No Room for the Groom (1952)

A soldier gets married while on leave and cannot consummate his marriage due to contracting chickenpox on his wedding night. Several months later he gets another one-week leave and returns to his house only to find it occupied by his wife's hostile mother and her many relatives.

A considerable part of this comedy is a variation on the theme of A Jazzed Honeymoon (1919). It gets complicated here by the additional theme of capitalism vs. traditional values as embodied by the rivalry between the hero and the owner of a cement factory. An entertaining film.

Rating: 52

Combat!: The Long Wait (1965) (TV)

Saunders and his men are riding in a truck with some wounded soldiers and a load of ammunitions. They meet with a German machine-gun nest on the road, and must wait for a tank before they may proceed. Meanwhile a soldier who is riding along with them keeps pushing Saunders into doing something other than waiting.

It clearly disregards psychological verisimilitude in favor of dynamics coupled with simplistic discussions. I am not very fond of this episode.

Combat!: Losers Cry Deal (1965) (TV)

[spoilers] Two squads from Lt. Hanley's platoon join forces to take over a Nazi-occupied building; after their success, one of the squads (not Sgt. Saunders') is without a leader. Jackson, a soldier with a repulsive character, considers himself fit to occupy the leadership position until a new sergeant is sent in, but Saunders', whom Lt. Hanley has put in charge, chooses Caje instead. A two-man patrol on the German-occupied vicinities is to be sent out; Caje is assigned to go, and he chooses Jackson to go with him; Jackson, however, holds a mysterious power over Tommy, another private, and has him volunteer in his place.

A great performance by Mike Kellin and a great direction by Vic Morrow perfectly succeed in shaping cinematically the good script by Shirl Hendryx. In case anyone is wondering - and at least one wrong guess is to be found on the Web - Hendryx is male, despite his misleading first name. He was rejected as a WWII combat soldier because of a perforated eardrum, and later enlisted successfully as an ambulance driver. A review of his autobiographical theater play may be read here.

Combat!: The Enemy (1965) (TV)

Hanley takes a German officer as a prisoner in a deserted town and forces him to disarm all the mines and booby traps which were laid there; he must do it before that town's inhabitants return.

Tom Horn (1980)

Beginning of the twentieth century: Tom Horn is a man with a large experience as a tracker. He comes to a small town where a series of cattle thefts is happening, and accepts a job as a "stock detective", that is, he is to hunt and kill the cattle thieves.

Lyrical - elegiacal to be exact - Western. Perhaps an imperfect film - e.g. the relationship between Horn and his girlfriend is rather sketchy and certain parts of it are unconvincing, e.g. her leaving him - but the center of the film - a man who is only half-aware of his self-destructive character, eventually meeting his demise - is as poetic as a film can be. The other side of the coin, also well handled, is the sacrificial subtheme of society expelling the very instruments it uses for its advancement. All in all, a film worth seeing.

Rating: 60

Combat!: the Hard Way Back (1964) (TV)

During a German attack, Saunders gets pinned down under a beam that collapses inside a house. The private who witnesses this flees, and lies to the rest of the squad, telling them that Saunders died. He laters goes back and saves the sergeant.

So-so episode, not among the best ones.

Combat!: Silver Service (1964) (TV)

[spoilers] Caje and Kirby are taken to a lodging place (I am very sorry for not being able to specify more precisely what that place was, and what they were doing there; I just do not know it) by a garrulous truck driver. Caje leaves to some unspecified destination, whereas Kirby stays. The truck driver plays a loaded dice with some of the soldiers stationed there, and cleans them out of big money. He suspects Kirby knows about his cheating, and leaves in a hurry, not knowing that the fellows over there had taken most of the fuel out of his truck for water heating purposes. The place is attacked by Germans during the night; Kirby manages to escape and while on the road he runs into the driver, stuck for lack of fuel. They walk out of there together, and end up asking for shelter at a house where a young woman lives with her father. They have to leave the house because the Germans are coming and the woman's father is a former resistance member. Throughout the episode the truck driver carries a heavy load with him, which seems to be of high value to him.

Combat!: The Duel (1964) (TV)

[spoilers] Saunders hitches a ride with a trucker who is transporting weapons and ammunition to Lorraine, where it seems that Saunders' men are in great danger from the Germans. They hear a German tank coming their way exactly when a tire goes flat. They have the option of running for their lives, thus leaving the men in Lorraine in a tough spot, but Saunders won't have that: he tells the truck driver to change the tire while he goes to the adjacent hills and tries to stall the tank for as long as he can. He starts shooting at it, then sneaks near it and climbs on it. The tank operators eventually shake him off, but then Saunders inserts an object (a log, I think) inside the traction system, making its motion impossible. This only works for so long, but it gives time to Saunders to go back near the truck. The support system collapses while the driver is under the truck and it falls on him, trapping him there. Saunders changes the tire, but moving the truck would kill the guy under it. Noticing the tank has resumed its motion, Saunders goes back near it and places a flask with gasoline on it; then he shoots it, causing it to go into flames. Now he can go back and free his friend from under the truck.

His Girl Friday (1940)

Second viewing.

A woman journalist is quitting the profession and getting married. She pays a visit to her ex-husband and ex-boss in the newspaper office where she worked, and he plots to make her reverse her decisions by using a man about to be executed as a bait.

Smart and funny, flawlessly directed. I wish I had more time and energy to review this as it deserves.

Rating: 73 (up from 70) (moved to my list of bests of 1940, in the 8th position.)

Combat!: Mountain Man (1964) (TV)

Saunders, Kirby and Caje request a mountain man to guide them through the mountains, so that they may later guide the whole company through that area. The guy is reluctant at first, but then accedes, conditioned to a reward. They are captured by the Germans.

Quite scenic episode, with impressive skiing sequences.

Combat!: Vendetta (1964) (TV)

Hanley's squad meets a Greek colonel who saves their lives. He is a polemic fellow who doesn't much care for wounded soldiers and pulls rank on Hanley so that he and his troops will lead him to a German depot which he plans to destroy, against Hanley's advice.

I don't know where the vendetta is in this. Just as I didn't know where the glory among men was in the previous one.

Top Hat (1935)

Second viewing.

A dancer meets a woman and falls in love with her. She mistakenly takes him for his married producer friend. She has a dressmaker friend who wants to "settle the score".

This seemed better on second viewing. It has a well polished script which works fine as a comedy, and has well integrated dance-and-song sequences, which are of very good taste.

Rating: 61 (up from 55)

Superman IV: The Quest for Peace (1987)

Superman gets rid of all the nuclear weapons. Luthor escapes from jail and builds an evil clone of Superman.

Weak sequel. There isn't much to be said about it that hasn't already been.

Rating: 32

Combat!: The Glory Among Men (1964) (TV)

Scratch head: what was this one about again? Oh yes, it is about a soldier whom nobody likes because he cheats at the dice game and is a coward in combat. During a confrontation with the Germans he gets caught between the allies and the enemy, without a possibility of being rescued without great danger.

Direct Action (2004)

A police officer has denounced his corrupt colleagues and is threatened by the new corrupt captain. His (I mean the honest cop's) gorgeous female partner becomes his new ally.

Very run-of-the-mill thriller.

Rating: 32

Combat!: The Short Day of Private Putman (1964) (TV)

Let me see if I can remember anything at all of this show, 11 days after I saw it. Private Putnam is, oh yes, now I remember it, he is a 15-year-old boy who lied about his age at enlistment. Now he feigns self-sufficiency before his new army comrades. The waitress at the local bar is the only one in the know, and she is hesitant to tell Lt. Hanley about it.

The Band Wagon (1953)

Second viewing.

An aging dancer, going through a down phase in his career, is invited to do a new musical show under the direction of a prestigious director of classic dramas. A renowned ballerina is invited to be the leading lady.

Almost ininterruptedly enjoyable until the opening night of the flop show. After the performance there is a get-together of the artists, which is kind of a perplexing sequence because, being so well done in mise-en-scene terms, is so poorly provided musically (the slightly ridiculous and thematically unrelated to the rest of the film I Love Louisa). Shortly after that point there are two numbers (Triplets and Louisiana Hay Ride) which contrast even more with the refinement of everything that went before and are among the most grotesque I have ever seen; furthermore, they do not seem to connect between themselves at all. I wonder what they really mean, if anything. Was that break in style on purpose? Was it meant to convey the vulgarity of the new show, in opposition to the stiff elitism of the original one? The third number of the reworked show, the splendid parody of hard-boiled novels/films, seems to be a more explicit commentary on low culture; this time around, however, the artistry which is displayed puts a distance between what we see and that low culture, thus leveling the film and the show within it. To wrap everything around, we have an ending which seems to establish a connection with the original Oedipus Rex thematic thread, approaching the question which must come to the mind of every reader/watcher of that classic play: doesn't it bother Oedipus in the least that Jocasta is so much older than him? The genders are reversed in the film (in relation to the myth), which is probably significative. In truth, this subtheme of age difference is not unrelated to the "main" one, of high-brow/low-brow opposition, with a mean twist: here the older person is associated with the lower end of the cultural spectrum, and the younger one, with its higher end.

Rating: 67

P.S.: after picking up some information on the web about this film, some of its problems were explained to me. The songs were all taken from a 1931 Broadway musical, but the screenplay has, apparently, nothing to do with that show. From which we see that the film is actually, in a way, about itself: it shows how when you join too many incompatible elements in the same work, problems arise.

Combat!: Mail Call (1964) (TV)

A new soldier coming from another outfit joins Saunders' squad. Saunders gets a letter that upsets him deeply; he becomes cold and distant towards his soldiers. At the same time, he gets very suspicious of the new guy, who seems to be dodging combat.

Interesting episode.

Combat!: Weep No More (1964) (TV)

A woman has lost her speech after a traumatizing incident. She is placed in a safe house but escapes and is then captured by the Germans. Hanley goes after her.

One of the weirdest episodes; there are very subtle nuances to it. Those looking for standard combat action will probably not get it.

Combat!: The Wounded Don't Cry (1963) (TV)

Saunders' squad takes over a group of Germans from a dismantled squad. A German officer requests permission to go and fetch plasma from a German ambulance which suffered an accident and was abandoned.

Interesting episode, centering on difficult war decisions.

Combat!: The Pillbox (1964) (TV)

Hanley and a wounded soldier take refuge at a German pillbox; a group of German soldiers enter the pillbox, and are forced to submit to them.

Interesting episode, centering on difficult war decisions.

Con Air (1997)

A released convict is caught on the same plane where a prisoner riot takes place.

Reasonably entertaining at parts; the beginning is the better part; the excitement drops a little in the second half.

Rating: 45

Festival in Cannes (2001)

Several characters with more or less interrelating stories during a film festival.

An interesting cross-section of one aspect of the film industry, from the personal, dramatic angle. The film has a consistent screenplay and, overall, is well directed. The cast is more or less uniformly good, but a word must go for Scacchi, outstanding.

Rating: 53

Trapped Ashes (2006)

Four segments: "The Girl with Golden Breasts" (woman gets a breast enhancement with ghastly consequences) , "Jigoku" (couple on vacation in Japan, she falls for a guy who then dies and...), "Stanley's Girlfriend" (a director and a screenwriter, plus the former's girlfriend, are a threesome of sorts, with a supernatural element), and "My Twin, the Worm" (a pregnant woman is infected with a tape worm and must let it grow because the treatment would hurt the fetus).

Mostly derivative horror. The set-up is practically the same as Tales from the Crypt (1972); The Girl with Golden Breasts is a close variation on Rabid (1977); Jigoku is based on the Tristan and Isolde medieval narrative; Stanley's Girlfriend is so stupid that it couldn't be based on anything else; My Twin, the Worm has an interesting and, as far as I know, original premise, but is probably the least well directed of them all.

Rating: 32

Bringing Up Baby (1938)

Second viewing.

Paleontologist meets rich woman who will go to any lengths to divert him from marrying his uptight bossy fiancée and get him for herself.

A very cerebral comedy, with one of the greatest performances ever (Hepburn).

Rating: 80 (unchanged, holds its position as number 3 in 1938's favorites)

Combat!: Anatomy of a Patrol (1963) (TV)

An allied plane containing important aerial film footage crashes. Both an allied and a German squads try to reach it.

A fabulously entertaining episode.

A Jazzed Honeymoon (1919)

A bridegroom gets separated from his bride right after the wedding (note: I probably should call them husband and wife, since it is after the wedding; I am not very assured with English writing). The film depicts his efforts to join her.

An above-average slapstick comedy, the most attractive feature of which is the stupendous Lloyd, of course.

Rating: 60

Paranoid Park (2007)

A teenager gets involved in the death of a railway security guard. As an investigation is under way, he leads a normal teenage life skateboarding, having sex, and hanging out with his buddies.

For me this was an exceedingly unsatisfactory film, with some choices that seemed inconceivable coming from an experienced filmmaker like this. Just as an example, the choice of keeping the main event of the film a mystery until halfway to it -- why? Also, there is so little actually going on in the entire movie, that it feels almost like a short. Sometimes the filmmaker doesn't seem to care much about the actual rooting of the film's themes in images - e.g. I do not remember a single scene featuring the lead character skating. All this is not to say that it is a worthless film: there is a distinct sense of poesy which permeates some of its scenes (the protagonist falling asleep in the lab; the very weird scene where his two female friends talk to him while he is reading the newspaper; etc).

Rating: 45

Lady Chatterley (2006)

Based on the novel "John Thomas and Lady Jane", by D.H. Lawrence, written in 1927. This novel was not published during the author's life; it was rewritten and published as "Lady Chatterley's Lover" in 1928.

A woman whose husband is paralyzed has an affair with the gamekeeper.

Well done, but to be honest I found it too beautiful. On the one hand, it raises interesting questions about the class system in 1920's England; on the other, I am not so sure about the verisimilitude of these characters and situations. And I was a little bored.

Rating: 67

Combat!: The Bridge at Chalons (1963) (TV)

Saunders' assignment is to lead a squad escorting a demolition man to a bridge he will blow up. The man is an obnoxiously unfriendly type.

Excellent episode.

Combat!: Masquerade (1963) (TV)

Two soldiers carrying a German prisoner in a jeep pass by Saunders and his squad. The three are actually Germans in disguise who want to get to the American battalion.

OK episode. This is the one where we almost get to know Saunders' first name.

Judge Dredd (1995)

In the future, the justice system works by way of so-called "judges", who are police, jury and executioner in one person. One of these judges is framed in a crime he hasn't committed. Parallel to that, a conspiracy to reactivate a secret genetic engineering project is under way.

Not bad action/futuristic thriller. I thought the dialogue rather uninspired though.

Rating: 50

The Mystery of Natalie Wood (2004) (TV)

Biographical drama. The style is soap-operatic, with recurring references to gypsy prophecies and assorted superstitions. I find incidents in small boats (cf. Knife in the Water, Dead Calm) very interesting cinematic material, and that was reason enough for watching this. On the other hand, the rape depiction is weird: the pre-rape events in the rapist's apartment are not shown, for some mysterious reason. But then again, this is not an ordinary fiction work: it is more like a semi-documentary, with interviews with some of the real persons which inspired the film, interspersed with the narrative sections.

Rating: 35

Fay Grim (2006)

A sequel to Henry Fool. Henry's Confessions become a valuable item when it is learned that it contains sensitive political information. The CIA uses Henry's wife Fay as an instrument to recover the Confessions. She travels to Europe, where she faces all sorts of danger.

A dry parody of espionage thrillers; occasionally funny, but overall it is rather boring and pointless.

Rating: 36

Atonement (2007)

An upper-class young woman is in love with her housekeeper's son. She has a younger sister who is disturbed by their behavior and ends up accusing the lad of a crime he hasn't committed.

To classify this simply as kitsch would in fact be complimentary, since I have seen other instances of kitsch with greater entertainment value and thematic consistency. The fact is that, even disregarding style, the film has structural problems: it feels choppy and condensed. And the greatest problem of all seems to come from the text itself: some of the individual episodes were interesting, but they didn't seem to add to a meaningful whole. And, as everyone else has already pointed out, the film's idea of atonement is ridiculous.

Rating: 39

Detention (2003)

A gang who plans a spectacular robbery uses a high school after the class period for its activities. The problem is that there are some students and a teacher (not to mention a security guard) still in the premises of the school.

Quite absurd at its most basic level, as many reviewers pointed out: the bandits have no reason to attack anyone, to begin with, since they could do their job out of everyone's sight; second, their plan (using a police car which they will repaint) is beyond ridiculous. In terms of action, the layout is simple: the bad guys are terrible shooters, which allows the good guys to survive in all but the most direct confrontations.

Rating: 25

Auf der anderen Seite (2007)

U.S. title: The Edge of Heaven.
Correctly translated title: On the other side.

Two interrelated stories: 1) a Turkish-born professor living in Germany, his father and the prostitute who lives with the latter; 2) a Turkish student involved in an activist organization, who is forced to flee to Germany, and a German student with whom she starts a homosexual relationship.

The film lacks conflict: it flows too easily, with the characters assuming all too often a position of "peace, love and understanding"; still, it has qualities and is consistently watchable throughout.

Rating: 61

Congorama (2006)

Two stories which are interrelated. A Belgian inventor comes to Québec with the purpose of finding out his biological parents' identities. A Québecois man tries to recover his father's project notes for an electric car.

Watchable, but its notion of aesthetics is that of a jigsaw puzzle, where little things must fit one another.

Rating: 37

Little Nikita (1988)

A guy finds out that his parents are "sleepers", i.e., Soviet spies who established themselves in the U.S. with fake identities of American citizens with the purpose of being "activated" in the future. A rogue Soviet agent is killing all the sleepers with the intent of extorting money from the U.R.S.S.

Implausible at times, but entertains mildly. Phoenix's performance is too bad.

Rating: 41

Cloverfield (2008)

A giant monster attacks Manhattan.

A curious idea - a faux amateur movie - reasonably well executed on the technical side. That's all this is.

Rating: 44

Dark Matter (2007)

A Chinese physics graduation student at an American university gets into a conflict with his advisor.

Manipulative account of the experience of foreign students in the USA. For anyone who knows just a little about how the Academia works in the exact sciences area (my case, with emphasis on the "just a little" part) it will be clear that the details of the story fall strictly in the fiction category, notwithstanding its loose inspiration on a real event. And while it is probably true that university professors are prone to having an oversized ego problem my very small experience suggests that this is not as big an issue in the exact sciences area as the film seems to imply. Anyway, the really bothersome aspect of the film is its agenda of demonizing the USA through a deliberate construction of characters and situations which seem to justify the protagonist's insane deeds at the end. The use of the U.S. National Anthem to imply that freedom in the U.S. is illusory eschews the issue which should be discussed instead, namely, how excessive freedom (to buy guns, in this case) is sometimes the real problem.

Rating: 12

Half Nelson (2006)

A high school teacher faces a personal crisis fueled by his drug addiction. One of his students who faces some dilemmas of her own becomes attached to him.

Probably some of the faults pointed out are true, chiefly among them the unrealism of the central situation; other accusations are simply too narrow-minded to be mentioned. I defend that one should, if not overlook, at least try to see beyond these alleged faults. I do not want to come off as arrogant but it seems that not a few people misunderstood this film badly. In my view, the axis of the film is the idea that the way one views the world conditions the way one lives. Specifically, to view the world dialectically leads to an embodiment of that worldview in the form of a personality that is constantly in conflict with itself (and with others, it goes without saying); drugs are just the lifestyle that naturally suits this state of self. The opposition to that is established in the form of the friendship of a 13-year old girl, which is not dialectic at all, and thus works as the antithesis to the teacher's worldview. This operates in an infinitely self-contradicting framework, since any opposition is dialectic by definition. The film refuses to offer the final synthesis, a stance which is more than adequate to its proposition. There are further layers to this, such as the discussion about the relative positions of drug user/drug dealer, a theme covered also in Tropa de Elite.

P.S.: all of the above but the synopsis is a JOKE (sorry, my very few readers, I am assaulted by a pranking spirit once in a blue moon). Now, my true opinion about HALF NELSON: another inane sundance-thing, posing as a heart-wrenching descent-to-hell-and-redemption tale.

Rating (the real one): 27

Combat!: The Battle of the Roses (1963) (TV)

Saunders' squad is at a town being attacked by Germans. They must evacuate it but a young woman driven mad by recent events refuses to leave a garden where she sits listening to music in the company of her faithful servant.

Interesting.

Hanky Panky (1982)

A guy becomes involved in a plot involving the theft of important military secrets contained in a computer tape. He is accused of murder and is forced to flee, in the company of a woman who claims to want to help him.

Not bad as entertainment, but way too derivative to be really of interest.

Rating: 43

Hard Times (1975)

A man employs himself as a street fighter in the U.S. of the Depression years.

The problem here is the lack of a solid plotline beyond the obvious situations that one might expect from this kind of premise. It is all done with competence but it is less a gritty realistic depiction of the Depression than a melodrama about a guy whom nobody can beat.

Rating: 43

Savage Grace (2007)

A socialite and her husband live in various places in Europe throughout the sixties and seventies; they have a son. The socialite comes from a lower class and behaves obnoxiously in social occasions, much to her husband's dismay. He eventually leaves her.

Although inspired by real characters and events relating to the Baekeland family, the film handles the factual and speculative material so incompetently that it becomes an incomprehensible mess. There is no causal arc between any of the characters' acts, and at times what they say and do is simply not believable.

Rating: 25

The Phantom of the Opera (1962)

Strange occurrences have been taking place at the Opera House. A masked man and his mad assistant, both living in an underground lair in the Opera House building are behind these events. The new singer becomes the masked man's protegee. The composer is a lecher after the singer's favors.

There isn't much logic in it, which is partly a consequence of the major changes made in regards to the original novel; also, the plot development is a little bit choppy (I couldn't find out whether the 84 minute version I saw was the complete one). But, changes and all, this version has had an enormous appeal on our collective imagination, and the film is an attention grabber for the most part of it, which is also due to its being masterfully filmed. Its influence was felt in several other films, most notably perhaps in the two Dr. Phibes films of the early seventies.

Rating: 50

Black Belt Jones (1974)

Some unscrupulous real estate entrepreneurs want the site of a martial arts school for the building of a condominium. In defense of the poor sports educators, call Black Belt Jones, an agent and karate expert.

A very poor screenplay is the major deficiency here. The highlight of absurdity is when the protagonist invites some beach girls to help him raid the enemy's house. (This and other pertinent observations were also made by the The Bad Movie Report reviewer, who nevertheless seemed to enjoy the movie more than I did).

Rating: 31

Shoot 'Em Up (2007)

A man is caught up in a web of murder as he assumes the role of protecting a baby from a gang of assassins. The gang's motives are related to a complex imbroglio involving the arms industry and a sick senator.

Deliriously cartoonish, unrelentlessly inventive and funny, flaunting its fundamental contradiction (guns are good/guns are bad) with a cynicism so blatant that it becomes its exact opposite, perhaps.

Rating: 69

Picasso Trigger (1988)

I can't explain the plot of this film with any exactitude. Very loosely, it is about a group of agents against a criminal named Ortiz who seems to have killed his partner named Salazar. There is also a ring of sex slavery, whose connection to said criminals I did not get.

Very poor filmmaking, a very dull film.

Rating: 9

The Foreigner (2003)

A special agent is hired to deliver a package from France to Germany.

The plot does not make sense. The action set-pieces are mediocre.

Rating: 27

Combat!: Survival (1963) (TV)

Hanley's squad is captured. They are released when the site they are in is bombed, but Saunders is left behind, tied up inside a room on fire.

One of the more imagetical episodes.

Combat!: No Hallelujahs for Glory (1963) (TV)

A newspaper reporter with a penchant for getting into trouble wants to do a story on the war and Saunders has to keep an eye on her.

Quite interesting episode, with a good deal of complexity in it and a strong yet somewhat misguided critique of the press. The forgotten aspect is that newspaper coverage was in the best interest of the war effort inasmuch as it helped build a favorable public opinion, which translated into tax dollars.

Lions for Lambs (2007)

Three situations evolve simultaneously: a professor tries to imbue a student with civic spirit, a senator tries to coopt a journalist into a military strategy devised by him, and two soldiers in Afghanistan are dropped in a region infested by enemies.

Or: 'Liberalism for Dummies'. To call this film preachy would be an understatement; as a matter of fact, I do not see any dramatic entanglement and disentanglement in it. The screenwriter practically speaks through the mouth of the 'professor' character (no wonder the director took this role for himself). The film's 'points' are hard to determine, given the lame way in which they are delivered. If you want the simple truth about the Iraq war, see No End in Sight (I have yet to see it in its entirety, but what I saw is staggering enough).

Rating: 12

Outrageous Fortune (1987)

Two acting students discover that they are dating the same guy. He appears to die in an explosion, but then they find out that he is still alive and there are people looking for him.

It all revolves around the two central characters and the two talented comedians who play them. This is a limited foundation on which to base a film, and eventually gets a little tiresome, although there are funny moments in it.

Rating: 38

Shooting Dogs (2005)

During the Rwandan conflict in 1994, an English priest harbors Tutsi regugees at his school.

Fictionalized account of some aspects of the genocide of the minority Tutsi by the majority Hutu in Rwanda. Although this is already the fourth film I see about that conflict (the others: Sometimes in April, Hotel Rwanda, Shake Hands with the Devil), it adds to the general picture which shows the complete inutility of the United Nations Organization, and the cowardice of Western so-called leaders. A watchable film, with some important political observations.

Rating: 51

Offset (2006)

A Romanian woman is engaged to a German man; he is in Romania working at the same printing company as she is. Her former relationship with her boss poses some obstacles to the marriage.

Carefully scripted with great attention to psychological detail, and directed with assuredness, albeit without much camerawork. Not a great movie, perhaps, but has one or two things to say about men, women, developed countries, and underdeveloped ones.

Rating: 59

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (2008)

Some Soviets are in the US in pursuit of aliens. A youngster needs Professor Jones's help to rescue his mother and his stepfather from those villains. A crystal skull with unexplained powers must be brought along with them to the Amazon forest, where a mysterious city is said to exist.

The reencounter of father and son, which never happened in Broken Flowers, here does (with the mother's blessing). Their quest mirrors that theme: aliens are seens as fathers of mankind. One might see fatherhood as an allegory of authorship, a problem of the whole Indiana Jones series: the director is the same in the four films, but the characters are not his brainchildren. The critical output addressing the issue of personality disorder in commercial cinema, stemming from divided authorship, is still meager. In this particular instance, the symptoms of neurosis appear in certain aspects of the plot, for example the villainization of communists is concomitant with the villainization of communist paranoia.

Rating: 33

Combat!: Off Limits (1963) (TV)

Private March encounters his wife, who is a nurse at an evacuation hospital which just happens to be in his outfit's way.

A marvelous episode, where the multiple elements and subplots fit right into one another, and everything functions like clockwork.

Combat!: Night Patrol (1963) (TV)

While searching for prisoners, Saunders and his squad find an American soldier who claims to be an officer whose outfit perished. They are forced to hide in a cave.

This is the third episode (at least) whose plot centers on a lonely soldier who acts strange and may be hiding a secret. It seems like they found a formula and stuck to it.

Broken Flowers (2005)

A man receives an anonymous letter saying that he is the father of a 19-year-old boy. His neighbor talks him into looking for the mother among his former girlfriends.

I may be wrong about this movie but I think it just got some things wrong. The idea is to put the don-juan type on the spot, so to speak, to uncover all his wretchedness, the pointlessness of his life. There is a certain lack of connection with reality in certain areas (Murray here doesn't look or act like a don-juan, neither does he look like a successful computer genius; other people have noticed that); that connection with reality was present in the vastly superior About a Boy, a film which did not try to be downbeat and dry-witted at the cost of abstraction.

Rating: 41

Tarzan's Greatest Adventure (1959)

Tarzan is after a gang who has been stealing supplies and explosives from the villages.

This is my second viewing. The first version I saw was dubbed, unlike this one; but the latter did not have any subtitles, which made it difficult for me to understand some of the lines. Anyway, it is not a great film, although there is a striking shot of a hand (of a man who drowned in quicksand) and a locket hanging from the nearby bushes, which has his mother's picture in it, and was the cause of his drowning. There is also Anthony Quayle, who is great.

Rating: 34 (unchanged)

Leatherheads (2008)

A football professional player who has gone bankrupt sees in a university player his chance of going back to business. A female reporter is after the truth behind the latter man's war hero fame.

Not very well conducted attempt at reviving the 30's Hollywood comedy.

Rating: 46

Red Road (2006)

A video surveillance worker spots the man responsible for her husband's and daughter's deaths - who has been released from prison - while performing her work. She plots revenge.

The whole revenge plot is retarded, as anyone with a minimum knowledge of police procedure - not to mention basic psychology - will notice. As a study of loneliness and desire, and a depiction of marginal living in the UK, it is sometimes interesting. The result is problematic, a film that feels like being about something else than its actual plot. Plus, it's pretty tedious at times.

Rating: 32

Spartan (2004)

A secret agent is assigned the rescuing of the kidnapped daughter of an important politician.

Watchable, but not really interesting.

Rating: 35

Take Me to Town (1953)

A wrongfully convicted woman escapes while being transported to prison, and finds a job as a saloon singer. She is forced by circumstances to look after some kids whose widower father is away working.

Not very interesting.

Rating: 34

Idle Hands (1999)

The hand of a lazy teenage boy is possessed by an evil spirit.

Not especially brilliant, but flows well and is professionally done. The one thing that bothered me most was the beginning, or, to be more precise, the absence of one.

Rating: 40

Noises Off... (1992)

Based on the play by Michael Frayn (1st performance 1982).

A theater play is shown from three angles, in three different nights: the rehearsal before opening night, the events in backstage at another city, and the performance at yet another location.

The premise seems alright, but the actual film is irritating instead of funny.

Rating: 24

The Walker (2007)

Carter Page makes a living out of escorting married women to the opera, playing cards with them, exchanging gossip. Suddenly he is dragged into the center of a sordid story of murder, adultery, blackmail, involving one of his escortees.

The film depicts the fragility of one's position in the world, when one's relations are not built upon solid values. Or perhaps it is the chronicling of a certain era in U.S. politics. Perhaps a little of both. The writing is uneven: at times we are surprised by the wit of the dialogue and the accuracy of the psychology, at other times it barely manages to rise above triteness. On the average it is good enough to keep one's interest.

Rating: 53

Die Hard: With a Vengeance (1995)

A terrorist blows up a clothes shop in Manhattan and demands to talk to police lieutenant McClane. He proposes a game with McClane, in which a series of tasks will be assigned to him. A shop owner in Harlem is forced to be his partner.

An overwhelming amount of images and situations, the film may be accurately called action-packed. Seductiveness walks side by side with emptiness, and we are led to ask: what is the meaning? Thus, the film's villain might be construed as an allegory of the film itself: it begs to be deciphered, it pretends to play a game with us, all it wants to do is steal two hours of our time.

Rating: 50

Combat!: Next in Command (1963) (TV)

A corporal being transferred to Saunders' company saves their life while on his way to join them. His past is obscure and his behavior strange.

Well, the show was going perfectly well (I have missed some episodes though), until this one. I knew they would eventually kick one ball out, and this is where they did it. My suggestion is, skip this one, the revelation of the mystery is deeply disappointing and corny.

Bikur Ha-Tizmoret (2007)

English title: The Band's Visit.

An Egyptian police band arrives in Israel for a performance at a celebration, but goes by mistake to the wrong place, a very small town, and interacts with the locals during their stay there.

Easy to watch, and with an absolutely outstanding performance by Ronit Elkabetz.

Rating: 53

L'ivresse du pouvoir (2006)

English title: The Comedy of Power; A Comedy of Power.
Correct translation of the French title: The Drunkenness of Power.

A magistrate investigates corruption in a public company.

Boring drama (it is not a comedy, as the English title falsely implies). The incompetence of the writing team is evident in the absurd behavior of the protagonist's husband, who, among other things, for some unknown reason is ready to dismiss the possibility of a threat to his wife's life.

Rating: 39

Boarding Gate (2007)

A businessman about to sell his share of the company he owns meets with his ex-lover, who is now an employee of a couple of Chinese importers in Paris. What is her motive to look her ex-lover up after so long?

To reveal more of this film's plot would be spoiling the pleasure of watching it. It is a well concocted and well told story of sex, money, betrayal and intrigue, which kept me interested.

Rating: 68

A Child Is Waiting (1963)

About an institution for boys with mental retardation. A former musician who is in need of an occupation employs herself at the institution; one of the more problematic boys gets attached to her.

Interesting drama, very realistic in what concerns the representation of the day-to-day activities of the institution, but lacking in realism in the dramatic area, especially the subplot featuring Reuben's parents. There is no way one can understand the logic of these characters' behavior. For instance, a mother who will not visit her child is in no position to demand that from her ex-husband, and yet that is what she does!

Rating: 51

Death Wish 3 (1985)

An aging man with a past as a vigilante resumes that role in a fight to dismantle the rule of a gang in a New York neighborhood. 

Rather dismal sequel, with practically nothing besides scenes of shootouts in a severely deficient plotline (one thing I could not understand is how the protagonist could buy heavy artillery at a mall whilst the police enforced a strict limitation on firearm possession). Balsam's stupendous performance in a small role is so contrasting with the film's inanity that it becomes a sort of aesthetical oddity. 

 Rating: 31

Soldier's Girl (2003) (TV)

Based on a real event, the film narrates the tragic story of intolerance which culminated in the murder of an American soldier by a fellow soldier. The murdered man was having an affair with a transexual.

Engaging drama. The whole cast delivers good performances; Hatosy gives a superb one.

Rating: 59

Cobra (1986)

A tough and somewhat truculent cop is assigned to protect a top model whose life is in danger after she witnessed a crime.

The plot has some severe weaknesses, the most blatant of which is the vagueness of the description of the criminal organization behind the series of crimes; said organization seems to sport a vaguely nietzschean ideology and engage in some sort of ridiculous ax-clashing ceremony, but aside of that nothing is known. The film has a varied collection of set-pieces, among which is a well done car chase - the scene where the hero makes an about-face with his car in order to get rid of his chaser, and then resumes his former course, is anthological. There isn't much of a nexus to hold these isolated moments together, though.

Rating: 32

Wolfen (1981)

Strange killings in New York are investigated by a somewhat unconventional cop; he is aided by a charming expert on terrorism and a coroner.

The plot makes no realistic sense, but the film has some interesting set-pieces and is well directed. This is my second viewing but should probably count as the first, since my previous viewing was of an unsubtitled copy and much of the dialogue was missed.

Rating: 50 (down from 64)

Combat!: The Medal (1963) (TV)

Tightly dramatic episode about a man who is attributed a heroic deed whose real author was killed.

Combat!: The Prisoner (1962) (TV)

Fun episode about a soldier who is mistaken as an officer by his captors.

The Thing (1982)

A monster from outer space lands on the Arctic and attacks the folks at an outpost. It can take the shape of the person it attacks.

Entertaining and well made, up to a point: I would not call it exciting; on the other hand, it has impressive (disgustingly so, I should add) monsters. This is my second viewing, but it should perhaps count as the first, since my previous viewing was of an unsubtitled video, and therefore at that occasion I did not understand much of the dialogue.

Rating: 53 (up from 22)

Street Justice (1989)

A CIA agent who had been held prisoner in the URSS escapes and is chased by his own agency. He goes to his home town where he hides and takes notice of the local corruption; he tries to make things right for his former family.

The plot is weak and often not very plausible; but the film is well acted and watchable, minimally.

Rating: 30

Combat!: A Day in June (1962) (TV)

This episode is about the D-day, and it is good, like all the others I have seen. I forget the details.

The Snake Pit (1948)

A woman begins to show signs of madness and is committed to an institution.

The screenplay is clearly schematical, with lots of psychoanalitical clichés. What makes the film watchable is the mise-en-scène, which is capable of creating some memorable sequences (the one about the rug which no one is supposed to walk on springs to mind, but there are others).

Rating:52

Combat!: I Swear by Apollo (1962) (TV)

Saunders and his men take refuge in a convent when one of his soldiers and a French man are wounded. They force a German doctor to operate on the French man.

Seinfeld: The Rye (1996) (TV)

Kramer overbuys at a market sale; he is left in charge of a horse carriage; George and his parents have dinner with his girlfriend's family; George's father takes back the loaf of bread he had brought; George plans to replace it. Elaine is dating a saxophone player who is reluctant to give her oral sex.

This is a marvelous episode of an excellent show.

When Time Ran Out... (1980)

A volcano eruption wreaks havoc in an island visited by tourists.

A poor spectacle both in visual and in plot terms. Its madness bears a vestigial aesthetical value.

Rating: 33

Before the Devil Knows You're Dead (2007)

Two brothers in deep financial trouble organize the theft of their parents' jewel store, with tragic consequences.

As a showcase for Hawke's and Hoffman's dramatic talents (and Finney's too, come to think of it), this works well; otherwise it's a problematic film, with a conspicuously contrived plot in service of a clear ideological agenda of indictment of capitalism. Wallowing in its own bleakness, it comes short of being truly convincing.

Rating: 47

Combat!: Cat and Mouse (1962) (TV)

Sergeant Saunders and another sergeant get trapped inside a German post. The synopsis for this episode and a lot (all?) others of this show are found in Christopher Mulrooney's page.

I am usually incapable of producing worthwhile commentary of TV shows, even though I like some of them (e.g. this one).

The New World (2005)

A dramatization of the story of the first settlers in North America; Captain Smith's romance with Pocahontas is narrated; she marries another man after Smith goes on a long trip.

An interesting and mostly pleasant film. Malick's style is practically identical to the one he used in The Thin Red Line, with plenty of nature shots and voiceover to express a character's thoughts.

Rating: 69

The Craft (1996)

This blog is not being updated as punctually as it should be, and consequently it becomes hard to remember the plot of the films being commented. This one is about teenage witches. They are four, and one of them is a newcomer to the high school where the other three study; the fourth one initially doesn't deal in witchcraft, and is invited to join the "circle".

90's trash, infinitesimally lifted by Balk's impressive performance.

Rating: 26

Combat!: Escape to Nowhere (1962) (TV)

Lt. Hanley is made prisoner of the Germans and is put in charge of an officer who reveals to him that he is defecting. They face numerous dangers as they try to leave occupied France.

After only three episodes, I think I can surmise the eminently surrealistic universe engendered by this show. It's a real treat and I am sticking to it. (But on the other hand running out of things to say about it, perhaps.)

Combat!: Lost Sheep, Lost Shepherd (1962) (TV)

After the landing in Normandy, a battalion is stranded behind enemy lines, and, when an ally tank manned by a disturbed soldier approaches them, they take a ride on it to the next village, which seems to be unpopulated except for a priest and some children.

Well, it seems I am hooked to this series. It is exceedingly entertaining and well made.

Funny Games U.S. (2007)

Two young men invade a lake house and hold its owners - a couple and their small son - hostage, for no apparent reason other than the pleasure of torturing them.

A cinematic heir, in plotline, to The Desperate Hours, and Les inconnus dans la maison, and, in style, to A Clockwork Orange. Self-referential, 4th-wall breaking asides are inserted, which are apparently accounted for by a desire to imbue the film with a degree of reflexivity. The effectivity of such devices is questionable: the history of films which end up inducing the very same violence they purport to criticize is long - let's not remember them here - the reasons for that fact being intimately linked to the ontological status of the displayed image. Even the attempts at thwarting catharsis have no less unpredictable consequences. André Bazin's critical work, I am told, dealt first with some of these matters, although, in connection with theatre, it has been debated at least as far back as Aristotle. Judged merely as a conventionally fashioned horror drama - which, despite its metafictional presumptions, it is - its derivativeness stands out like a sore thumb; still, among the films I have seen by this director (Caché; Code unconnu) - and not counting the one based on another person's literary work, the relatively superior La pianiste - this is the least infuriating one. The film possesses a certain tragicomical consistence of tone which lends it a considerable degree of watchability; as for the plot's coherence, it could have done a lot worse, never mind the self-mockery displayed regarding this particular aspect of it. An intriguing interpretation of it as a political allegory has been proposed on the Internet Movie Database Discussion Forum, for which you should click here.

Rating: 48

The Bank Job (2008)

In England, a car shop owner who is also a part-time two-bit thief is proposed a bank job by a woman of his acquaintance; the job consists in raiding the vault where the safety deposit boxes are; unbeknownst to him and his accomplices, she is being forced to do the job by a government person, who is interested in some compromising photographs of a member of the royal family which are in the possession of a drug-dealer and pimp posing as a black power activist.

Entertaining piece of speculative fiction cum thriller.

Rating: 65

The Syrian Bride (2004)

A druze woman living in the Golan Heights is marrying a guy in Syria; all the family attends her wedding, some of whom come from other countries; the border crossing is problematic.

This has no interest; it is boring and amorphous and at times just does not make sense (e.g. she allegedly will "never see her family again").

Rating: 21

Combat!: Forgotten Front (1962) (TV)

This is about World War II. Some guys are trying to locate a cannon, and have to enter a vacant house, and are blown to pieces; then a second group comes after them and find a German deserter hiding in it.

Good TV.

Things You Can Tell Just by Looking at Her (2000)

Several female characters very tenuously connected, their common problem being loneliness: an abortionist, a palm reader, her terminally ill lover, a police detective, her blind sister, a divorced mother who takes an interest in her dwarf neighbor, a bank manager who gets pregnant of her married lover, her homeless acquaintance, and the corpse of a probable suicide.

Engaging drama with excellent performances, and a tendency toward romanticism (in its contemporary popular sense).

Rating: 63

Iron Man (2008)

Based on the comic book characters created by writer-editor Stan Lee, scripter Larry Lieber, and artists Jack Kirby and Don Heck; Iron Man first appeared in issue #39 of Tales of Suspense magazine (March 1963).

This is about a guy who develops a superpowerful metal suit.

Not really interesting, but if one manages to get into this warped universe, one may perhaps appreciate their efforts to produce a technological odyssey about the weapons market and how only an inside man may turn the tables, so to speak.

Rating: 35