Training Day (2001)

Second viewing; first viewing with original audio; previously viewed, with Portuguese dubbing, on April 17, 2005.

From the Wikipedia page: "Los Angeles Police Department's Officer Jake Hoyt is assigned for an evaluation headed by Detective Alonzo Harris, a decorated narcotics officer. Alonzo is known to be a corrupt cop to several other narcotics officers who are also on the take."

Police drama which exposes the ordeal of a young cop in the face of corruption. It's a non-realistic account, in which a sort of nightmarish fantasy is played out to its ultimate consequences. I found it entertaining and well acted.

Rating: 64 (unchanged)

Garota enxuta (1959)

A TV station is producing a musical show sponsored by an automobile company. The daughter of the company owner wants to perform on the show, but her father is against it.

As a comedy this is terrible. The plot is banal, and the development is unimaginative. But the film somehow manages to entertain minimally, thanks to the agreeable musical numbers.

Rating: 31

Murder on the Orient Express (2017)

Based on the novel by Agatha Christie, first published in 1934.

On a train a murder is committed. A private detective who is on board is requested to investigate it. He discovers that several passengers are connected in various ways to a crime committed by the murdered man.

A tedious movie with good production values. It's just talk, talk, talk, and some mountainous landscapes in between. Long spoken expositions about each character's past lives succeed each other in a dizzying fashion and then a logical explanation caps it all. Perhaps the most interesting point of the movie is the implicit suggestion that the protagonist suffers from Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. The previous version is considered a better movie. I have seen it but at the time it didn't impress me greatly either.

Rating: 37

Mars Attacks! (1996)

Second viewing; first viewing with original audio; previously viewed with Portuguese dubbing on August 1, 2000.

Based on the trading card series released in 1962.

Martians land on the U.S.A. and are at first amicably received by the U.S.A. government. A series of incidents leave the American President in doubt about the aliens' real intentions.

A rather agreeable film. Some of it is very funny, but most of it is just mildly so. The big problem with this film is that TV, VHS and lately digital media have widely exposed 50s and 60s science fiction and turned it into an inexhaustible source of fun for modern audiences; any parody or "tribute" will pale in comparison. Aside from that I can't find anything necessarily wrong with the movie.

Rating: 60 (down from 65)

The Buccaneer (1938)

The context is the War of 1812 between England and the U.S.A.. Pirate Jean Lafitte plays a special part in that war by aiding the Americans. More details may be found in the Wikipedia page.

I was quite impressed with this film from the spectacle angle. It has splendid visuals of the swamps of Louisiana, good battle sequences, and an overall engaging pace. The plot is quite ridiculous in the Hollywood way, but that didn't bother me greatly. The performances are also very satisfactory. I don't suppose any of it will stick in my memory, just as the remake, which I watched in 2007 (and reviewed here), has vanished from it long ago.

Rating: 52

Full Metal Jacket (1987)

Second viewing; first viewed on January 28, 1988.

The Vietnam war as seen by a private. Boot camp occupies almost half the film. The problems of a fat soldier who has extreme difficulty to follow the drill are the focus of that section. The second half is the war itself, where the protagonist serves as a member of the news unit.

A good film, structured in one big segment at the boot camp and several shorter ones in Vietnam. The film's tone is a mix of sarcasm and moral indignation. It is technically well made, and the situations are interesting. On this second viewing it became clearer to me that the film is not trying to be realistic. It's really one big pamphlet against war, and, as such, everything is exaggerated or stylized.

Rating: 66 (unchanged)

The Lonely Trail (1936)

After the American Civil War, a Texas-born man who has fought for the North returns home. He finds the place being ruled by a corrupt and murderous capetbagger General. He enlists in his army with the intent of getting inside information on his moves. When the General notices that several of his targets start to flee before his troops' arrival, he develops a (correct) suspicion that his new recruit is an informant.

Low-budget Western which is short on length and on thrills, and routine in every aspect. There is, however, according to an IMDB commenter, an intriguing similarity in plot with Gone with the Wind. You can read his review on this link. You can read it in extenso below, in case they delete it for some reason:

*begin quote*

6/10

Before Margaret Mitchell began pounding out . . .

oscaralbert 11 September 2016

Warning: Spoilers

. . . that Racist Revisionist Endless Melodramatic Exercise in Hate Speech known as GONE WITH THE WIND (on the shelves of most every American Urban High School Library, while THE Great American Novel--THE ADVENTURES OF HUCKLEBERRY FINN--is Universally banned by the self-proclaimed Know-Nothings!), she was "inspired" (more accurately, Dispired) by this John Wayne flick, THE LONELY TRAIL. Wayne plays "John Ashley," to whom Ms. Mitchell pays homage with her similarly mealy-mouthed "Ashley Wilkes" character. TRAIL covers the entire War to Defeat Lazy Southerners' Racist Evil in about 12 seconds (beating GWTW by roughly an hour and a half--which most viewers will find to be a definite improvement!). Ann Rutherford plays the model for Ms. Mitchell's "Scarlett O'Hara," called "Virginia" here. To pad out GWTW into an Umpteen-hour soap opera, Mr. Mitchell splits Ashley and Virginia into a couple characters each. Otherwise, most of the familiar GWTW scenes are here, such as when Clark Gable convinces the Union Commander that Ashley is NOT the Grand Wizard of the KKK. By cutting out most of Ms. Mitchell's unseemly histrionics and cursing, TRAIL clocks in at a shade under 56 minutes, which is more than enough of a not-so-good thing.

*end quote*

I can't vouch for any of this information, as I have not read Gone with the Wind, and it has been some time since I watched its film adaptation.

Rating: 33

Pé na tábua (1959)

A bus driver has to raise some money for his sister's operation. He is hired to transport to location the crew and cast of a film which is being made. There is a problem though: a man who wants to star in the film is sending letters threatening to kill the actual film star; the latter refuses to do his scenes until the would-be killer is caught. They come up with a plan: they will hire the bus driver as a stand-in in the hopes that he will work as a bait for the killer.

Terrible comedy with a few (weak) musical numbers. The plot is absurd, and the comicity is inane.

Rating: 26

Jaws 2 (1978)

The beach town of Jaws (1975)  is having some more mysterious deaths. Chief Brody alerts the mayor, but is faced with dismissal from him, who prefers to side with a greedy real estate businessman. Brody's insistence ends up with him being sacked from his job. To compound his afflictions, his two sons disobey him and sneak out to go sailing with friends.

Thriller pervaded by a distinctly conservative ideology about the dangers of adventure. Obey your parents -- that is the main message.

Rating: 40

Jaws (1975)

Second viewing, probably. I remember seeing it once on the occasion of its theatrical release where I live, in 1975 or 1976.

A beach town has some shark attacks just when the tourist season is opening. The police chief, plus a shark expert and a shark hunter, go out to hunt the shark.

This film is comprised of two sections, which are, respectively, variations on Ibsen's The Enemy of the People and Melville's Moby Dick. The dialogue and character interaction in general are poorly written and trite. On the other hand, the purely or mostly visual sequences are well filmed.

Rating: 51 (down from 58)

Stagecoach (1966)

Based on the 1937 short story "The Stage to Lordsburg" by Ernest Haycox, and the 1939 screenplay by Dudley Nichols based on it.

An assorted group of people travel by stagecoach through Sioux-infested territory. They are: a dance-hall girl who was expelled from town; an alcoholic doctor, also expelled from town; a liquor salesman; a card player; a bank employee who stole money from the bank; the wife of a cavalry officer; the town marshal; a fugitive from prison who was captured along the way and who wants to get revenge from the person who falsely accused him.

Passable remake, with an agreeable color cinematography, a competent cast, and well-filmed action sequences. Some aspects of the screenplay are perhaps questionable. For example, I did not find it very plausible that the dance-hall girl would get expelled just by being the cause of a fight between crazed soldiers; also implausible is the expulsion of the drunken doctor; neither of them seem to be a menace to society, and the man who ordered the expulsions is not clearly characterized as a villainous tyrant. But of course I never lived in the old West, and would not know for sure how things worked then and there. Also of note is the astounding degree of marksmanship of the passengers of the stagecoach. An IMDB commenter has pointed this, along with other fictional licenses, out:

Not Bad, but with typical western movie mistakes

Rating: 51

Entrei de gaiato (1960)

A petty criminal decides to check in at a posh hotel passing off as a rich man and thus take advantage of the Carnival season to make some victims among the rich guests. One of his targets is a widow who is accompanied by her niece. The problem is that she is also passing off as rich when in fact she is looking for a rich husband for her niece (and if possible for her also). To complicate things further, there are international thieves at the hotel who are robbing the guests' jewels. And there is the upcoming arrival of an Oriental maharajah who might become the thieves' next victim.

Musical comedy with many musical numbers, nearly all of them featuring Brazilian Carnival marches. The plot has some points of contact with that of 24 Horas de Sonho (1941). The production values seem to be a notch above the average for Brazilian comedies of the period, but the sense of humor is just the usual in that kind of movie, that is, very simple and aiming at an undemanding audience. There is a step into bizarre territory when a minuscule comic actor who was famous in Brazil at that time sings a song in full drag.

Rating: 31

Sherlock de araque (1958)

*spoilers ahead*
Deodato and Sertório are two cops who work on night patrol duty. Deodato is having troubles with his married life, since he only meets his wife for a few minutes when he comes home in the morning, and she is off to work. Sertório is unmarried, and intends to remain so, despite the insistent pressures he is getting from a girl he is seeing, who is a maid in a middle class home and bakes him cakes he loves more than her. Deodato is a lover of deductive science, and is taking a course on criminology in his off duty hours. He claims to be able to tell who is a criminal just by looking at a person. He is of course always wrong. The duo have their eyes on a man acting stealthily at night, and they even spot him through a window in his house wielding a big knife; they become sure he is a serial killer who is wanted by the police. It turns out he is a mere killer of chicken who is afraid of getting caught and having to pay a fine due to non-payment of a permit. On the other hand, another man they are passingly acquainted with, whom they take for an upstanding citizen, is actually a megacriminal who is the mastermind behind the planned robbery of the vault of a fancy clothes store. As it turns out, the robbers do not build the tunnel correctly and surface at the room where a fashion show is being held. They decide to kidnap the store owner instead and ask for a ransom. There is a search for the kidnapped businessman and several fights ensue. Other subplots involve the son and daughter of the clothes store owner, and their conflicts with their father, over a lazy lifestyle in the case of the son, and over a romantic choice in the case of the daughter. There is also a pickpocket who manages to repeatedly elude the policemen and ends up helping them locate the kidnappers' hideout.
*end of spoilers*

Weak comedy with childish dumbed-down humor and even some circus antics from one of the leading players, who was indeed a circus clown. There is plenty of action in the last section, but it is also of an extremely dumbed-down nature. There is only one musical number featuring a rock and roll band named Os Terríveis ("The Terribles"), a name which suggests some modicum of self-criticism, though they aren't as bad as all that.

Rating: 31

The Way West (1967)

The film follows a caravan of pioneer settlers heading for Oregon in the 19th century. The stern leader, the farmer who does not like him, the easygoing guide, the sexually curious (and imprudent) teenage girl, the boy who loves her even though she does not love him back, the newlywed man whose wife rejects him in bed, the Sioux, the stowaway preacher, the natural obstacles they all face, etc.

Not a bad film, but not a very good one either. It is hard to pinpoint what exactly the problem is. Some viewers mentioned its predictability, another one opined that the characters were underwritten, someone brought up the fact that 20 minutes of the begining were cut, many ridiculed a sequence involving a whip. There is probably a grain of truth in each of these critiques.

Rating: 50

Baile perfumado (1996)

English title: Perfumed Ball

In 1930s Northeastern Brazil, a photographer and filmmaker gains access to the gang of famous bandit Lampião (nickname which translates to 'Lantern'), and has permission to film the daily life of that outlaw group of cangaceiros (that is the name they gave to bandits operating in the Northeastern hinterlands of Brazil in the early 20th century).

As the synopsis above indicates, there isn't much in the way of a plot in this film. The adventures and misadventures of the protagonist alternate with some episodes of cangaço, and that's it. It is badly filmed, badly scored, and badly put together. Furthermore, it's a film that can't make up its mind whether it's about the plight of an immigrant who tries to make it in a strange land, or about the tragic life and death of outlaw desperadoes. The cinematography and production design, on the other hand, are first rate.

Rating: 24

Chofer de praça (1959)

Zacarias and his wife, both humble peasants, move to the big city where their eldest son Raul goes to medical school. Zacarias buys a car and starts working as a taxi driver, while his wife works as a washerwoman from home. Raul hides his poor parents from his friends and from his girlfriend, to whom he lies that he is from a rich family.

The first section of the movie depicts one day in the life of a taxi driver. It is mostly a series of comic episodes involving the passengers Zacarias takes. The second and final section is about the drama of a father and mother whose son is ashamed of them, despite all the effort they make to pay for his studies. Despite still being basically a schmaltzy low-brow dramedy, it is a notch above the average for a Mazzaropi film, thanks to a reasonably well written screenplay.

Rating: 39

Mad Max (1979)

Second viewing; first viewed between 1983 and 1986.

Set in the near future, it features road violence committed by a gang of motorbikers, and the police work trying to stop them. One such policeman, named Max, wants to quit the force, but suffers a personal loss which will drive him into vengeance.

Thriller which has well filmed car action, but is otherwise little distinguished. Poorly reviewed upon its release, its critical reputation has since grown enormously, for reasons which still elude me.

Rating: 46 (up from 41)

Sweet Charity (1969)

Second viewing, first one with the original audio; previously viewed, dubbed in Portuguese, on November 14, 2000

A dance-hall girl has hopes of finding a man to marry her, but is repeatedly disillusioned as she only meets crooks who are after her money. She finally finds a decent man, but will her past be an obstacle to their union?

Excellent musical numbers lift this film higher in enjoyability than its mediocre dramatic qualities would warrant. The plot is not uninteresting -- it was taken from a good Italian movie, with an important change at the final section: character Oscar is different from the original version. Here, he is not a scoundrel, only a weakling. And of course, there is the change in the protagonist's profession, which is a bit ridiculous...

Rating: 53 (down from 66)

Hey There, It's Yogi Bear (1964)

Yet again, Yogi Bear makes Ranger Smith cross because he is filching picnic baskets from tourists. After an argument, he gets sent to the San Diego zoo, but secretly convinces another bear to switch places with him. He then hides from everyone in Jellystone Park and only comes out of his secluded hideaway to raid picnic baskets disguised as the Brown Phantom. Cindy Bear thinks Yogi has indeed been sent to the San Diego zoo, and manages to get sent away too, but, unbeknownst to her, she is sent to the St. Louis zoo instead. She manages to get off the train at midway, and is then captured by two circus owners and made to perform in the high wire act...

Entertaining feature length animation with the famous TV characters. The animation here is lavish, unlike on TV, and there are songs too, which are quite agreeable.

Rating: 51

Donnie Darko (2001)

A schizophrenic teenager who escaped death because he was not home when an airplane turbine inexplicably fell into his bedroom has visions of a man-sized talking rabbit who tells him the world is going to end and directs him to commit acts of vandalism. His bunny friend talks to him about time travel, which prompts him to research that subject matter.

Like many films from the 2000s, this one has an unmerited reputation for innovativeness. But it does have an engaging cerebral plot -- a feature which was fashionable at that time. What lifts it up a bit is that, besides being a convoluted jigsaw puzzle about fate, it provides commentary about middle class life in America, which may or may not be true -- I would not know -- but at any rate is revealing about how people thought about middle class environments then. There is a somewhat problematic association made between psychiatric disorders and critical spirit, but I think the final word about this should come from professionals of that area of medical expertise.

Rating: 52

Poltergeist (1982)

Second viewing; first viewed in 1982, probably.

A  little girl is sucked to another dimension; concurrently to that, her house is affected by strange phenomena. Her family hires a team of experts to recover her.

This incoherent mess is, according to IMDB viewer poe426, a blend of two uncredited sources by Richard Matheson: The Twilight Zone episode Little Girl Lost and the movie The Legend of Hell House. There are many cringeworthy dramatic moments that punctuate Poltergeist, and some effective fright setpieces as well. Thus, despite being a very problematic film, it is watchable.

Rating: 40 (down from 49)

Chico Fumaça (1957)

Chico is a a humble peasant who, while walking through an open field, spots a massive land depression along the railroad, caused by a recent storm; he runs to alert the train which is coming, thus saving it and the lives of its passengers. He becomes a local hero. A politician who happens to be visiting his hometown decides to use him for his own political advantage. He offers Chico a reward and an interview with the president, at the capital. The trip to the big city is a new experience for Chico, and he is targeted by crooks who want to swindle him out of his reward money.

Unpretentious comedy, a kind of Third World distant cousin of films like Mr. Deeds Goes to Town. The humor is simple, and there is a bit of elementary political satire, which was usual in comedies of that period, invariably depicting politicians as liars and money-grubbers; this one's party is named the Opportunist Party, just to give you a rough picture. The musical numbers are nice but nothing extraordinary. Here's one of them, featuring the famous samba 'Agora É Cinza', by Bide (b. Alcebíades Maia Barcelos) and Marçal (b. Armando Vieira Marçal):

Rating: 32

The Last Starfighter (1984)

Second viewing; first viewed between 1983 and 1986.

A video game whiz has just received word that his student loan request has been denied. He lives in a trailer park and had dreams of going to a college in another town. He is tired of being his community's handy man and having no fun and no life prospects. His girlfriend, on the other hand, is afraid that he will go away and leave her. One night, after he breaks the performance record on a video game, a stranger in a car appears to take him away to a secret place. He soon finds out he is going to take part on a real space war analogous to the one he fought in the video game he played.

Mildly entertaining sci-fi comedy, nicely paced and technically well done. There is nothing especially memorable in it, and the proof is that I watched it for the second time and didn't remember a thing.

Watched it in pan-and-scan, same as my previous viewing.

Rating: 45 (unchanged)

Halloween (1978)

Second viewing; first viewed between 1983 and 1986.

An escapee from an institution for the criminally insane returns to his hometown with murderous intentions. His potential victims are some babysitters and their boyfriends who are at the vicinity of the house where he committed the murder who led to his institutionalization 15 years earlier.

I was quite intrigued by the success enjoyed by this film, and also by the critical attention, both positive and negative, it has garnered. So I decided to give it another shot. Unsurprisingly, its significance continues to elude me. But I think I have come to a law of sorts regarding film hermeneutics. The more devoid of meaning a film is, the more meaning will be ascribed to it by film scholars and critics. The explanation is not so hard: an empty space has more room for stuff. Anyway, although films like this are strictly scare machines, they need a story, however shallow it may be, to keep things moving. Any story is bound to reflect themes and values of the time when it was conceived, and it is inevitable that intellectuals will see all sorts of ideological implications in how those themes and values are woven into the story, and how it relates to the violence that is the prime purpose of the movie. Also of note is that this film is not the independent product of its writer-director's mind; the real originator of the concept is its executive producer. In other words, it is also a strictly monetary operation. All that being said, this is the first time I have viewed it in its full widescreen format, and I acknowledge it is quite well filmed.

Rating: 30 (unchanged)

Um candango na Belacap (1961)

Four variety artists form two male-female duos. At first the duos are racially mixed, one from Brasília and the other from Rio; they all meet in Brasília. After a partner exchange in Rio, they become a white duo and a black one (the latter also becomes a married couple). After a conflict with their scheming boss they decide to start their own nightclub in Rio.

Musical comedy with a plot which perhaps might be construed as an allegorical reflection on the race situation in Brazil. The plot development is tedious and the comicity is poor, except in the elaborate musical numbers, above the average of Brazilian productions and certainly the better part of this movie. As a side note, the word 'candango'  here is a designation of the first inhabitants of Brasília, and 'belacap', from what I gathered, refers to Rio de Janeiro and is a contraction of 'bela capital' (beautiful capital), as opposed to 'novacap', which stands for 'nova capital' (new capital), i.e., Brasília.

Rating: 31

Juliana do amor perdido (1970)

At a small fishing village, a young woman named Juliana is thought of as having magical powers, and is kept in a life of seclusion by her father, who is in collusion with an outsider who is the village's only contact with the outside world and also the only buyer of their fish. Juliana finds solace in watching the passing train and beckoning to its engine worker. One day, during a stop, they talk to each other and from then on a romance starts. She elopes with him, but the villagers chase her.

This is a potentially interesting idea badly developped. The editing style, relying as it does on endless slightly varying repetitions of shots, is annoying. The script leaves a lot to be desired, especially in the dialogue, and furthermore has some contextualization problems which could be resolved by setting the film in a vaguer time frame, or, say, in a post-apocalyptic era. As it is, certain elements are bound to raise an eyebrow, without really adding anything to the film's fruition. Take for example the ceremonies performed in the village. They seem to be African in origin, but the ethnicity of the villagers is predominantly white. Also, there seems to be no explanation for the fact that, at a conflict between the villagers and the train workers, there is not a single person bearing a firearm, on either side of the conflict.

Rating: 31

Meteorango Kid, herói intergalático (1969)

A day in the life of a youth in a big Brazilian city. He is a nihilist who spends his time smoking hemp, having sex, hanging out with friends, etc.

Amateurishly made sillines which tries to be a sort of snapshot of the late 60s' zeitgeist, but is probably closer to being a snapshot of the author's mind. If anything is to be made of the plot, it is that the seeds of revolution do not produce healthy trees in Brazil, but rather teratological ones. Ironically, this outwardly amoral tale won an award from the Catholic Church. Perhaps they, not entirely without reason, saw in it an implicit denunciation of the terrible effects of an education devoid of a moral reference. Also, they probably have approved of the association of cannabis, violent crime, and irrationality, an association which the film seems to imply. What I find curious is that films like this, which are seen only by a handful of students of cinema and hardcore cinephiles, are Brazilians' idea of 'cult movies'. There is a widespread mistake in that country -- probably derived from the popular meaning of the Portuguese word 'cultura' -- which misassociates the word 'cult' with hermeticity, intellectualism, or erudition.

Rating: 25

Jeca Tatu (1960)

The main character is a rural dweller who owns a small property and who suffers from chronic indisposition to work. It follows that his wife and children are overburdened with work. But the main plot is really about his daughter's romance with a richer landowner, and the schemes by another suitor to instill enmity between the two families.

This low-brow comedy is no Shakespeare for sure but does nevertheless come across, in plot at least, as a blend between Romeo and Juliet and Othello. It contains some political satire as well, which may be the best part of the movie. That subplot has the protagonist travelling the State capital to offer a Congressman the votes of his community's members in exchange of help to rebuild his burned house. The main character was inspired, in name and in behavior, on a homonymous one created by Monteiro Lobato in the early 20th century, who appeared first in short stories and later in a publicity text. That publicity text was part of a campaign to curb hookworm infection among rural populations, and was sponsored by a pharmaceutical company which used the publicity to advertise a concoction it produced (a "biotonic" unrelated to the object of the campaign). The message of the campaign was that the rural worker was not averse to working because of a personality defect, but rather as the result of a worm-related illness, which was in turn the product of bad hygiene habits. In the film there is no explicit mention of any of that; all we see is a scene where the protagonist apparently has itching feet. Viewers who are unfamiliar with the campaign may easily be led to conclude that the main character is indeed just lazy. Now enjoy a musical number from this film featuring the beautiful "Estrada do Sol", by Antônio Carlos Jobim and Dolores Duran:

Rating: 31

O noivo da girafa (1957)

*spoilers below*
Aparício is a a simple-minded zoo employee who is picked on by his work colleagues, who have tagged him as 'the giraffe's fiancé' for his affection towards that animal. At the boarding house where he lives he is not well treated either. They complain about his smell and alleged lack of hygiene and when the landlord's young daughter falls ill Aparício is blamed and urged to take a blood test. He asks the zoo's veterinarian to test him for infections. Aparício messes up the blood samples, causing the vet to mistake a terminally sick ape's blood for his. The zoo manager gives Aparício a vacation and instructs the other employees to conceal Aparício's horrible fate from him, and to reveal it to the people at his boarding house with the recommendation that they treat him well but not tell the truth to him. So, they start to treat Aparício well, and even the landlord's older daughter starts to respond politely, though not exactly amorously, to Aparício's courting. The landlord plans to marry her to Aparício before he dies, and thus make her entitled to a huge inheritance from a rich relative of Aparício's. Meanwhile, the ape who was terminally ill dies, and the veterinarian wises up to the blood sample mix-up. Just before the marriage ceremony is completed he shows up at the boarding house and clears up the confusion. Aparício is then subjected to all sorts of insults and is expelled from the boarding house. Two of his fellow boarders solidarize with him: a nightclub performer nicknamed 'Poet' and a young woman who is in love with him but is not loved back. Some time later, his former landlord shows up at the zoo and he is very courteous again to Aparício; he has brought a lawyer with him, who tells the news of Aparício's rich relative's death and that Aparício is the sole heir.
*end of spoilers*

Comedy with a few musical numbers and a sense of humor as simple-minded and childish as its protagonist. A curious thing is how obsessed with the 'easy money' topos Brazilian comedies of the 1950s were. Anyway, it is a watchable movie if you are in an undemanding frame of mind.

Rating: 32

Empire of the Sun (1987)

Second viewing; first viewed on April 10, 1988.

In 1941, during the Japanese occupation of Shanghai, and subsequent evacuation of the British colony, a boy gets separated from his parents, and ends up in a prisoner camp.

This is hardly a great war story; rather, it is a collection of clichés which all the same make for a passable juvenile cinematic entertainment. The tone and filming style seem to mirror the manic personality of its protagonist. Grandiose pauses are injected when the boy enters his "Japanese" moments, with the musical score rising to the occasion. At other instances, trivial bike rides through an empty house seem to aim for the opposite poetic effect. None of that is really effective, coming across as merely artificial, but some critics seem to have bought it. Anyway, this film is an interesting example of the comic-book aesthetics that took over cinema and literature around the time it was made.

Rating: 51 (up from 50)

Hit! (1973)

A policeman whose teenage daughter dies from a heroin overdose rounds up a team of ordinary people whose lives were affected by drugs to perform the extermination of the members of the French drug cartel who is responsible for supplying the American market.

The outrageously comic-book-ish plot is unfortunately unable to inject juvenile fun into this action thriller, thanks to the predominantly serious tone and extremely laid-back pace. Still, it is very well filmed and at least one sequence is fairly impressive, a very well done car chase. The basic assumption is that killing rich criminals is more effective than killing poor ones. That is not very convincing; even Mafia bosses are replaced pretty quickly, and anyway France was also a middleman in the drug business, since it did not produce them. Arguably, from a social justice angle it does make for a more satisfying revenge, and maybe that is the unspoken point of this unexciting movie.

Rating: 33

South Pacific (1958)

At a Polynesian island where an American World War II outpost is seated, several stories unfold. A newly arrived lieutenant falls in love with a native; a nurse falls in love with an older French man who has made the island his home; a secret mission on a neighboring island which is controlled by the Japanese is to be launched.

This is an awful film, and not just because of the botched "color filters" effects. The story is terribly uninteresting, and the songs are just passable. One particular change in regards to the source novel makes the story nearly incomprehensible. In the novel, the nurse feels revulsion towards the idea of becoming the stepmother of some dark-skinned children, but is OK with the lighter-skinned Asian children from another woman. In the film, there are no dark-skinned children, and she is OK with the Asian ones, but has a problem with her prospective husband's late wife, because she was Asian. This notion of retrospective racism towards a dead person is much harder to fathom, if you want my opinion. The film is a manifesto for miscegenation, and the ideological pièce-de-resistance is the song You've Got to Be Carefully Taught. The purported moral lesson seems to be that, since racism is, allegedly, not inborn, but learned, it is not a good thing. Regardless of what one should think, or not, about racism, the argument seems odd, especially in a war movie. After all, fighting a war in a place thousands of miles from home, because of an aggression which took place in Hawaii, does not seem to be the kind of behavior that springs naturally from instinct. Anyway, it is alway nice to be preached at, and Hollywood is just the preacher we all need.

Rating: 21

Capitu (1968)

Based on the novel Dom Casmurro, by Machado de Assis, first published in 1899.

Man marries his childhood sweetheart. He is happy with her until he begins to suspect his only son's biological father is his deceased best friend.

One could never realize by watching Capitu that it is based on one of the best, perhaps the best, Brazilian novel of all times. This is a mediocre film, shot in a minimalist style that at times borders on the lazy. Also, the length of the film is excessively short to convey all the subtleties of the novel. The actors give passable performances, although they are all or most of them cast against type. I was especially curious about the real age of the leading actress. She looks too old for the title role, and on the Internet her birth year is variously given as 1931 or 1938. Her looks in this film point to the former date as the likelier one. One curiosity about the source novel is that in Brazil  there are heated discussions about whether the title character was really unfaithful. Critics affiliated with the left are generally dismissive about the evidence pointing to the occurrence of adultery; instead, they accuse her husband of being an agent of 19th century patriarchy. I suppose that, on the other hand, they place their unwavering trust on the "me too" accusers of today. After all, the burden of proof is always on the oppressor, and we all know who that is, right?

Rating: 32

Red Dawn (1984)

Second viewing; first viewed between 1984 and 1986.

The United States of America are invaded by a U.S.S.R.-led coalition of troops. A group of teenagers take refuge in the mountains and engage in violent resistance against the invaders.

Military dramatic adventure with a weirdly unrealistic plot. I am not talking about the premise -- think what you will about that -- but the development. As some have noted, the resistance group never grows, which is kind of odd. Nobody comes to join them, and they, in turn, never make an effort to contact other groups. It is really hilarious. It is not a well made film, in the sense that, apart from action scenes, it lacks dramatic and scenic elaboration. At times, characters just stand there, like living dolls or something. At other times, they engage in trite dialogue. All that being said, it is not a worthless film. If there is one American with a minimum of historical conscience, he will see in this film a mirror image of what they did to South Vietnam. The only difference is that Vietnam happened, and this did not.

Rating: 30 (up from 23)

Pleasantville (1998)

Second viewing; first viewing with original audio; previously viewed on April 2, 2002.

Brother and sister of opposite temperaments are transported into a 50s TV show set in a small town where people live very sanitized lives. They are inserted into that fictional universe by taking the place of two pre-existing characters in that show. They bring with them their own worldview, which causes a local revolution spanning natural events and human behavior. This is signalled by a gradual onset of color into that hitherto black-and-white world.

This is an idiotic film which spawned a critical response which is no less than fascinating as a window into how people's minds work. They clearly saw things which were not in the movie, but were their own preconceptions about the movie. On its Wikipedia page, there is a section about its reception; a curious fact is that Reason smartly noticed that the film was "misunderstood", but then went on to present a slightly less absurd but equally imaginary notion that the film "contrasts the faux '50s of our TV-fueled nostalgia with the social ferment that was actually taking place while those sanitized shows first aired"; in fact, the film does not "contrast" those things because it simply does not go that deep into any social issue. Entertainment Weekly was more accurate: "Pleasantville is ultramodern and beautiful. But technical elegance and fine performances mask the shallowness of a story as simpleminded as the '50s TV to which it condescends". I think "condescends" is the key word here. In its arrogance, Pleasantville forgets that its own "modern" world is just as, or even more, sanitized than the fictional version it depicts. In Pleasantville's world, 90s teenagers have very active sex lives, but are never shown getting pregnant, or concerning themselves with contraception or STDs. As a final note, the wink to "no coloreds" signs is merely opportunistic and means absolutely nothing; by the way, I do not remember having seen a single black person in this film, either in the 90s-set sections or in the 50s-set ones.

Rating: 29 (down from 35)

Sphere (1998)

Second viewing, first one integrally with original audio; first viewed on September 14, 2007.

A group of experts in several fields are requested by the U.S. government to gather at a place in the middle of the ocean where the debris of a strange object was found. It turns out to be a spacecraft. Their mission is to discover its origin and contents.

Derivative science fiction with a by-the-numbers plot. Here is my previous blog post:

*quote*
Synopsis: A group of scientists is summoned to investigate a strange ship found
in the bottom of the ocean.

Appraisal (spoilers): The theme of wishes coming true in a secluded place has
been tackled with in Lem's Solaris (and in two films from that novel). The
approach here is different, this film is a thriller. But the result is very lame
throughout, really painful to watch, totally unsatisfying from the
science-fiction angle, and ridiculous from the dramatic one.

Note: I watched most of it with Portuguese dubbing.
*unquote*

This time I did not find it as painful to watch as I had during my previous viewing. It has some minor value as a pastime.

Rating: 33 (up from 10)

A grande vedete (1958)

Janete is an aging revue performer who does not realize she is no longer a big star. Her manager nurtures her illusion by providing fake admirers for her. A struggling writer has written a play which he intends for his ballerina fiancée to star on, and tries to persuade Janete to produce it and play a secondary role. She mistakes his approach for a romantic one, and retributes. To complicate things further, she decides to play the lead role.

This film is an odd combination of farcical and pathetic elements, with musical numbers thrown in for good measure. One could argue that it falls short both in the dramatic and comic aspects, but the musical numbers are above the average for Brazilian films of that period.

Rating: 31

O barbeiro que se vira (1957)

Based on the play The Barber of Seville, by Pierre Beaumarchais, written in 1773.

*spoilers*
Rosinha, an orphan, loves Leonardo, but Clementino, who is her stepfather and tutor, does not consent to their marriage because he wants her to marry Basílio, her piano teacher. Unbeknownst to her, Clementino has made a financial agreement with Basílio through which the former will get most of Rosinha's fortune in the event of her marriage with Basílio. The town barber, who is also dentist, pharmacist and veterinary, dislikes Clementino and feels for poor Rosinha, whom he tries to help. When Leonardo is arrested for a theft which was really committed by Basílio, the barber dresses as Rosinha's seamstress and, after releasing Leonardo from jail, heads to Clementino's house; Leonardo goes along, dressed as a female assistant to the seamstress.  Inside the house, they reach Rosinha and try to think of a way to prevent her wedding from taking place.
*end of spoilers*

Musical comedy with more plot than laughs. The comic star is a former circus clown who repeats here some of the shticks which became his trademarks in his previous career. He is not a great comic, but his performance is serviceable. The musical numbers are not very memorable either, but they too are serviceable.

Rating: 31

Jekyll and Hyde... Together Again (1982)

Based on the novella Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, by Robert Louis Stevenson, first published in 1886.

Dr Jekyll announces that he will retire from surgical practice to devote his time to pharmacological research. The hospital owner wants him to perform one last surgery on an elderly millionaire. Jekyll accidentally inhales some chemical products during an experiment, and suffers a physical transformation.

This is a very bad film, and yet a curious one when taken as an experiment whose creative process seems to mirror its subject matter. It adopts a no-holds-barred, anything-goes approach to comedy, never shying away from bad taste or, for that matter, any kind of unpleasantness. Its four writers, one of whom is the director, have done decent stuff elsewhere. In other words, they all have respectable Jekyll careers and this was their Hyde moment.

Rating: 3

Home Fries (1998)

Second viewing; first viewing with original audio; previously viewed on June 18, 2002.

*possible spoilers below*
Dorian and his brother Angus are goaded by their mother to give their stepfather a scare on account of his ongoing extramarital affair. Both being pilots, they decide to use a helicopter from their military station to accomplish that goal. Things get out of control, though, what with their target's heart condition. To further complicate matters, they realize that their conversation inside the helicopter leaked to the radio devices used by the workers at a nearby fast food restaurant. Angus asks Dorian to infiltrate the restaurant as an employee, and investigate whether anyone there wised up to the meaning of the leaked conversation. Dorian complies. He befriends pregnant waitress Sally, unaware at first that she is the woman with whom his stepfather was having an affair.

The above is a very imaginative premise for a movie. The real problem with it, however, is that the development is not on the same level of imagination as the premise. Said development consists mainly in family fights and on contrived plot devices through which characters realize stuff about other characters. And of course there is also a romantic relationship which is not fully convincing, but then again they never are, either in film or in reality.

Rating: 56 (down from 63)

I Walk Alone (1947)

After serving a 14 year prison sentence, Frankie seeks out Noll, his former partner in bootlegging. Noll now runs a fancy nightclub. They had agreed that if one of them got caught, he would be entitled to half of the other's operation after his release. But Noll is not willing to comply to that agreement. Concurrently to that, Noll gets on the wrong side of his girlfriend Kay, a singer at his place, because he is marrying one Mrs. Richardson, allegedly for business reasons. Kay allies with Frankie, to whom she feels attracted. Noll's accountant Dave is disgusted at how badly Noll treated Frankie...

Undistinguished criminal drama, which is passably well made and lets itself be watched without great pains. The 'Frankie' character does not seem very bright. Perhaps the most famous sequence of this movie is when Frankie, along with a few hoodlums he rounded up, demands a share of Noll's business and Noll explains how that would not be possible due to its complex corporate structure. That sequence is interesting, but it does not make much sense, or at least it doesn't to me. One thing is the impossibility to convert a certain asset into money at short notice. But here they seem to be saying that any transfer of ownership is impossible. I find that incomprehensible. I was considerably confused also by how Frankie's men switched to Noll's side instantaneously. Another dubious instance is when, after having extracted Noll's confession, Frankie reveals that he was using a pen in his pocket passing up as a weapon. I do not see how that makes the confession any less invalid, but the IMDB user going by the nickname theowinthrop says otherwise (he gets a certain detail wrong, but the general idea is what matters):

*quote*
He does in a manner that today would not pass muster. He entraps Douglas by pretending to have him at the end of a loaded gun, forcing Douglas to make a confession before the police. Douglas, naturally frightened, does admit information that only the criminal involved in the crime would have known, but at the end, he sneers at Lancaster saying that the confession was gotten under duress. But then Lancaster shows his gun was empty. Civil libertarians today would denounce this trick, saying the confession was tainted. In 1948 it was perfectly legal.
*unquote*

At any rate, this is not a remarkable picture and the points I mentioned above are merely samples of a poorly written script. But the film does have atmosphere and good performances.

Rating: 43

Le jeune Karl Marx (2017)

English title: The Young Karl Marx

The German philosopher is sent to Paris to write for a socialist newspaper. He is married to an aristocratic woman whom he turns into a serial procreator. He befriends the son of a wealthy industrialist who revolts against his bourgeois upbringing and environment. Marx tries to inject a little theory into the workers' movement. He is expelled from France and relocates to Brussels.

Very well-behaved and nearly hagiographic biographical drama. I watched it mainly because I wanted to get a feeling of the socialist milieu and of the exact chronology of Marx and Engels' meanderings through Europe. I suppose the film satisfied those particular needs. Although it is hard to extract any real insight from such a conventional and superficial narrative, one might get struck by a perverse pattern which one may observe into our present days: people who cannot afford children have an abundance of them, and those who can afford them opt for not having any. Feminists are strangely silent on Jenny's predicament (they probably would not even admit it may be called that). One of the characters expresses disgust toward 'dirty money' which comes from her husband's family. I found it hard to believe that real people in need would be so simple-minded, and yet the film offers no challenging point of view. I have always considered Marx to be a disagreeable man with very foolish ideas, and this film did nothing to dispel such notion. The production design is first rate.

Rating: 40

Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me (1999)

Second viewing; first viewing with original audio; previously viewed on September 20, 2002.

Dr. Evil builds a time machine and goes back in time to 1969. He has one of his agents steal Austin's mojo -- a bodily fluid responsible for sex drive -- from Austin's cryogenically stored body. Dr. Evil then carries out a new plan: to place a laser gun on the moon and demand ransom for not destroying Washington, D.C. with it. Austin travels back in time to recover his mojo and foil Dr. Evil's schemes.

Mostly enjoyable comedy. Its framework is a parody of spy movies in particular and the 60s in general. It is structured in comic sketches in a very TV-like manner, heavily character-driven and dialogue-driven. That choice of style puts a definite formulaic limit to the film's humorous scope.

Rating: 52 (unchanged)

Dakota (1945)

John Devlin marries Sandy Poli without the consent of her railroad tycoon father. They elope to Dakota, which in the year of 1871 when this story is set was still federal territory. Sandy has sold one of her father's paintings for $20,000 and convinces her husband to go to Fargo and buy some land, which is bound to value greatly as she knows her father plans to pass a railroad through that town. They meet an obstacle in the person of Jim Bender, who has some crooked schemes of his own. Bender makes the wheat farmers sign a contract with him that will give him all their land in the event of an unsuccessfull harvest.

Western which alternates between the dramatic and the comical. One of the staples of the comicity is the character 'Sandy', who employs deceitful ways to get her way despite her husband's opposition, and whose indiscreet tongue repeatedly puts them in danger. Another is 'Captain Bounce', the owner and conductor of an old riverboat, with which he talks as to a woman. His assistant Nicodemus is always sleeping, adding to his constant aggravation. Nicodemus is responsible for the funniest exchange in the movie:

*quote*
Captain: What's going on over there?
Nicodemus: Why, why you has to ask me that, Captain? Man goes someplace, is a visit. Bunch of men go someplace, is a party. Everybody goes someplace, is a meeting. Whatever is going on over there got to be a meeting, Captain... because that's where they're all at.
*unquote*

Overall, not an especially interesting or funny movie, though.

Rating: 41

I'll Sleep When I'm Dead (2003)

A petty drug dealer is raped and kills himself. His brother, a former gangster who left his hometown to live as a lumberjack, returns and vows to avenge him.

A bad film which would certainly have provided me with abundant hilarity had I not been perfectly deluded throughout its duration that it was a perfectly serious drama. Never mind, who knows in the next incarnation I will watch it in the proper mood.

Rating: 23

How to Marry a Millionaire (1953)

Second viewing; first viewing with original audio; previously viewed between 1983 and 1986.

Based on the plays The Greeks Had a Word for It, by Zoë Akins, first staged in 1930, and Loco, by Dale Eunson and Katherine Albert, first staged in 1946, and in turn based on their short story published in Cosmopolitan in 1945.

*mild spoilers below*
Three working-class women rent a high-class apartment as part of a strategy aimed at catching rich husbands. One of them is a divorcee whom experience has hardened; she is courted by a handsome millionaire whom she repeatedly shuns because she thinks he is poor; she has her eyes instead on an older man, also very rich; the second girl is perhaps even greedier than the first but considerably less intelligent, besides being extremely shortsighted; she meets a man who acts like a millionaire but is diagnosed as a phony by girl number one; the third girl has a sentimental side which she still cannot curb satisfactorily; she has a date with a married man with whom, through a misunderstanding, she goes to spend a weekend on a secluded mountain cottage; a handsome forest ranger has his eyes on her. Concurrently to all that, their rented apartment's owner wants to sneak in and retrieve some documents from the vault for the Internal Revenue Service.

Agreeable comedy. The task of joining two different plays into a single movie may prove a little awkward, but in this case it was done in a passably seamless way. On the other hand, there is a slight feel of anachronism from having a 1930 play adapted for the 1950s. The world had changed since that earlier date; the style of plays also. Women who took part in a World War, either in the factories or abroad taking care of the wounded, were certainly less receptive of the kind of attitude displayed in the movie. Much of the wit here is definitely dated; there is a scene which is particularly flawed, in which the divorcee character remarks "Two more pounds and she could be arrested for bigamy". The intended meaning is not hard to fathom from the words alone. As it appears in the movie, however, it does not work and may puzzle some modern viewers. Perhaps the scene was poorly conceived for clarity; the main problem, though, for audiences used to the likes of Schwarzenegger and Stallone is that the physique of the male actor who plays the character to whom the witticism is referred will not stand out as oversized.

Rating: 61 (unchanged)

Zulu (1964)

First viewing with the original audio; previously viewed dubbed in Portuguese on May 26, 1996.

South Africa, 1879. The Zulu attack a small detachment around a British field hospital. There are 150 soldiers to defend the hospital site from 4000 Zulus. The detachment leader decides to resist at any cost.

This is an exceptionally well made film which, nevertheless, makes painfully clear the impossibility of mixing History and drama without telling lies. The worst lie in this film is to depict as pacifists respectively the missionary and the surgeon. This creates drama, without which the film would be considered rather monotonous. But real life closed environments produce populations with uniform worldviews. It is rather absurd to assume that pacifists could thrive in a war environment. They wouldn't want to be there in the first place. And you can check Wikipedia and confirm that indeed they lied about this. Another pathetic lie is the Zulu salute at the end. War is not about bravery and noble feelings. It's just another human affair which has its own rules and which throughout the centuries has molded the human brain and given it the capacity of hatred and violence. But, again, that would not make for emotional drama, so... This criticism should not imply that this film does not have many qualities and is all fantasy. The military aspect is, to all appearances, very realistic. And it makes for an entertaining spectacle.

Rating: 57 (up from 50)

Family Plot (1976)

Second viewing; first viewed between 1983 and 1986.

Phony psychic Blanche, assisted by her cab driver boyfriend George, is engaged in milking gullible women for their money. Blanche expects to collect a fee for finding a rich woman's nephew who was given for adoption as an infant. But it so happens that said nephew is a jeweller who, with the assistance of his wife Fran, kidnaps important persons and collects the ransoms in diamonds.

Suspense thriller with a comedic tone. It is a very organized movie, with a cleverly thought-out script, precisely rendered into images, but with few particularly memorable sequences (the out-of-control car, perhaps?). The acting is more or less uniformly good. False assumptions and beliefs based on false appearances are underlying motifs of the narrative.

Rating: 58 (up from 41)

Guys and Dolls (1955)

Second viewing; previously viewed between 1983 and 1986.

Based on Damon Runyon's short stories The Idyll of Miss Sarah Brown, Blood Pressure, Pick the Winner, and perhaps others, first published in 1932.

When one watches too many films from a certain era, he is bound to start noticing how some plotlines get repeated over and over, to the point that one asks oneself: is it lack of inspiration or sheer obsession? The premise of betting in association with seduction is one of those; recently I reviewed a movie with a similar plotline, and provided a list of forerunner works.

My review of G.I. Blues

Guys and Dolls is a pleasant enough spectacle. It does get a bit on the tiresome side, eventually. The depiction of the underworld is funny, and completely devoid of violence. It is hard to believe any outlaw environment would work like that, but I don't know, after all those were other times. The songs are adequate, but, in my opinion, seldom more than that. I am not a great fan of the Broadway musical concept, anyway.

Rating: 60 (down from 69)

Let's Dance (1950)

Donald and Kitty are a dancing duo working in wartime entertainment for soldiers. Donald wants to marry Kitty, but she marries a rich guy instead. She becomes a widow with a son. She does not get along with her late husband's mother. There is a conflict over the child's custody.

Tedious, poorly written musical. The only slightly original touch is a protagonist who does not really like to dance; he prefers the stock market. He is completely incompetent as an investor, though; he later advises a rich woman, who is equally clueless, financially speaking. And since we are speaking of class, the underlying assumption of the plot is: rich people bad, poor people good. But they are careful enought to frame it as a merely individual thing. They want to captivate the audience, who is predominantly poor; they definitely do not want to start a revolution. You see, the people who made the film are not exactly poor. Of course, sometimes an extremely shrewd viewer will connect the dots and ask: if every movie has rich people as bad, am I to conclude that all rich people are bad? Those viewers are in the minority and, yes, will have to be dealt with. Off screen! The songs and dances are nothing special.

Rating: 31

Class (1983)

The film is about an upper middle-class student named Jonathan and his adventures in prep school, from his very first day there. He shares a room with a student from a very traditional and wealthy family. The center of the drama is Jonathan's relationship with an older woman whom he meets during one of his escapades into town. This adventure turns out to be dramatic indeed, for reasons which will become clear if you watch the movie or read spoiler-infested sites like Wikipedia.

Mostly a teenage school movie with the usual pranks and sexual jokes, but there is an underlying theme which is implied by the double-meaning title. The question is whether one's position in society is on a par with one's real inner qualities. The film examines the issue by showing a clearly dysfunctional family. The father is a laissez-faire enthusiast except when it comes to tariffs ("How you gonna compete with the foreigners?") -- that is exactly Trump's doctrine, incidentally. The mother is unfaithful and an alcoholic -- the film implies that it is not her fault (but further scenes excusing her behavior were cut). The film is a little vague about main character Jonathan. I guess he is upper middle class because I gather it takes money to buy an SAT's results, but the fact that he is very impressed with his roommate's estate seems to be evidence that he is not all that rich. Oh well, perhaps this film was not that well thought out. As I said, just another teenage movie, and not one of the better ones.

Rating: 35

Hello Down There (1969)

This film's IMDB  page provides an adequate summary for it: "A marine scientist volunteers to have his family live in a prototype underwater home to prove it's practical."

The satirical elements (rock music, computers, corporate greed) arguably make for the best parts of the movie. There are some well-made underwater adventure sequences which are mildly entertaining. The inside of the underwater house has some nice visuals. All in all, nothing special, but nothing terrible either.

Rating: 42

Traktoristy (1939)

English title: Tractor Drivers

Klim is a demobilized soldier who decides to stay at a collective farm, working as a tractor mechanic. He falls in love with a fellow worker, but she has an agreement with another man to pretend they are engaged, and he mistakes it for a real engagement. He is made the leader of an all-male tractor driver unit, which engage in a productivity contest with the all-female unit. With the war looming on the horizon, they all must prepare to move from tractors to tanks.

Artistically and intellectually poor propaganda film, which was part of the pre-war effort in the USSR. André Gide said that "it is with good intentions that one makes bad literature", and it would probably apply just as well to other arts, except that saying that Stalin was full of good intentions is controversial.

Rating: 17

The Dark Knight (2008)

A bank robbery is committed by a gang led by a man known as The Joker. An examination of a few remaining money bills reveals to the police that it was a Mob bank. The police now have the names of all banks used by the Mob, and raid them. A Chinese businessman named Lau, acting as a Mob accountant, has, however, moved all the money to a secure place. A vigilante variously known as Batman or The Batman, who acts in tacit agreement with the police, travels to Hong Kong to seize Mr. Lau and deliver him to the American authorities. A new District Attorney named Dent works on Lau to persuade him to inform on his Mob associates. Dent is a rising star and is on the verge of cleaning the City from the Mob. After a few more plot turns, The Joker is hired by the Mob to kill The Batman.

This film is ranked fourth in IMDB's best movies of all time according to user votes. I confess to not having enjoyed it all that much. I suspect that the filmmaker or filmmakers' design was to produce a filmic equivalent to its protagonist's subjective experience from inside his armor. That would explain why the plot feels so overcrowded, and so does every frame, and why the narrative seems to move in such a jerky and heavy-handed manner. As numerous viewers have noticed, the plot is full of holes, and yet there is a semblance of deadly seriousness and an almost maniacal attention to detail. The topic of vigilantism versus the rule of law is discussed in superficial terms. The film has psychological and thematical aspects akin to those found in the popular Saw franchise, initiated in 2004. Those aspects are mostly related to moral quandaries which are artificially imposed on the characters, and which occasionally reproduce game-theoretical scenarios. The ending is an inversion of the premise for the short story Theme of the Traitor and the Hero, by Jorge Luis Borges, which was first published in 1944 and inspired the film The Spider's Stratagem. This literary parallel has not escaped a few attentive viewers before me, as in the following internet text:

Traitor and Hero, Borges and Nolan

Rating: 45

A carrocinha (1955)

At a small town, the mayor hires a dog catcher and instructs him to collect and impound every dog in town, regardless of them having an owner. That mayor is a henpecked husband who is forced by his wife to share the conjugal bed with the family dog. At first the dog catcher does not carry out his assignment successfully, because the dog owners protest. He gets other transport assignments for a while. One day he meets the daughter of a small farmer and, after a short courting time, proposes marriage to her. But marriage requires money, which he does not have; that forces him to agree to an even gruesomer task than his initial one. Will he go through with it?

This is structured as an allegory, but ends in a conventionally comic fashion. There is an identification between the man in charge of the atrocities and his would-be victims; in other words, he has a canine personality. The motivation for the mayor's anti-dog crusade is left vague: it is supposed to be a ruse intended as a justification for the capture of his wife's dog; but perhaps it is also an outlet for his universal hatred of dogs. In one of the musical numbers, starring the leading actor as singer, there is a curious scene which would probably raise a riot if made today: two black women stand cheek-to-cheek with him while he is not paying attention to them. He initially displays pleasure with their contact, but after he looks at them he displays repulse, then  pushes them away and pulls two other women, both white, towards him.

Rating: 35

V shest chasov vechera posle voyny (1944)

English titles: Six P.M.; Six O'Clock in the Evening After the War

Two soldiers are serving in the same artillery unit. They are best friends and share everything. One day they receive a morale-boosting card from some Kindergarten children with their teacher, inviting them to visit when they can. They find the schoolteacher very attractive in the photo. They all soon meet, and one of the guys begins a war romance with the schoolteacher. The couple set up a rendezvouz in Moscow, as per the movie's title. Through all of the war's twists of fate, will they be able to keep it?

Slightly off-putting in its unwavering intensity, yet fascinating as a historical document, this is a musical drama having World War II as backdrop, and obviously intended for consumption by the very men and women who were fighting it. You will not find in it much to stimulate your intellect, but I defy you not to be moved by its ending.

Rating: 31

Vesna (1947)

English title: Spring

A film studio intends to do a film based on the life and works of a scientist who is developing a solar energy system. They put an ad out in search of lookalikes for that scientist. A dancer-actress performing in stage musicals applies for the job. When her boss refuses to release her from her contract, she looks up the scientist and asks her to fill in for her when the film rehearsal schedule conflicts with her theatrical appointments.

As the person nicknamed Shezan points out in a review on this movie's IMDB page:

*quote*
"Vesna" (Spring) is a cross between "Ninotchka" (mannish Soviet career woman discovers silliness and sophistication) and "The Prince and the Pauper" - Shatrova, the singer-actress, exchanges roles with Nikitina, the renowned scientist whom she's supposed to portray in a lightweight movie, and each woman (both played by Lyubov Orlova, a real Soviet film star who's not especially glamorous but plenty talented) finds love in the other's universe.
*unquote*

Ninotchka was a critique of Communism. Since this is a film made in a communist country, it was expected that they would somehow deflect all critical discourse away from Communism. And that is exactly what happens. In Vesna, they replace Communism with Science, and Capitalism with Art. In a way, it is a response to Ninotchka, and an attempt of rebuttal of it. They try to show that love of life and a love life are not dependent on particular political systems, yet it may be influenced by personal temperament and the professional environment. It is worth pointing out that both films have female protagonists; it is as if they were saying that women cannot get too serious without losing some of their humanity (but men are somehow immune to that). All this may sound very interesting, but the truth is that this is not an especially well-written movie. It starts out well enough, but soon gets repetitive and strangely uneventful at some parts. The musical numbers are lavishly executed, but the odd thing is that they don't relate in any way to the story and add nothing to it.

Rating: 34

Vozvrashchenie Vasiliya Bortnikova (1953)

English titles: Vasili's Return; The Return of Vasili Bortnikov

A man returns home from the war to find his wife married to another man. The new husband steps aside and the old one resumes his life beside her and their two kids. He cannot shake his jealous feelings, though. He is made president of a kolkhoz -- a collective farm -- which is facing problems of productivity deriving mainly from the malfunctioning of tractors. An engineer is summoned to find the root of the problem.

This is an example of Soviet Socialist Realism. There is a didactic function which the movie sets itself to meet. One of the angles is the reconstruction of a fractured home. Another one deals with the inner workings of a collective farm. Several portions of the film are quite technical and may put some viewers to sleep. There are different moral lessons for the respective conjugal and farming subplots. In the former case, one recommends frankness and equilibrium in overcoming emotional problems; in the latter one, one is taught that seemingly minuscule errors may cause huge problems.

Rating: 41

Maraviglioso Boccaccio (2015)

English title: Wondrous Boccaccio

Based on stories from the Decameron, by Giovanni Boccacio, first published around 1350.

In 1348, Florence is hit hard with the plague. A few youngsters (3 men and 7 women) decide to take refuge at a nearby country estate. During their stay there they pass the time by telling stories to one another. The action shifts between them and the stories they tell, which are the following: (1) a young married woman has the plague. Her family have her transported to a retired place, and while on the road her condition worsens. A man who is in love with her is following her carriage. (2) At an art studio, two painters decide to play a prank on a third one. They pretend they know of a certain stone which makes people invisible. (3) A young widow goes back to live with her doting father. The latter has a young metalsmith friend who lives near him. (4) At a nun's convent, a young nun is caught with a man in her bed. The other nuns summon the mother superior. (5) A young man has an unrequited  love for a married woman. He comes to lose all his possessions, except one house and his pet falcon. The woman's husband dies; she goes to spend one summer near where the young man lives. Her only son befriends the young man and becomes attached to his falcon. The child becomes very ill.

Agreeable adaptation, with lovely cinematography and overall competent mise-en-scène. It is hard to say what went into the filmmakers' minds when they selected those particular 5 stories, but there is a subtle unifying theme to them, namely how appearances cast a veil on reality and induce one into error. This theme is evident enough in all the stories except perhaps number (3), but I think one may find it there also, in the disclosing of a dark side to a father's apparently benign feelings.

Rating: 60

Fiddler on the Roof (1971)

Based on the Tevye stories by Sholem Aleichem, first published in 1894.

The story is set in the last years of the nineteenth century. A milkman living in a small Ukrainian village dreams of getting rich and marrying his daughters into money, but they choose husbands who fail to fulfill his dream. The first one ditches the widower butcher for a young tailor; the second one decides to marry a revolutionary; the third one disappoints him greatly by marrying outside of their faith.

At first I thought I would say this is a greatly overrated movie, but I have come to the conclusion that there is no such thing. The simple fact is that works of art exist for all kinds of people. When someone says a movie is overrated, all he is saying is that, horror of horrors, not all people are like him, or, even worse, most people are not like him. On the other hand, it all depends on whom you take as representatives of an authoritative opinion. If I chose 100 persons at random from my geographical vicinity, I bet most would find Fiddler on the Roof just as boring as I did. No, on second though, it is likely they would find it even more boring. But one does not get to be a successful movie critic by having common tastes. Not, anyway, by avowing them. On the other hand, a lot of common middle-class people enjoy going to Broadway musicals, and most of them say they like them. I often wonder if they are being sincere. Well, enough of that. I want you all to enjoy the considerations of someone who thoroughly disliked this movie, and then decide if somehow there was a failure of communication, or perhaps a failure of a different sort, somewhere:

From the User Comments section of the Fiddler on the Roof IMDB page:

*quote*

Horrible

abrafocus13 March 2006

Warning: Spoilers

Sadly, this is my dad's favorite movie. The songs are more than annoying. I can't stand them! Now we have the soundtrack, and I have to put up with that so-called "music." If you want a rally good musical, watch "The Sound of Music." (1965)

**Possible spoilers ahead**

"Fiddler on the Roof" is about a Jewish family who is being forced out of their homes via Hitler. I am not Jewish, but that's not why I don't like this movie. I just don't think the singing and dancing are that entertaining. The story is a bit weak, too. One of Tevye's daughters is converted to Christianity, and he denounces her for it. Being a Christian myself, I object to that.

If you must see this movie, skip the "Miracle of Miracles" song. It's more than unbearable. This movie is among my bottom ten movies.

My Score: 0.5/10.

*unquote*

IMDB user bkoganbing has a much warmer review of the movie, in which he remarks the similarities between the plot's setup and Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice.

Now I must rush off to see another movie. Too bad they haven't filmed Charles Darwin: Live and in Concert. Sounds like a riot.

Rating: 40

The Black Hole (1979)

A spaceship in search of extraterrestrial life is in the proximity of a black hole, and spots a larger spaceship from an earlier expedition which never returned to Earth. The crew from the smaller ship decide to approach the spotted one. They are introduced to the interior of the larger ship, and meet its captain, who is conducting an experiment which will take him inside the black hole and "beyond".

Baird Searles, in his book Films of Science Fiction and Fantasy, dubbed it 2001 Leagues Under the Sea, a nickname which perfectly defines this film. There is not much I can add to the prevailing criticism regarding it; I only disagree with people who complain about its scientific inaccuracies. Movies aim to be waking dreams, not faithful simulations of physical reality. This film has many screenplay problems, and the midsection is terribly boring -- robots playing video games come to mind as the nadir of the movie. It could be remade into a masterpiece by intelligent people. The idea of escaping this world into a another one is perhaps a reflection of the time it was made. The end of the 1970s were a transition period of sorts. That is true also for the studio who produced this film, which would enter a bleak decade in the 1980s, and emerge in the late 1980s as a real corporate force, albeit producing practically only crap.

Rating: 31

Herbie Goes Bananas (1980)

A young man travels to Mexico with a friend to collect a car he has inherited. He intends to enter it in a car race in Brazil. In Mexico he has his wallet picked by a kid. He then gets mixed-up with a trio of bad guys, one of whom also has his wallet picked by the same kid. Those bad guys are planning to steal some relics from an ancient archeological site, and their picked wallet contains a microfilm which (as I gathered) has a map to that site. The bad guys chase the kid throughout Central and South America. The young man and his friend, plus some assorted characters from the South America-bound ship all get mixed up in that chase. Oh, and before I forget: the car, who has a personality and self-command powers, also follows them.

This is possibly the weakest of the Herbie films, excepting the 2005 movie which I haven't seen. It is not a complete loss, however: at times the film takes the franchise's premise to the surreal realm, e.g., in the bullfighting sequence. The film also has some nice landscapes of Mexico.

Rating: 30

Titio não é sopa (1960)

Paulo is put in charge of a large sum of money by his rich uncle, under the condition that he will use it to build a retirement home for the elderly in need. Instead, he uses it to buy a nightclub. His uncle, who lives in another State, comes to visit him and inspect the construction works. He brings his beautiful young adopted daughter with him. Paulo lodges his uncle at a friend's house, pretending it is his.

This is a very conventional musical comedy, very short on comicity, but with above average actors, most noteworthy among them the great Procópio Ferreira. Also, one of the musical numbers is very good, both musically and cinematically: it is a fantasy on the Carnival march Mamãe Eu Quero, with orchestration and arrangement by Pachequinho (José Pacheco Lins).

Rating: 31

Hearts in Atlantis (2001)

Bobby is an 11-year-old boy who lives with his mother. They are facing some hardships ever since his father died. When a new boarder -- a man in his mid-sixties -- moves into the upper story of the house in which they live, Bobby strikes up a friendship with him. The older man seems to be running away from something or someone.

Half-baked story about not one, but two people with extrasensory faculties. It is supposed to be nostalgic and life-affirming, but its plot is absurd and there isn't a single sequence in the whole film that rings true. On the other hand, it moves at a decent pace, and has some nice Virginia landscapes in the summer, so it isn't completely unwatchable.

Rating: 26

A Room with a View (1985)

Second viewing; first viewed on March 27, 1987.

Based on the novel by E.M. Forster, first published in 1908.

Lucy is a young upper-class Englishwoman who is in Florence with her chaperone, as a tourist. At the boarding house where they are staying she meets several English people, including handsome George and his father, two middle-class tourists. One day, George kisses Lucy forcibly. Some time later, back in England, his father moves to near where she lives, and the young man comes to visit frequently. Meanwhile, Lucy becomes engaged to Cecil, an intellectual type from the same social class as she.

This is one of those films on which I differed so completely from everyone else that I just had to give it another chance. And, now that I did, I can say that, though I really was too harsh on it, I still differ from everyone else about it. There are some comic sequences, mostly involving character Charlotte, which are actually quite entertaining, I will give it that. But, all things taken into account, there is not enough to this movie to justify all the awe it inspired. Perhaps the novel, which I haven't read, would enlighten a few points, but, from what I gathered by watching the movie, there isn't much originality or consistence in the events woven by the screenwriter. Of course, characters are allowed to be contradictory and confused, but in this film they are just, well, too mysterious. At one point, George says that he, unlike Cecil, is able to respect a woman as a full human being, with wishes and thoughts of her own. But what we see is quite the opposite of that. George is impulsive, self-absorbed and even prone to forcing a woman to satisfy his wishes, whereas Cecil respectfully asks her before kissing her. As I said, perhaps such contradictions are part of the writer's design, but then again, I think this aspect should be a little more fully fleshed out (perhaps in the novel it is, but, as I said, I haven't read it, so I can't tell). Furthermore, the incredible coincidence which makes the plot possible is slightly annoying, and even more so is that the movie has the gall to deny it with the most feeble explanation. But these are mere examples. I guess the main point of the film is to contrast the sanguine and phlegmatic characters, with considerations about how they are influenced by the climate, and by social class. But it never transcends the level of cliché and, all things considered, makes for an unsatisfactory movie.

Rating: 46 (up from 30)

The Day After Tomorrow (2004)

Several storms rage the planet and bring about a new ice age. A paleoclimatologist must save his son who is trapped in the New York City Public Library with his friends.

Disaster movie whose plot does not seem to make sense -- I mean, why would a man travel by car and eventually by foot across a storm to send for air rescue when he knew the place where his son is and could have done it from where he was initially? Oh well, I guess people do not care any more about these insignificant details. The film is not completely unenjoyable -- there are some fine action set-pieces and the special effects are impressive.

Rating: 36

Love Story (1970)

Two college students begin a relationship. He wants to get into Law School and she wants to study music. He is from a wealthy WASP family; her ancestors are Italian immigrants. They fall in love and get married. His father does not approve of the marriage and disinherits him. They postpone children until after finishing University. She gets sick and dies at 25.

While not exactly the best film I ever saw, this film does not deserve some of the criticism it received. In the first place, there is nothing maudlin about it. It is quite the opposite of maudlin, actually, as it is told in a modern and dry style, and the "sad" parts go by quite faster than one would expect. Secondly, people have disparaged the film's catchphrase (spoken at two points in the movie) as silly or worse; well, I will not go into deep philosophical discussions here, but I am simply not so sure it is actually as silly as all that. I am not sure I can pinpoint anything that is necessarily wrong with this film. But this is as far as my defense of it will go; I guess I just don't think it is intellectually and emotionally stimulating enough. There are, nevertheless, one or two things that apparently escaped critics. The most conspicuous subtext that no one, to my notice, has talked about, is the religious one. The protagonists are self-defined atheists, and the author, who was a son and a grandson of rabbis, seems to be saying that, even if your wedding ceremony is a "do-it-yourself" one, chances are that your death ceremony will not be of that kind. Also of notice is how mothers are completely insignificant to the story, whereas fathers are quite the opposite. Needless to say, should the protagonist couple have had a child, that pattern would repeat itself, which I suppose makes God -- that greatest of all father figures, and an invisible and omnipresent character in the film -- a terrible monster who slays or annihilates all women. As for the musical score, I must differ on that regard from many reviewers, because Lai is a true god among composers and this is a superb score. For what it's worth, here goes a piece about a woman who allegedly served as an inspiration for the female protagonist:

The Very Jewish Love Story Behind Erich Segal's 'Love Story'

Rating: 51

Tristeza do Jeca (1960)

Some poor rural workers are manipulated by both sides in an election. The candidates focus especially on one of the workers, named Jeca, as he is considered to have some influence over the community. The son of one of the "colonels" feigns to court Jeca's daughter in order to obtain his support. The other side threatens to fire his workers if he does not win; later, he resorts to kidnapping.

This comedy tries to depict the Brazilian phenomenon of "coronelismo", in which a rich landowner, or "colonel", dominates politically a certain rural community. Voters are coaxed by various methods to vote on him. The most trivial of these methods is the buying of the vote through material benefits offered to the voter. In the film, more sophisticated ruses are employed as well. Although it suffers from a somewhat simple-minded plot, there are good things in this film. The picture of the workings of the Brazilian electoral system when the film was made is fairly accurate, and occasionally funny. Things have changed a bit in Brazil from that time to present days, but problems persist, in slightly modified shapes. 

Rating: 42

Three Violent People (1956)

After the American Civil War, a Confederate officer returns to his native Texas. He meets a woman on his way and marries her. She hides from him her past as a dance-hall girl. He is a cattle rancher. Cattle thieves and new tax laws are making it hard for him to keep his ranch. His brother, with whom he does not get along, has also returned.

The premise has some implausible points, most evident among them the marriage itself. The story has many points in common with other films of that period. One of them, The Naked Jungle, had the same male leading actor. Elephant Walk is another film with some plot similarities. The postwar context is an interesting one, and they make good use of it. Overall, a mildly interesting and mildly entertaining film which does not stray from Western conventions and stereotypes.

Rating: 39

Kóblic (2016)

Argentina, 1977. Kóblic is a Navy captain who worked as a plane pilot in the notorious "death flights", which dumped people suspect of political crimes into the sea. His personal opposition to those activities leads him to quit his position and hide in a small town, where he works as a crop duster for a local friend. The local police chief, who is a corrupt and violent man, soon becomes suspicious of him. To complicate things, he gets involved with a woman who is living with another violent man.

Although it is very well directed and well acted, there aren't many thrills in this somewhat implausible drama with a historical backdrop. Some people are being misled into taking it for a real story, which just comes to prove how prone to wishful thinking people are, even when there is no statement by the movie itself claiming its veracity. There isn't much of a chance that a real military would do what the protagonist here does, and the film itself is a sort of explanation for that. It would perhaps be different if he left the country. By staying in Argentina, he just demonstrates that small places are just political miniatures of big places, i.e., the whole country. Besides, most people who work for a dictatorship are ideologically in tune with all its aspects. Military men most of all, since their very training is a strong mental conditioner. I liked the way the movie turns into a revenge story in the final section, although the ending is not exactly a happy one.

Rating: 60

Man of the House (1995)

Jack moves in with his girlfriend, who is divorced and has a 11-year-old boy named Ben from her previous marriage. Ben does everything he can to scare away his prospective stepfather. Meanwhile, the latter, who is a Federal prosecutor, is being targeted for revenge by the son of a Mafia boss he sent to prison.

This is a very lame comedy, but there are occasional glimpses of what might have been a better movie, if all the ridiculous dances and all the moralistic sap were weeded out of it. The earlier part of the movie suggests a perversity which could turn into something interesting. One of the better comic points has a school kid being repeatedly locked inside a locker by bullies. At one point, he and Ben, who tried to help and suffered the same fate as he, talk from inside their respective lockers:

Kid #1: You know, it's not so bad in here. It's kind of peaceful.
Kid #2: Yeah, it's amazing how you get used to it after a while.

Another interesting point of the movie is how the three main ethnicities that formed the U.S.A. are represented in the movie. When Ben tells his school chum that he and his stepfather have joined an Indian Guides program and are going out on a camping tour, Ben's friend, who is black, comments:

Kid #3: I'll never understand why you white people like to sleep outside on the ground. You'll never catch no brothers doing that.

As this film was (apparently) made by whites only, it is only fair to include here the testimony of a black person:

We're Here. You Just Don't See Us

The Native American angle of the movie seems to imply that white people have no culture of their own on which to lean when it comes to restoring their familial wounds. It is ironic how whites would have wiped out most indigenous populations only to appropriate their culture for therapeutical purposes. But of course the movie will not come anywhere near such problematic points.

But, as I said, there is a good movie lurking somewhere inside Man of the House. The intertwining of the two subplots of Child vs. Stepfather and Thugs vs. Prosecutor is not a bad idea. The latter works most obviously as a catalyst for the resolution of the former, but in my opinion it goes beyond that. There is a psychoanalytic angle in which the thugs represent the stepson's unconscious murderous fantasies. Alternatively, or even concurrently, they represent the stepfather's fears concerning his stepson. But, again, to make it work it would be necessary to remake the movie and steer it in a new direction.

Rating: 30

Another Stakeout (1993)

A woman who is about to testify in the trial of a crime boss goes missing after some associates of the defendant blow up the house where she was hiding under police protection. Two cops and a woman from the D.A.'s office are assigned a stakeout on a house where two friends of the missing woman's are spending the summer.

A lame sequel which repeats some of the shortcomings of the first film and adds a lot more of its own. The implausibility factor is severely intensified, especially in the fact that a couple who is sheltering a hiding witness should be a lot more wary of neighbors, and more so when those neighbors behave and talk erratically. The attempts at humor, in this film, take a turn for the worse, and are for the most part strained and insipid. On the plus side, the cinematography is excellent, and the action sequences, though not as remarkable as those of the first film, are well done.

Rating: 33

Stakeout (1987)

Second viewing; first viewed on February 19, 1988.

After a prisoner escapes, the police sets up a stakeout on his girlfriend's house. One of the cops assigned to that job falls in love with the aforementioned woman, entailing a series of complications.

Entertaining blend of comedy, romantic drama, and action thriller. It is quite well made, too, and the sequence at the paper mill is a real tour de force. The plot, however, does not make room for much thinking on the part of the viewer. It is all very mechanic, and part of the thrills is simply a straightforward consequence of a combination of the complex premise and the behavior of the male protagonist, who is both imprudent and absent-minded, to a degree that could be considered unrealistic. I guess one could file it under easy viewing, which usually means also easy forgetting.

Rating: 60 (down from 67)