 35

El orfanato (2007)

English title: The Orphanage.

A kid wich had several imaginary friends goes missing. Some clues point to the orphanage where he lived before being adopted.

This supernatural tale fails to excite or thrill.

Rating: 27

Les barbouzes (1964)

English title: The Great Spy Chase.

Following an arms dealer's death, government agents from several countries gather at the widow's castle in an attempt to seize some secret documents concerning nuclear weapons.

Unfunny comedy.

Rating: 31

Urban Cowboy (1980)

Bud moves from a small town to a big one. His uncle gets him a job in the same company he works at. They go out at night and Bud meets a girl. When a mechanical bull is installed at the bar, it's a big hit, but also a factor of conflict.

This film has good moments and is mostly easy to watch. The plot is somewhat silly at times.

Rating: 50

Messenger of Death (1988)

The murder of the wives and children of a traditionalist Mormon man puts an investigative journalist on the trail of a Mormon family feud and also of some economic interests over a piece of land belonging to one of them.

Basically routine policier, which is watchable and quite probably won't last in my memory for long.

Rating: 36

Ice Princess (2005)

A teenage girl is advised by her teacher to pursue a Physics career; her mother is very pleased with that idea, but what the girl really likes to do is ice skating. She tries to bring the two activities together in her essay for the scholarship, a study of the biomechanics of figure skating.

For a teenage movie this is very reasonable.

Saw it dubbed in Portuguese.

Rating: 51

Fort Yuma (1955)

An army outfit is transporting some ammunition to a Fort, unaware that the Apache got word of it and is planning to attack them and steal the ammunition. There are further complications as the leader of the outfit is having an affair with the scoutsman's Native-American sister. A missionary woman who comes along with them takes an interest in the scoutsman.

Below average western, which means barely watchable stuff.

Rating: 32

Le septième juré (1962)

English title: The Seventh Juror.

Based on the novel by Francis Didelot (1st ed. 1958).

From Wikipédia (translated from the French): "On a hot Sunday in September, Duval, an honest historiless pharmacist of Pontarlier, yielding to a sudden urge, throws himself at a young woman who is sunbathing at a lakeshore. She screams and he strangles her. The woman's lover, Sylvain Sautral, is accused of the murder. But then Duval is appointed juror at the young man's trial."

Compelling drama about small towns and their morality, and also about how the choices we make in youth may lead us to personal dead-ends. The film makes masterful use of voice-over, and has a memorable performance by Bernard Blier, amid a fine cast.

Rating: 66

Le chemin des écoliers (1959)

English title: Way of Youth.

Based on the novel by Marcel Aymé (1st ed. 1946).

A young man makes a lot of money in the black market in Paris in 1943. His parents know nothing about his illegal activities.

Bittersweet look at the Occupation. The story is full of unexpected (and entertaining) turns, and of funny situations. In the fine cast, the highlights are provided by Bourvil and, in a smalller role, Lino Ventura, two actors I am very fond of.

The version I saw was 78 minutes long; according to the Internet Movie Database there is a 90 minutes version.

Rating: 64

The Order (2003)

Alternate title: The Sin Eater.

A young priest goes to Rome to investigate the death of his mentor, and finds out about a strange "sin eating" ritual.

Not worth any comments, really.

Rating: 5

Perdoa-me por me traíres (1983)

Based on the play by Nelson Rodrigues (1st performance 1957).

Two stories with interconnected characters: (1) an adolescent girl is taken to a brothel by her best friend who is a prostitute at that place; (2) a man has an obsessive jealousy of his wife and asks to be committed in an institution.

An interesting text in an adequate adaptation, well directed and well acted. Some nudity and sex scenes are out of place and are obviously a concession to audience's tastes, but that doesn't seriously compromise the film.

I saw a 87-minute-long version, which seemed to be missing important scenes, although I can't be sure about it. The length of the film is generally given as 101 minutes, which further indicates the presence of cuts in the version I saw.

Rating: 58

Support Your Local Gunfighter (1971)

A man arrives at a town while running from a woman; he is mistaken for a gunfighter. There is a war in town between two rival mining companies.

Funny western, with relentlessly witty dialog and excellent performances all around.

Rating: 60

Wah-Wah (2005)

The film follows the childhood and adolescence of a boy living in Swaziland in the late 60's and early 70's, and his family problems: his mother leaves, etc.

Very good film, a sharp and honest depiction of a boy's life against a troubled family and a retrograde society going through changes. One of the main virtues of the film is that it keeps a perfect balance between comedy and drama.

Rating: 71 (4th position among my favorite movies of 2005)

Firewalker (1986)

Two adventurers are hired by a young woman to seek a treasure.

Mediocre adventure which aimed to cash in on the popularity of Romancing the Stone and its sequel Jewel of the Nile.

Rating: 30

Ace Ventura: Pet Detective (1994)

A detective who works at locating missing animals is hired to find the mascot of the famous Dolphins football club.

Occasionally intelligent but the protagonist's grimaceous characterization is not really my idea of funny.

Rating: 45

Live Free or Die Hard (2007)

A gang of hackers takes over all the computer systems that control the essential services of the country.

The action sequences of this film are breathtaking.

Rating: 67

Star Trek V: The Final Frontier (1989)

A lunatic takes three consuls on a remote planet as hostages; he demands a starship so that he and his followers may go on a trip to a planet on the center of the galaxy where he believes he will find God. The Enterprise comes to the rescue but the lunatic manages to take control of it.

Another entertaining Star Trek film, correctly directed and competently written. The finale is weak in terms of 'scientific' justification, even more so than the average of the series, but it is perhaps the adequate culmination of a fantasy plot which brings about several interesting situations and a strong character, Sybok.

Rating: 52

The Secret Life of Words (2005)

A nurse takes care of a burn victim at an oil rig.

It doesn't ring true for one moment. It also has a penchant for the music video.

Similar movies: The English Patient and Breaking the Waves.

Rating: 15

The Crocodile Hunter: Collision Course (2002)

A satellite is self-destroyed and its data storage device is ejected, reaching the Earth's surface in Australia where it is eaten by a crocodile. An American team is sent to take the object back to the U.S., but at the same time an environmentalist is called in order to relocate the animal in question who has been giving trouble to a particular rancher.

Unpretentious yet entertaining adventure which benefits from the remarkable performance/stuntwork/informative lessons by Steve Irwin, who improvised all his lines.

Rating: 50

Several early movies

Enfants pêchant des crevettes (1896) [eng. tit. Children Fishing for Clams]

Monkeyshines, No. 1 (1890)

Baignade dans un torrent (1897)

Le pêcheur dans le torrent (1897)

Mujeres al borde de un ataque de nervios (1988)

English title: Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown.

Woman tries to reach her ex-boyfriend in order to tell him she is pregnant of him.

Second viewing. Not so good as I thought; there is a moderate amount of invention in the screenplay, but the dialogue is excessive and uninspired.

Rating: 51 (down from 68)

¿Qué he hecho yo para merecer esto!! (1984)

English title: What Have I Done to Deserve This?

Life in a lower middle class family.

Not of much interest, except for the good direction of actors and the excellent performances; the screenplay is not totally devoid of interest, but the narrowness of the worldview it embodies is slightly offputting. The murder is from "Lamb to the Slaughter", by Roald Dahl, first published in 1953 and adapted for television in 1958 ("Alfred Hitchcock Presents") and subsequently for Dahl's English show.

Rating: 40

Bridge to Terabithia (2007)

Based on the novel by Katherine Paterson (1st ed. 1977).

A boy and a girl escape to a world of fantasy after school.

The 'realistic' part is mildly interesting and is actually at odds with the fantasy part, which is unengaging and perfunctory. It's also interesting to note that the film comes off as liberal-oriented (here I use the word 'liberal' in the meaning the U.S. people give it); the character 'Leslie''s loose approach to religion seems to embody the film's own stance on these matters; her words go more or less like this: " You have to believe it, and you hate it; I don't have to believe it, and I find it beautiful"; these words obviously reflect the filmmakers' minds, but hardly real-life children's -- anyway only an arrogant prick would tell her friend what he is supposed to hate. The film is clearly prejudiced towards rural people; Jess's parents are rude and cold, and his classmates are a bunch of retards and bullies. Oddly enough, no teacher or school staff seem to do anything about the scandalous student behavior.

Rating: 40

Entre tinieblas (1983)

English titles: Dark Habits; Dark Hideout.

A woman hiding from the police seeks refuge in a convent.

Although some situations manage to cause a sense of weirdness, the actual events which link them are poorly developed and trite. The version I saw was only 95 minutes long approximately. This film has similarities in plot with Sister Act (1992), but I can't elaborate on that because I haven't seen the latter.

Rating: 31

The Rundown (2003)

A debt collector is assigned the mission of bringing a young man from the Amazon jungle to his brother in the U.S.A.; once over there he joins that young man in a quest for a precious relic.

Mediocre adventure, except for some above average stuntwork.

Rating: 34

Cellular (2004)

A woman is kidnapped and while in captivity manages to make a phone call with a semi-destroyed phone; the randomly dialed number belongs to a young man who will do everything he can to help her.

A one-hour-and-a-half commercial for cellphones. Moderately entertaining.

Rating: 44

Barquero (1970)

An outfit steals a payload of rifles and sends three of their men to secure the barge which will take them across the river to Mexico. These men are overpowered by the bargeman's friend and the whole town crosses the river before the bandits arrive in town. A long wait ensues on both sides of the river.

Well directed Western with several interesting situations and action sequences.Van Cleef and Tucker give memorable performances, and Oates is a genius.

Rating: 58

Patty Hearst (1988)

An account of the kidnapping of a wealthy young woman by a minuscule terrorist group and her subsequent joining in that group's activities.

This seems irreproachable at first analysis in strict storytelling terms, and yet there is something frustrating about the film which I can only express as being related to the non-cinematic quality of what is shown. This film draws a strong XXth century parallel to the XIXth century social behavior analysis in Duel at Diablo (1966).

Rating: 51

The Fly (1986)

Based on a short story by George Langelaan (1st publication 1957).

A scientist researching teleportation tries to teleport himself but a fly enters the teleportation chamber and as a result his genetic material fuses with the fly's.

It's my second viewing of this film. I hated it when I first saw it. After this second viewing, I still don't like many things about it, but I acknowledge some basic virtues in it, mostly at the dramatic level, which is furthermore sustained by fine performances. Possibly its most obvious flaws are the scientific misconceptions it employs as a plot driver, such as a computer that performs actions without having been programmed to do them, and the whole baloney about teaching the computer about the "secrets of the flesh". But the film is flawed in a most essential level, in that it articulates some interesting concepts (for example, the comparison between disease and evolution) but never really explores them, degenerating instead into simple melodrama/thriller/ special effects show, and finishing so abruptly that the idea of a sequel becomes almost a necessity.

Rating: 41 (up from 17)

Duel at Diablo (1966)

Based on the novel "Apache Rising" by Marvin H. Albert (1st ed. 1957).

A white woman had been kidnapped by the Apaches and was rescued after having lived for some time among them; now she can't fit in with the white community, which treats her with contempt. She tries to get back to the Apaches but is taken back to her husband by a scout.

The psychology is that of dime novels -- it's based on one, after all. I found the native Americans' hostility towards the woman hard to believe, and even harder that they would want to bury her alive; but then again some white characters are portrayed in a simplistic manner too. It's nevertheless an entertaining film at the melodramatic level; the action scenes were directed with a remarkable acuity.

Rating: 58

Shi gan (2006)

English title: Time.

A woman thinks her boyfriend is getting tired of her and changes her face through plastic surgery; she then changes her identity as well and tries to start a relationship with him.

Silly and dull.

Rating: 24

Spanglish (2004)

A Mexican woman emigrates to the U.S. with her small daughter; she finds work as a maid for a rich family and gets personally involved in their matters.

Apparently all familiar dramedies nowadays must feature a 'castrated' male, so this is no exception. It would be a waste of time to list all the atrocious moments in the movie -- it is bad from frame one and does not improve as it goes along. Of course, it must culminate in an ending which tops everything that precedes it in terms of abomination. One particular aspect of the movie, though, had me specially puzzled, namely, that it has a WHITE Spanish actress playing a Mexican woman whose daughter considers her mother's employer as "the coolest WHITE woman she has ever met".

Rating: 15

Demonlover (2002)

Diane is an executive at a French company who is trying to buy a Japanese porn animation company; she happens to be a spy at the service of that Japanese company's main rival.

It's marred by a poorly thought out script, crammed with unexplained or implausible events. Piecewise, it is rather atmospheric, yet not exactly thrilling. The predictable ending gives the film a moralistic slant.

Rating: 47

Tôkyô orimpikku (1965)

English title: Tokyo Olympiad.

The Brazilian TV showed only 125 minutes out of 170.

This film tries to highlight the human side of the Olympics, favoring close-ups -- and closer shots in general -- whenever possible. An interesting approach, but it seems to me -- based on the cut version I saw -- that it sacrifices the documenting of the actual games and competitions; an extreme example -- and, again, I can't be sure if this is due to some cut footage -- is the fencing competition, where we see the faces of the contestants but have no idea of what they are doing.

La bride sur le cou (1961)

English titles: Please, Not Now!; Only for Love.

Sophie lost her boyfriend to an American woman; then Sophie meets Alain, who falls in love with her; he suggests she use him to make her ex-boyfriend jealous.

Silly comedy which is slightly entertaining.

Rating: 35

La grande olimpiade (1961)

English titles: The Grand Olympics; Olympic Games 1960.

Documentary covering the 1960 Olympics held in Rome. This film is significantly better than the London and the Melbourne records.

Norbit (2007)

Norbit, an orphan, marries a bossy, overweight woman whose brothers run a series of illegitimate businesses. Norbit's childhood sweetheart returns with intentions of buying the orphanage they were raised in. Her fiancé is secretly associated with Norbit's brothers-in-laws in a plan to turn the orphanage's building into a strip club.

Entertainingly crude (or rather, crudely entertaining).

Rating: 54

Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan (1982)

A man who had been exiled in a deserted planet seeks revenge upon the man who put him there.

Entertaining space adventure, with two astounding performances, Nimoy's and Montalbán's. It's my second viewing.

Rating: 56 (up from 47)

The Glimmer Man (1996)

A New York cop moves to Los Angeles where he partners with another cop in the investigation of some ritualistic murders. They begin to suspect that another criminal has been disguising his crimes as those of the serial killer in order to conceal his own activities involving the sale of chemical weapons to foreign terrorists via the Russian Mafia.

Routine policier with very cliché plot/characters which nevertheless handles its action well.

Saw it dubbed in Portuguese.

Rating: 30

Smokey and the Bandit (1977)

A guy accepts a job of transporting beer from one State to another (which in the U.S.A. is illegal). He calls a friend to drive the truck while he'll drive a car which will work as a diversion. He picks up a runaway bride on the way back and is chased by the sheriff of the town in which the wedding was supposed to happen.

Second viewing. Great performances, classic songs, sharp dialogue, fine direction, all come together just fine.

Rating: 61 (up from 57)

Olympic Games 1956 (1956)

Documentary showing the XVIth Olympiad, which took place in Melbourne, Australia. I am guessing that the 50 minutes or so that I saw (on Brazilian TV) were a heavily cut version of the entire movie. Its integral duration is a little hard to ascertain, since the Internet Movie Database registers two versions, one shown in 1956 and another which was edited from the first one and came out in 2000. The latter's duration -- the only one reported -- is 104 minutes.

The film is a straightforward record without much sophistication of any sort.

XIVth Olympiad: The Glory of Sport (1948)

Documentary showing the London Olympics in 1948. The Brazilian TV showed a cut version (101 minutes out of 136), thus the narration gets incomprehensible when it mentions Switzerland, all the footage of which was cut. The film is not distinctive in any formal aspect, but otherwise it's fascinating to see women athletes who look like... uh, women. As for the rest of it, the user review (there is only one as of this moment) on the Internet Movie Database is pretty accurate.

Zivot je cudo (2004)

English title: Life Is a Miracle.

[Complete plot, with serious spoilers]

Prior to the Bosnian war, in a small town, a man works as an engineer for the local railway and has a dissatisfied wife who used to sing opera and is emotionally unstable. They have a son who plays football (that's soccer for you Yanks) and aspires to become a professional player. He is drafted for Army service and then the war begins. His mother runs away with a Hungarian musician. A local soldier kidnaps a Serbian woman who worked at the local hospital expecting to trade her for the engineer's son who has been taken prisoner. She is placed in the engineer's house as a hostage but she had long had a crush on him so she willingly obliges. A romance blossoms between the two until one day his wife returns. Also, the war has ended and the Serbian woman is in the U.N.'s prisoners list and must be returned to her country. They try to escape from Bosnia but she is shot in the leg. She goes to a hospital and from there they take her to Serbia; the engineer runs after her but on the bridge he finds his son returning to Bosnia, which causes him to lose her. He loses track of her and returns to his old life; he gets so despondent that he tries to kill himself by placing his head on the train rail. A donkey, who was -- as he had been time and again throughout the film -- stopped on the track in an attempt, according to his owner (who is himself a ghost according to another character), to kill himself over a love pain, prevented him from getting killed. He is taken with exhilaration and, in a "dream" or premonitory sequence, is seen riding the donkey with his beloved. Minor supblots: a mayor who will not comply with a corruption scheme is assassinated at his lawyer's orders; this lawyer subsequently takes his place and is referred to in one mysterious subtitle as "bisexual".

Very noisy and festively vulgar. Every character seems to have one screw loose. Not particularly remarkable but done with feeling, it seems. The problem with this kind of feeling, as expressed in the title, is that it doesn't have the universal appeal to which it aspires. It ultimately proves only that "life in this particular movie is a miracle".

Rating: 53

Clerks II (2006)

A fast-food employee is about to leave for Florida to get married.

This is not really suitable material for screen; perhaps for TV, but definitely would work best on paper. Above all, this is a sequel that doesn't make a lot of sense.

Rating: 24

Indigènes (2006)

English title: Days of Glory.

In World War II, a unit of French colonials fights first in Italy, then in Africa, and finally in Alsacia.

This film shows the discrimination against people of Arabic and Negro ethnicity both during the war and after it. As every film with an agenda, it's manipulative to some extent. Nevertheless, it is well made and its general point is a valid one. Some aspects of it are also present in Glory (1989); some battle sequences bear similarities with Saving Private Ryan (1998), according to some sources (I have seen that movie but don't remember it all that well).

Rating: 65

Les spécialistes (1985)

A cop passing off as a convict simulates an escape and takes another convict with him; he intends to use the latter in a casino robbery whose motivation is to cause a war between rival gangs.

Filled with plot absurdities of all kinds, and I think plot is important in a film like this. Aside from that, it is very tritely conceived in terms of characters and dialog.

Rating: 16

La femme de Gilles (2004)

English title: Gilles' Wife

Based on the novel by Madeleine Bourdouxhe (1st ed. 1937).

A woman puts up with her husband's cheating.

An interesting story, in a somewhat shallow film; the ending in particular is clumsily conceived; it doesn't ensue naturally from the flow of events or states of mind.

Rating: 56

Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979)

A gigantic energy field is approaching Earth. The spaceship Enterprise is assigned to investigate it and neutralize any possible harm coming from it.

Mostly clichés. Machines that acquire consciousness are a must in this kind of enterprise. As an abstract narrative, it is fairly watchable. This is my second viewing.

Note: apparently I saw the oldest version, with 132 minutes.

Rating: 40 (unchanged)

Yat goh hiu yan (1997)

English title: Mr. Nice Guy.

A cook gets accidentally involved with two rival gangs which are pursuing a journalist who has a video tape which may incriminate them.

First off, the premise is completely absurd, since it presupposes that a tape cannot be duplicated. Of course this is just the mcguffin, but all the same... As for the action, which is obviously the prime focus of the movie, it is mostly well staged (with a few not-so-minor glitches here and there) and fast paced, yet unimpressive.

Rating: 35

Inspecteur Lavardin (1986)

A writer is found dead on the beach. Inspector Lavardin is called in to solve the crime. He finds out that the dead man's wife is a former flame of his.

Second film with the character from Poulet au vinaigre. This one is even worse. It is boring and, as becomes evident when the mystery is solved, doesn't make much sense; the ending is idiotic.

Rating: 6

Forensic Files: Insulated Evidence (2007) (TV)

A guy is murdered in his apartment. Police receives an anonymous call who reveals that the killer came in through a passage on the ceiling of the closet which connects to other apartments through a crawlspace. The killer was the neighbor's boyfriend whom she met in the internet. He was hiding in her apartment after having committed a previous crime.

Dreamgirls (2006)

Based on a musical play which opened in 1981.

Story of some female singers in the 60s and their crooked manager.

This is without the shadow of a doubt the worst musical I have seen in my entire life. Although kudos is due to the entire cast, the screenplay just falls short of being interesting and, what's worse, the songs are plain awful.

Rating: 29