Good Burger (1997)

Synopsis: Dex wrecks his mother's car as well as his teacher's and takes a summer job to raise the money to pay for both repairs. He starts at Mondo Burger but is fired and then is offered a job at its smaller rival Good Burger. There he befriends Ed, who has a very low I.Q.

Appraisal: This film manages a smart combination of the awesome and the awful; it somehow works.

Rating: 50

The Namesake (2006)

Synopsis: An Indian couple emigrates to the U.S.A.

Appraisal: A real stinker. No further comments.

Rating: 8

The Munsters: Eddie's Brother (1966) (TV)

Internet Movie Database Synopsis: "When Eddie asks his parents for a baby brother, Grandpa decides to build a mechanical one, 'Boris' in the basement. Eddie soon begins to think that his new playmate is better loved by the family than he is, and runs away in his pajamas."

Saw it dubbed in Portuguese.

The Munsters: The Fregosi Emerald (1966) (TV)

Synopsis: I missed most of the pre-credits sequence, so I am guessing it's Marilyn's birthday, and people are giving her presents. Eddie found a ring in a chest in the attic and gives it to Marilyn. Grandpa tells them that the ring is cursed and brings bad luck to the person wearing it.

Saw it dubbed in Portuguese.

The Munsters: Cyrano de Munster (1966) (TV)

Internet Movie Database synopsis: "Herman starts writing poems for Clyde, a colleague, so Clyde can impress a girl he's met on the bus."

Saw it dubbed in Portuguese.

'A' gai waak (1983)

English title: Project A.

Synopsis: In XIX-century Hong Kong, the problem of piracy begins to affect the local economy; there is a conflict between the city police and the navy about who gets government money. A series of attacks destroys the naval fleet, and their crew is reassigned to the city police. One pirate corrupts several people in the force so he can obtain rifles.

Appraisal: Relentless, hysterical, childishly convoluted, brilliant at times, entertaining throughout.

Rating: 60

Beyond Borders (2003)

Synopsis: Rich woman decides to take part in an NGO which provides help for refugees, and falls in love with a fellow activist.

Appraisal: This is a bad screenplay in every possible aspect, and I don't think I can add anything to the previously existing reviews.

Rating: 15

As feras (1995)

Synopsis [spoilers]: A woman starts working on a production of Wedekind's Lulu play or plays for the stage; her boyfriend (named Paulo) gets jealous; the director is a woman; she has a relationship with another actress in the play; Paulo has had a traumatic experience in his youth: he was in love with his cousin but she had a relationship with an older woman who treated him badly; while waiting for the rehearsal to end one day, Paulo has a long talk with the actor who will play Jack the Ripper, who tells him about how his former girlfriend left him for another woman.

Appraisal: The theme (as it is plainly obvious from the synopsis above) is the mix of fear and fascination which some men feel regarding homosexuality in women. This is rarely dealt with in films, I think (the closest things that come to mind are some films by Ferreri and the whole subgenre of female vampires); it's not a good film, it'd better be said, it's repetitive and not at all remarkable on the mise-en-scene aspect. But it's consistent with Khouri's oeuvre, which is devoted to the dissection of the male psyche. It was originally conceived as an episode in a film called As Primas which was completed around 1994 and remained unreleased; Khouri used the material he filmed turning it into a feature-length film which apparently was not released until 2001.

Rating: 32

Clockwatchers (1997)

Synopsis: Iris gets a job as a temporary secretary at a big corporation. She makes three new friends: Margaret, who is outspoken and a little rebellious, Jane, who is about to get married, and Paula, who aspires to be an actress. When a series of thefts starts happening in the office, suspicion seeps in among them.

Appraisal: A perceptive and refined look at office life, which starts out funny and gets progressively sadder as it goes on.

Rating: 61

Les chansons d'amour (2007)

Synopsis [spoilers]: A guy lives with two women in a ménage à trois. One of them dies suddenly, the one with whom he apparently had the stronger bond. He then becomes involved in a homosexual relationship.

Appraisal: I really was expecting to hate this film, but obviously my fears were largely unfounded. While not what I consider a great film (too trivial perhaps?), this is a bullshit-free account of modern relationships, which uses the device of song interludes to expand on characters' feelings and states of mind. Nothing new here, this is what songs are classically used for in musicals, except that the music here is just mediocre and the singing pedestrian.

Rating: 55

Las Hurdes (1933)

English title: Land Without Bread.

Documentary about an extremely poor region in Spain. The term "documentary" is used here loosely, since several scenes are staged; all the same, it's an interesting film.

The Amorous Adventures of Moll Flanders (1965)

Synopsis: Moll Flanders, raised by gypsies, then sent to an orphanage, marries a fool and then becomes a widow at a young age. She employs herself as maid to a couple of impoverished aristocrats. She meets a thief who thinks she is a lady; he passes off as a ship captain.

Appraisal: Fairly entertaining comedy of customs; it distinguishes itself by precise and elegant editing and camerawork. Much of this film's plot (which comes from a 1722 novel by Daniel Defoe) may be recognized in the inferior Montecarlo (1957).

Rating: 55

The Munsters: Big Heap Herman (1966) (TV)

Internet Movie Database Synopsis: "While on a family vacation, Herman gets lost in the desert and wanders into an Indian village, where he is mistaken for a legendary ancient spirit."

Saw it dubbed in Portuguese.

The Munsters: Just Another Pretty Face (1966) (TV)

Synopsis [spoilers]: Herman plays with Grandpa's laboratory equipment and is struck by an electrical arc; as a result his face becomes identical to Fred Gwynne's without the make-up; everyone is disgusted at his "horrible" new appearance. Grandpa tries a new experiment to give him back his old face and succeeds but with a terrible side effect: Herman is turned into a woman! She goes out of the house and it starts to rain; she is struck by lightning and as a result goes back to being a man.

Saw it dubbed in Portuguese.

Tirez sur le pianiste (1960)

English titles: Shoot the Pianist; Shoot the Piano Player.

Synopsis: A piano player who plays at a bar is involved in his brother's criminal life.

Appraisal: This is my second viewing of this film, and I was hoping to give it a better grade this time around. Alas, it didn't happen. The film is simply digressive and unmemorable; the shootout scenes near the end are pathetic -- are they supposed to be modern? Anyway, I may sound a little harsher than I intend: it is not devoid of superficial entertaining value.

Rating: 45 (unchanged)

Asylum (2005)

Synopsis: The wife of the director of a mental hospital starts an affair with an inmate who killed his own wife.

Appraisal: Having read the book a few years ago (a rare event indeed!), I must say that the characters, situations and environments were very much like I imagined; for this, and for the general competence of the project, the filmmakers must be praised. There is one difference, though, and here I may be misremembering, or perhaps I just didn't read the book with the necessary attention: I don't recall the character of 'Cleave' as being homosexual or homosexually inclined or even just perceived as such by other characters; the film also seems to make him cold and calculating, a characteristic that either is absent in the novel or completely escaped me. In general, and again this may be due simply to my poor reading skills, I think the film improved upon the book.

Rating: 59

The Munsters: Grandpa's Lost Wife (1966) (TV)

Synopsis [spoilers]: Herman finds an ad on Shocking Detective Stories magazine offering a reward for the whereabouts of a man; to his astonishment, the man in the photo in none other than Grandpa. Herman decides to write a letter to the person who posted the ad and thus collect the reward, but Lily talks him out of the idea. Through an anonymous phone call, Herman finds out that the person looking for Grandpa is his alleged wife in Sioux City, Iowa. They talk to Grandpa about it, but he denies having an abandoned wife in that city. To complicate things further, Eddie sees the letter that Herman wrote and mails it. Soon they receive the visit of the lady from Sioux City, but Grandpa stays hidden in his laboratory. Later on, he decides to pay his alleged wife a visit at the hotel. She recalls moments of their common life, but Grandpa remembers none of them; he gets interested, though, since she seems to be rich. He signs a paper admitting he is her husband and goes home to fetch his things and move in with her. When he comes back to the hotel he is shocked to learn that it was all a fraud: the woman had to prove she was married in order to collect an inheritance (oh dear) and chose Grandpa from an old photo of his magician's days in a magazine; she though it was very likely that he would be dead, so she placed the ad in the hope that no one would answer it; she had to do it in order to convince she really was married (oh dear). Grandpa returns to the Munsters' house but Herman refuses to take him back because he was greedy and abandoned his family; Lily convinces Herman to forgive Grandpa; then Grandpa asks Herman for a loan and Herman expels him again; Grandpa begs to be let in (he even fabricates snow), and finally succeeds.

Saw it dubbed in Portuguese.

In God We Tru$t (1980)

Synopsis: A monk who has never been outside the monastery walls is sent on a fund-raising mission in Los Angeles. He meets a hooker and falls in love with her.

Appraisal: The film has good moments of slapstick and musical, and some witty dialogue too; but then there is the rest of the film...

Rating: 37

The Munsters: Underground Munster (1965) (TV)

Internet Movie Database Synopsis: "Munster pet Spot runs away from home after Herman scolds it for leaving mud prints all over the kitchen. When Spot is sighted in the sewer system Herman goes down to fetch him, but gets lost himself. Soon local newspaper men have branded Spot a giant lizard monster, and Herman it's 'mate'. The mayor, who is facing reelection, decides to bomb the sewers in order to get rid of the creatures once and for all."

Saw it dubbed in Portuguese.

Robbers' Roost (1955)

Synopsis: A wheelchair-bound rancher with a beautiful daughter hires two known cattle thieves as foremen; his theory is that they will prevent each other from stealing his cattle. A mysterious stranger is hired by one of the gangs as a cowboy. Based on a novel by Zane Grey (1st ed. 1932).

Appraisal: Below average western; it's watchable all the same.

Rating: 31