Tonka (1958)

A young Sioux captures a horse and trains him. A fellow tribesman with a penchant for cruelty claims the horse for himself. Concurrently to that, a great confrontation between Sioux and Whites gathers steam.

Juvenile Western. As usual in this kind of production, violence is toned down. They couldn't purge it altogether, though, as the Little Big Horn battle is essential to the storyline. The film tries to depict both Whites and Endogenous Americans as essentially good intentioned as a whole with a few bad apples amongst them. The idea of centering a story about a human conflict on a horse is interesting; it steers the movie into a resolution which is preposterous from a historical angle, yet not entirely unsatisfactory from a dramatic one.

Rating: 45

Red Garters (1954)

A newcomer arrives in a town in the Old West with the purpose of finding and killing the man who killed his brother. He falls in love with a beautiful young woman.

A musical comedy with Western setting and themes. It's a creative movie in its concept, and it is technically very well made, but the screenplay doesn't live up to its aspirations and the end result is a bit on the dull side.

Rating: 40

Distant Drums (1951)

An Army outfit sets out to destroy a fort where guns are being sold to the Seminole. The soldiers are chased and must enter the dangerous Everglades in order to escape the ferocious natives.

Mediocre adventure, a Western in style, although it is not set in the American West. The location shooting gives a certain amount of distinction to this film which its script alone would not be able to provide. It is faster paced than usual for the Western genre, at least in the first half. The second half slows down a little bit.

Rating: 36

O dono da bola (1961)

A simpleton enters a TV competition show in the hope of helping a girl he is in love with, whose father is on the verge of losing his house. The girl, however, becomes attracted to a womanizing TV producer.

A comic depiction of the early days of TV in Brazil. The humor is of an elementary kind, suitable only for undemanding viewers.

Rating: 32

Stir Crazy (1980)

Second viewing; previously viewed in 1981, or in the vicinity of that year.

Two friends from New York, one an actor and the other a writer, decide to go to Hollywood to try their luck. On the way they are framed for a bank robbery and sentenced to a long prison term. They plan an escape.

Occasionally funny, and overall watchable, comedy with good performances from the leading duo.

Rating: 45 (unchanged)

Quem roubou meu samba (1959)

A composer gets in trouble after selling his song to various recording companies. There is also a private investigator who is in a relationship with a nurse.

Musical comedy which is slightly above average for Brazilian films of that genre and period, with some funny comic sketches and passable songs. The plot is also kind of interesting, with its themes of exploitation of artists by company owners, and of memory and forgetfulness. It is generally pointed out that this film borrows from Rio, Zona Norte, released in 1957. I have my doubts, though. Quem Roubou Meu Samba is based on a nightclub "show" from 1953, and the author of that work apparently provided the plot for the film. So, it is not clear who borrowed from whom.

Rating: 40

Smith! (1969)

A rancher gets involved with a Native American who is suspected of murdering a man. He also has to worry about his ranch.

Superficially, this has all the elements of a harmless family movie about inter-ethnic relations, with a positive attitude towards it. Underneath that appearance, there is a very problematic message: it implies that minorities who have been "oppressed" in the past, however distant that past is, are free to go about committing crimes. Every crime they commit would actually be an act of self defense. Well, this is obviously crazy (no society may thrive based on that principle), but it is a notion that is still present is the discourse of many leftwing activists today. In the film, this is heavily disguised by many diversions. To begin with, the individual in question is implied to be innocent, and have really acted in self defense. But that is irrelevant to his acquittal. What counts is a speech by an elderly Native American which conveys precisely the abovementioned leftwing message. Anyway, if one is willing to forgive this very evil concept, the film is watchable, though by a narrow margin.

Rating: 33

Os cosmonautas (1962)

An incompetent vacuum cleaner salesman gets tangled with Brazil's (fictitious) space project. There is also a thief who wants to rob the space center's money vault, and an extraterrestrial female who appears and disappears at will and wants to learn how to kiss.

Sci fi spoof. The writer/director is the proficuous Victor Lima, a guarantee of mediocrity, yet also of minimal watchability. Golias is the comic here. He would always play the same type, a clumsy rustic, and abused of grimaces. No musical numbers in this one. Most of the space film clichés are revisited, including a very naïve political message of peace and good will.

Rating: 31

Spaceballs (1987)

Second viewing; first viewed on February 3, 1988.

Planet Spaceball has used up all its air and thus faces extinction. Its king plans to steal all the air from planet Druidia. He orders Spaceball's military commander Lord Helmet to kidnap the "druish" princess, who has fled her own wedding on a spaceship, accompanied by her robot escort. The king of Druidia sets up a reward for the rescue of his daughter. The challenge is taken up by a courageous space pilot and his half-man half-dog assistant.

Not as awful as I thought on my first viewing. The humor is crude, and at times the proceedings get a bit boring, but overall the film is watchable and occasionally funny. Science fiction parodies or satires are not something new. In 1971, there was a German film name Der große Verhau which was mostly a critique of 2001. In 1974, there was Dark Star, which was also more or less aimed at that 1968 movie. I do not remember much from those movies, but I think they are all part of a phenomenon which I characterize as a certain rivalry between the epic and the comic genres. The comic genre is a parasitic genre, in a way. The more it sends up the epic genre, the more it becomes dependent on it for its very existence. The epic genre may take two paths in reaction to this: either it cultivates a haughty aloofness and thus becomes, with time, its own parody, or it incorporates humor elements into its fabric. Parodies also come in two kinds. In the first one, there is a certain affectivity toward the object of its humor In the second kind, there is only the impetus of destruction. Young Frankenstein is an example of the former. Spaceballs definitely belongs to the latter.

Rating: 33 (up from 18)

Only the Valiant (1951)

A New Mexico region is constantly attacked by the Apache. In a confrontation the Apache leader is captured, but that further provokes their anger, and a Fort is expected to be attacked any minute. Reinforcements are sent for, but in the meantime there must be a way to delay the Apache attack. An officer rounds up a group of misfit soldiers, all of whom but one hate him, and sets up a suicidal watch at the passage.

Entertaining Western, well written, well shot, well directed, well edited and well acted. The script is geared more towards suspense and drama than realism of any kind, and is structured as a classical whodunit, with the difference that in this case it is really a wholldoit.

Rating: 58

Week-End in Havana (1941)

A woman is on a cruise to the Caribbean and her ship gets stuck in a coral reef in Florida. The travel company wants her to sign a waiver saying she will not sue them. She refuses. The company offers her a trip by air to Havana in exchange for her signature. She says she will sign only if she enjoys the trip. A company agent follows her with the mission of seeing that she has a good time. In Havana she gets involved with a Latin lover.

Banal comedy with somewhat extravagant musical numbers. On account of the decent production values, and the fast succession of events, the film is relatively painless to watch. But there is very little to see here, except for two or three brief moments of mild hilarity.

Rating: 31

Le bonheur (1965)

English title: Happiness

François and Thérèse are married and have two lovely children. They are a happy young couple. He works as a carpenter under his uncle. When François meets Émilie at the post office where she works, they feel a mutual attraction and start having an affair.

This film feels quite absurd. Some of it is a very realistic depiction of a working class ambiance. In other parts, characters behave is a way which is very implausible and incompatible with the social surroundings so meticulously built up for them. The film's title makes it clear that it wants to discuss an abstract concept. For that, it would have been more suited to have this story set in an intellectual milieu. It would have been a different movie, to be sure, and probably a more successful one.

Rating: 34

The Fighting Kentuckian (1949)

In 1818, a member of the Kentucky militiamen, named John Breen, returning home from the War of 1812 between the U.S.A. and England, falls in love with a young woman, named Fleurette, from a community of French exiles who were former members of Napoleon's army. He decides to stay at that city and court her. There are multiple problems he must face, though. Fleurette is engaged, against her will, to be married to a local boss. To complicate things, there is a plot to swindle the French landowners out of their land.

As many commenters have pointed out, this is a heavily plotted film, with many side characters. As the film is not long, there is no time to develop and explain the many details of the plot. Also, as IMDB commenter JamesHitchcock has remarked, there are many historical inaccuracies:

*begin quote*
 One of Willie's most prized possessions is a top hat which he says has been in his family for three generations. As top hats had only been invented some 20 years before the date when this film is set this seems unlikely. When playing chess with Breen, Willie takes three of his opponent's pieces in one move- something legal in draughts, but not in chess. In the final battle the French charge into battle on horseback with all guns blazing. This might have been possible in a Western set some sixty or seventy years later, but not in one set in 1818. The early nineteenth century cavalryman fought with sword and lance- before the invention of the revolver and repeating rifle single-shot firearms would have been little use to him. Little attention has been paid to period accuracy as far as costumes are concerned; some of Fleurette's dresses recall the Civil War era, some fifty years after the date of this film.
*end quote*

I am not sure whether it stems from the abovementioned problems, but the film just doesn't generate enough empathy or excitement. It goes by indifferently and I do not recommend it except for die-hard fans of the two stars who play, respectively, the leading part and his sidekick.

Rating: 35

That Darn Cat! (1965)

Two men rob a bank, kidnap the bank teller and hole up in an apartment. A cat belonging to a teenage girl who lives in that area barges into the hoodlums' lair and is used by their hostage to send a signal to the outside world. The cat's owner contacts the FBI who sends one of their agents to monitor the cat for a possible lead; he works at first with a team of agents and later alone.

Entertaining comedy which makes fun of criminal investigations, and also of several other things, which are embodied by the plethora of characters which inhabit the movie: a mother-fixated young man; her girlfriend whose main concern seems to be his carpooling services; an air-headed surfer teenager who is dating the female protagonist; an old busybody; her husband who is annoyed by her meddlesomeness; and two cold-hearted but, luckily for their victims, not very competent thieves. The script is ably structured and sufficiently funny within the constraints generally imposed in the 60s on mainstream movies intended for younger audiences.

Rating: 58

Overland Stage Raiders (1938)

Gold which is transported by bus from a mining town is recurrently being robbed. Three friends join a plane pilot and start an air transport company. The robbers try to make their business fail.

Mediocre Western with a fast pace and short length.

Rating: 32

Yours, Mine and Ours (1968)

Second viewing; previously viewed on January 13, 1995 (I missed the beginning of the film on that occasion).

A widower with eight children meets a widow with ten. They decide to get married.

This is loosely based on a real-life story, but it's so predictable and tame, not to mention psychologically primitive, that I think a documentary would have been more exciting. Anyway, it is well directed and the two main actors are quite charismatic, which means it can be withstood in a relatively painless way.

Rating: 32 (up from 25)

Once Upon a Time in America (1984)

Third viewing; previously viewed on October-November, 1984 and on April 24, 2014.

Story of some New York gangsters from childhood into old age who ride the Prohibition wave and then take separate ways.

Here's my April 24, 2014 review, as published on this blog:

* begin quote*
Based on the novel The Hoods, by Herschel Goldberg (as Harry Grey), first
published in 1952.

The story of four friends growing up in New York City during the 1920s, then
becoming gangsters during Prohibition. Another section set in the 1960s is
interspersed with the earlier time frame.

An imperfect film, but a strong one. The tone is clearly pulpish, and very
Italian in style. Maybe it has to do with a taste for the grotesque, which seems
to be alien to Anglo-Saxon sensibilities. It is hard for me to make a strictly
rational sense of the movie in all its details. I think the basic point is how
when you are a child there is a purity of emotion that gets screwed in a
thousand ways as you grow old. A psychoanalytical interpretation wouldn't be too
off, 'Max' perhaps being a pure Id version of 'Noodles', a la Jekyll and Hyde. I
misinterpreted the ending on both viewings, and even the IMDb FAQ gets it wrong,
in my opinion (the 'contract on Noodles' hypothesis seems very far-fetched).
After I read a statement from a Leone interview I think I got it right (it is
supposed to be a murder, not a suicide). But this is not clear on the screen, so
I suppose anyone may think what he pleases.
*end quote*

I don't know what I meant by 'imperfect'. I guess I simply wouldn't put it on these terms nowadays. I would also replace pulpish with juvenile. Leone was incapable of an adult sensibility, and acknowledged that at one occasion. Some people compare this with The Godfather and I think the films bear comparison, but there is a difference, which to some may appear subtle: The Godfather glamourized crime, whereas Once Upon a Time in America sentimentalizes it. I don't have much to say about it without further thought (which probably will not happen), but a curious angle is the leitmotif of faking death. As children, it was done as a prank, and in adulthood it gets done for real, so to speak. Another recurring motif is a motor vehicle on the street as a means of concealing something on the other side. First, there is Max on his moving carriage which conceals a petty theft and near the end there is the garbage truck which conceals the fate of the same Max.

Rating: 71 (unchanged)

The Professor and the Madman (2019)

In this drama inspired by real events, the inmate of an insane asylum becomes one of the main contributors to the Oxford English Dictionary, then being carried out under the supervision of an outsider to the academic world.

Painfully bad writing makes this a real chore to sit through. The real life story of the titular 'madman' was a really shocking series of events, which, if filmed with a minimum degree of faithfulness, would probably be anything but boring. The film has destroyed that possibility through a paradoxical combination of an excess of decorum (which all but eliminated the sexual component from the surgeon's early life and later delusions) and a lack of it (by imagining a preposterous romantic angle in the relationship between him and his victim's widow). As for the side of the 'professor' (who by the way never was one), its plot development relies on infantile conspiratorial clichés about envious or greedy academics who try to destroy the linguist's work.

Rating: 25

O rei do movimento (1955)

A clumsy mailman who writes songs in his spare time and is six months late in his rent payment gets an odd job as a magician's assistant for one night. It so happens that said magician is the leader of a gang of jewelry robbers, who is nicknamed the Masked One by the newspapers. Also coincidentally, our mailman is delivering a letter at the exact time and place of a robbery by the Masked One. He is grabbed by the hoodlums and tied up. They leave him in a sort of warehouse, from which he escapes. After a series of chases and fights, the bad guys are unmasked (in one case, literally) and the mailman receives a large reward.

Mediocre comedy with some musical numbers. The main actor was trained as a circus acrobat. His character's girlfriend is played by a famous chorus girl at the time. This seems to be her only film. The film possesses a great deal of movement (perhaps this is what is meant by its title). Among the musical numbers, the most attractive one is Valsa de uma Cidade, which shows several beautiful landscapes of Rio de Janeiro.

Rating: 31

The Apple Dumpling Gang (1975)

A gambler accepts to receive a package for an acquaintance, and to his surprise said package is comprised of three orphaned kids. He cares for them as he struggles to pass the burden on to someone else; when the kids find a gold nugget, many candidates to foster parents appear, but there are also some who will prefer to get the nugget through a short cut.

Negligible Western comedy which may be indifferently watched by kids and their parents but is doubtful to leave a mark on either. I guess there is a market value to harmlessness, especially when the market veers towards harmfulness.

Rating: 34

Night Crossing (1982)

Second viewing; first viewed between 1983 and 1986.

Some people in East Germany in the late 1970s are very unhappy with life in that country. They plan to escape to West Germany in a balloon.

This is a simple story. There isn't much tension since we already know from the start how it will end, but that doesn't completely spoil the enjoyment of the film. It is reasonably entertaining, but fails to communicate to the viewer the initial anguish and eventual exhilaration felt by its characters.

Rating: 43 (up from 32)

The Comancheros (1961)

Second viewing; previously viewed between 1983 and 1986.

Paul kills a man in a duel and is subsequently charged for murder. He flees to another State but is captured by a man of the law. Both eventually team up to fight the titular gang who sells guns to fierce Native Americans.

Strange comedy in which the light tone contrasts in some parts (particularly the last one) with dramatic situations. The film is quite watchable and has an elegant plot structure, but leaves much to be desired in the aforementioned last part, which is when the two heroes are in the comancheros' hideout. Perhaps that part had the potential for a whole film's duration, as the complexity of the situation required more elaborate solutions than the ones which the film comes up with.

Rating: 54 (unchanged)

Hello Again (1987)

One year after her death, a woman is revived by an incantation enunciated by her sister. She faces some problems due to her peculiar condition.

Terrible comedy which should not be seen. When seen, the best one can do is to forget it. The amazingly awful script is like a Frankenstein monster made up of bits and pieces of other comedies very badly sewn together and without much rhyme or reason.

Rating: 12

Flame of Barbary Coast (1945)

The year is 1906. A cattle rancher from Montana visits the Barbary Coast -- the red light district in San Francisco -- where he intends to collect a debt. He meets a casino singer and falls in love with her. He gambles his collected money and loses. He goes back to Montana, but has plans to return to the Barbary Coast.

This film revolves around a problem it imposes on itself: how to make the girl leave her current lover for the protagonist. It ingeniously sets up situations of stress that reveal her current lover's shortcomings as a lover (which somehow are implied to be correlated with his shortcomings as a person); an earthquake which nearly makes her paralyzed is required to make her at last switch lovers. The film contrasts the moral integrity of the rural environment with the corruption of the urban one, but takes all its thrills from the latter, and none from the former. I guess this is dialectics in action, although some might prefer to call it hypocrisy. The film is competently written and realized, albeit within that clearly artificial frame.

Rating: 43

Marido de mulher boa (1960)

I have translated (with minor liberties) the film's press-release synopsis (available on this page).

"Anacleto and Frederico are partners in the firm Pardal and Pardal, a high fashion house. Anacleto is married to Arminda, a former theatrical actress, who has chosen him over Frederico. However, Anacleto remains a womanizer. The two partners buy from Giovanni a lottery ticket for taking part in a sweepstake's grand prize, and then Anacleto gives away fractions of his half to four women: Sueli, Marlene, Virgínia and Sofia, [in the hopes of winning their favors]. The longshot horse on which they have bet wins the race, luckily to Frederico, who intends to use the money to marry Sofia, and unluckily to Anacleto. He desperately tries to get back the "gasparinos" (pieces which comprised a lottery ticket) distributed among the abovementioned women, but Arminda, aware of his maneuver, anticipates him and gets back three of the ticket's pieces, leaving only Sueli's piece to be recovered -- but the latter had already shared it among her work mates. Once all confusion generated by the chase after the ticket's pieces is over, Arminda and Sofia return to their homes, after Anacleto vows to end his womanizing ways."

A slightly different synopsis is given on Wikipedia, and I have translated it also:

"Anacleto and Frederico are partners at Pardal & Pardal high fashion house. Both frequently quarrel because Anacleto married Arminda, to whom Frederico had been engaged. Furthermore, Anacleto is an incorrigible womanizer and, on account of both bearing the name Pardal, Frederico is constantly getting beat up by mistake by men who get angry at his partner's harassment on their wives. Anacleto buys a lottery ticket and distributes fractions of it among his "conquests": he gives one to humble employee Sueli, two to singer Sofia, and a few more to chorus girl Marlene and manicurist Virgínia. When the ticket wins the right to run for a sweepstake's grand prize, Arminda gets word of his misdeeds and, [aiming to give him a lesson], demands that Anacleto show him the ticket. Anacleto goes after the women to recover the ticket's fractions, not knowing that Arminda [follows him] to avoid that he gets them back."

Note: parts which I find doubtful or debatable I have placed between brackets []. In particular, I would like to point out that Arminda states that her real purpose is to learn from other women what she needs to make her desirable to Anacleto, rather than to just "give him a lesson".

This comedy has a few implausible points in its plot, in particular the sum of money which Arminda is willing to spend to recover the ticket fractions, but let's perhaps credit this to her possible innumeracy or to her obsession. Aside from that, it is another Brazilian comedy with the same kind of lowbrow humor which abounded in comedies of that era in Brazil. This one has a considerably smaller amount of musical numbers, and, perhaps as a consequence of that, the repetitiveness of the plot becomes rather tiresome around the last third or so of the movie.

Rating:32

Red River Range (1938)

Rustlers equipped with refrigerated trucks kill the cattle right after they have stolen it and transport it away so nobody can trace the animals. The folks at one small town ask for help from the government and three agents are sent over. One of them switches places en route with a friend of theirs, so that he can infiltrate the gang, who is operating from a dude ranch where the guests themselves unwittingly help the robbers as part of one of the ranch's leisure activities.

Routine B-Western with a plot which was apparently partly stolen from Public Cowboy #1 (1937) (I never watched it but was tipped off by IMDB commenter stevehaynie). The dialogue has some witty lines, which one or more devoted fans have inserted on the IMDB page's Quotes section. The funniest one is the last, which by today's standards might be considered a little sexist (but, mind you, two of the film's three writers were women). Aside from that, another noteworthy aspect of the film were the tandem identity covers as pointed out by one Stuart Galbraith IV in his review of the Blu Ray release:

"Tex has been identified by the rustlers, so Stony hatches an impressive triple-undercover-switcheroo: Tex will pretend to be Stony, while Stony works undercover, masquerading as an escaped outlaw named "Killer" Madigan, who in turn is hiding from the law as tenderfoot Jack Benson, a guest at a local dude ranch. Whew!"

Galbraith also quotes one character as saying (about the consequences of the rustling spree):

"Beef prices have hit rock-bottom!"

Contrarywise, IMDB commenter bkoganbing remarks:

"That in itself was an interesting aspect of this film, the inflation of meat prices as a result of cattle rustling. One never does think of the economic hurt, those rustlers cause."

So, which one is it: prices go up or prices go down? At least one character thinks it is the latter. I am no economist, but it seems, on a superficial analysis, that the shortage of beef would cause the prices to soar, not to "hit rock-bottom". On further thought, though, would there be any shortage? The rustlers' beef would end up being sold too, and, being of illegal origin, it is likely to be sold at smaller prices than the legitimate one; that in turn would reduce the latter's price. Of course, there is always the possibility that the stolen meat was going to be sold at another place with no trading connection with the region in which it was stolen.

Rating: 32

Depois eu conto (1956)

José, a gas station employee, passes off as a rich businessman from a traditional family in order to romance a socialite's daughter. His childhood girlfriend gets jealous. Her aunt sides with her and denounces him. That aunt is a wannabe singer who is made a mockery of in a performance at a posh nightclub. José finds comic potential in her and decides to open a nightclub at a favela (very poor community generally built in a hillside area) where she and other performers connected with popular culture would have their space.

Musical comedy which makes fun of socialites and social columnism. It's very dated, and the humor is unsophisticated, but the dialogue is vivacious and not wholly devoid of social observation.

Rating: 33

Nudista à força (1966)

*spoilers below*
A decadent opera singer is giving a solo concert in São Paulo. Her henpecked husband is her accompanying pianist. After the concert, they head for the airport to catch a flight to Rio de Janeiro. At that time, a counterfeiter who happens to be an exact lookalike of the singer's husband is arriving from Argentina. The Interpol is after him, and he knows it. Instead of boarding the plane for Rio de Janeiro, where his contact would lead him to some absconded money printing plates, he wanders through São Paulo with the intention of misleading his chasers. However, one member of the police team mistakenly follows his lookalike to Rio de Janeiro. Aboard the plane, he befriends the opera singer's young daughter. Meanwhile, the counterfeiter gets hit by a car in a street of São Paulo, and is taken to the hospital, where he is put under permanent police surveillance. At the Rio de Janeiro airport, the singer's husband is mistaken for the criminal by the latter's associates (the leader of which is the criminal's girlfriend), is forcefully dragged into a car and taken to their hideout. At the hospital in São Paulo, the criminal escapes through the hospital's window. After some more incidents, all of them find themselves at a nudist club, which is where the printing plates are buried.
*end of spoilers*

Mediocre comedy whose only relatively noteworthy aspect is the presence of a well known (at the time) comedian at a dual role, one of which is played straight, and the other comically. His comical style strongly relied on his singular face and the grimaces he was able to produce. The writer and director is the prolific Victor Lima (1920-1981), who, according to IMDB, directed 37 movies, wrote (or co-wrote) 57, and apparently does not have a single photo of him appearing anywhere on the Internet. In 1966 alone, when this film was made, he made four movies (or had them released). This movie has a stronger stylistic kinship to the commercial French cinema of the time than to the American one.

Rating: 31

Copper Canyon (1950)

The action is set at a mining town, where a Southern ex-colonel has assumed a new identity and earns a living as a stage sharpshooter. The town is ruled by hoodlums who give Southern miners a hard time. The local smelter doesn't help either, refusing to smelt those Southern miners' ore -- he hates Southerners because his son was killed in the Civil War while fighting for the North. Thus, the Southern miners are forced to travel to another town in order to get their ore smelted. The road is full of dangers, though, what with the aforementioned hoodlums plottting to rob and even kill them sometimes. A group of Southerners approach the ex-colonel for help, but he refuses and does not even admit to his real identity. A lady gambler at the local saloon who is employed by the same man who has the sheriff and his deputies in his payroll wants to get rich but violence is not part of her agreement. She soon falls for the ex-colonel.

As is evident by the above synopsis, there are a lot of characters in this Western (and I didn't even mention the Lieutenant who is after the ex-colonel for the theft of Northern money). Everything is professionally done, but there is nothing memorable about it, and the plot has the convenient melodramatic accommodations which sacrifice plausibility for the sake of plot. It feels like a B-Western script grafted onto an A-production.

Rating: 47

Mulheres à vista (1959)

A theatrical impresario tries to raise money for a show. He buys things in installments from shops and sells them on the street for payment upfront. He comes short of the amount he needs, though. He starts courting a rich widow who, it later turns out, owns the theater house and is willing to sponsor the show.

Musical comedy with lots of musical numbers (all of them rather bland and unmemorable) and a comicity mostly aimed at undemanding audiences. It may amuse one who is not looking for sophistication.

Rating: 32

Nueve reinas (2000)

English title: Nine Queens

Marcos is a veteran con artist whose partner is missing. He meets a younger con artist and takes him as a partner. The two try to deceive a rich foreigner into buying a forgery of a valuable set of stamps. The foreigner is leaving the country the next day.

Entertaining criminal drama with an engaging plot and fairly well defined characters. It never really transcends the superficial level of a nicely told story, though. Don't come looking for emotional depth or philosophical insight, or you will be disappointed. The following review from an IMDB user points out some plot weaknesses:

[begin quote]
A great film, but a Hollywood ending
msstone96822 January 2005
Warning: Spoilers
I find it hard to believe they could have gotten a plot that grandiose off the ground in a single day, what with all the other players who were in on it. I think they changed from an otherwise flawless plot to wit......

1. In the original ending, Vidal was the one who was sold either real or fake stamps and had to pay by cashier's check due to the difficulty of arranging large amounts of cash in a single day. So Vidal was not in on it, but in fact the source of a lot more than Marcos's $200,000. I can get along with the notion of having to pay with a bank check and also that both Juan and Marcos probably keep all their assets in easily accessible cash, explaining how the sale could go ahead in a day. Sandler's sister was not in on it either -- and her scene was great either way.

2. That they probably had an ending in which both Juan and Marcos were planning to con each other out of the entire amount, but before receiving the cash, the bank had failed, thereby leaving them both in an unhappy ending that nevertheless had a twist -- that the con was real and successful, but they lost the money due to unforeseen circumstances.

The movie allowed me to suspend my disbelief right up to the ending - either one or the other was setting it up, but there remained the possibility that they were both having an extraordinary day and opportunity and just couldn't walk away in spite of all the red flags. But an unhappy ending is usually too somber for the people charged with trying to sell films to handle, so they probably re-wrote or re-shot the final scene, which encompasses almost all of the film's implausibilities, to wit....

+ about 10 people seem to be happy to share Marcos's measly $200,000 among themselves, as if this was a con not to make any money, but to "win one for the team."

+ Valeria is happy to share out most of the money she was suing Marcos for. If she was really appalled about being conned by her own brother out of the inheritance, would she then get involved with several experienced con-artists just to get him to lose her money to them?

+ Would they have been able in one day to fake a news article about a high-profile guy being deported in a high-profile way the next day? Or are we supposed to believe that someone was able to check into the hotel, impersonating Vidal all the way up to the moment he surrenders to the authorities? No, sorry, I think Vidal was originally a real buyer, not in on the con. I also don't think they originally had that "polvo" stuff about Marcos's sister (would you send your sister with the real stamps into his room and wait for your money all night? Not even if it was a legitimate sale and you were totally naive would you or anyone else do that, much less so a cynical con-man.)

The movie's got all the stuff you want to enjoy the ride: characters, slang dialog, action, Buenos Aires, right up to that last quarter hour: Cut off that ending, leave most of the supporting actors out of the main con, and put in another 10 min in which each of Juan and Marcos tries a last minute and unsuccessful scam on the other, only to soon find that they'll never cash the check, and you've got the original story.

But instead we got a really "cute" skin-grafted-on ending where the proper birthright is restored (literally), the "guy gets the girl" and viewers get a feel-good distinction between good and evil: the "good" con-artists restore cosmic harmony and triumph over the "evil" one who has crossed some kind of moral line and brought disrepute to their profession.

Another great idea crashes on the rocks of the banal ending.
[end quote]

I agree with all of msstone's considerations (here's the link to that review)

Rating: 60

Night of the Creeps (1986)

Second viewing; first viewing with the original audio; previously seen dubbed in Portuguese on May 18, 1996.

In 1959, a canister from outer space lands on Earth, releasing strange wormlike creatures. A college student swallows one of those creatures just before he is killed by a mad man. His body is cryogenically preserved until 1986, when it is unfrozen by another college student who was looking for a corpse as part of a task he had to perform in order to join a fraternity. The corpse turns into a zombie who ends up releasing the creatures again.

Feeble attempt at emulating 1950s and 1960s horror and sci-fi b-movies. It is neither an out-and-out parody nor a seriously scary horror film. It's not exactly painful to watch, but has little in the way of a really interesting take on older movies.

Rating: 35 (down from 45)

As aventuras de Pedro Malasartes (1960)

Based on traditional Brazilian and Portuguese folk stories (possibly derived from even older stories from other places, dating as far back as the 13th century).

*spoilers below*
Pedro Malasartes is cheated out of his inheritance by his brothers, being left with only a goose and a saucepan. He decides to roam the world; he leaves his girlfriend behind, much to her chagrin. She goes after him. On the way he finds a series of homeless children which join him in his wanderings. He tricks a man into buying his saucepan by claiming it has the power of cooking without fire. Then, he approaches a house and spies through a window; he sees the owner's wife hide her brother inside a cabinet just before the arrival of her husband; she puts the meal which she had served her brother in a cabinet drawer. Outside by the window, her husband surprises Pedro, who asks for some food. The owner agrees and invites Pedro inside the house. Pedro claims his goose has the power of speech and also of making things and even people appear at certain places. The animal honks and Pedro says it is saying that there is food is in the cabinet's drawer; the animal honks again and conjures a man inside the cabinet. Pedro tricks the house owner into buying the goose. Pedro unsuccessfully tries to find an intern school that would accept the children; they all require payment, and he cannot afford it. After a while, both the man who bought the saucepan and the one who bought the goose realize they have been deceived and go after Pedro. They get together on the road, and are joined by Pedro's girlfriend; they succeed in capturing Pedro. After putting him in a cloth sack, they take him to a police station. Another man appears there to complain about Pedro. It is a farmer who had hired Pedro as a pig keeper. Pedro sold his pigs and deceived him by sticking the pig's tails, which he had cut, in the mud, and then telling the farmer that the pigs were buried there. (The events at that farm are not shown in the movie; I do not know if this is due to missing footage; I think not). Outside the police station, Pedro, inside the sack, keeps yelling: "I don't want to marry the king's daughter!". A man approaches and Pedro tricks him into switching places with him by making him assume he will now be the one who will marry the king's daughter. On the road again, and reunited with his bunch of kids, Pedro makes other two victims: he sells them a money tree (actually an ordinary one on which he had hung a few money bills of little value). Pedro is eventually arrested and put on trial. He sweet talks the jury into acquitting him. His accompanying children are placed in an orphanage. Pedro gets a job at the orphanage so he can be near his little friends, who grew very fond of him. He has to agree to marry his girlfriend, and promise never to deceive people again. Moments later, however, as he walks with one of the the orphanage's friars, Pedro draws his ear near a small hole in the ground. Through it, he claims, one could hear the mass said in Rome. Would the friar be interested in buying it?
*end of spoilers*

Although marred by the usual structure that was the main comedian's stock-in-trade -- abundant sentimentality, mediocre musical numbers, simple-minded humor -- the source material is interesting and authentically popular in origin.

Rating: 33

The Missouri Breaks (1976)

Second viewing; previously viewed between 1983 and 1986.

In late 19th century Montana, a rancher hires an assassin to take care of cattle and horse thieves. The romance between the leader of a gang of horse thieves -- who buys a ranch next door the aforementioned rancher -- and the latter's unmarried daughter is one of the subplots. The assassin's suspicion, and subsequent persecution, of the gang is another. An incursion into Canada by the other gang members, who want to steal horses from the Mounties, makes up the remainder of the stuff this film is made of.

Artistically made Western, with a completely unbelievable plot (an outlaw who chooses a risky place to live just for a silly revenge is something you will not see in real life) and a completely anachronistic romance. The outlaws are nice people here, the honest folks are disgusting, and the "justice system", in the person of the hired gun, is psychopathic.

Rating: 66 (unchanged)

That Night in Rio (1941)

A variety theater troupe from the U.S. is performing in Rio de Janeiro. The main actor does an impression of a local magnate, of whom he is a lookalike. Said magnate takes a loss at an investment he made; the problem is that he used money from his bank in the investment, and now he must get a loan to restore the money to the bank before the current account holders find out about it. While he is away, his two assistants must conceal his absence during a party and to that effect they hire the abovementioned American actor. The latter sees in it an opportunity to make some money and also to flirt with the magnate's wife. Meanwhile, the actor's jealous girlfriend, who happens to be Brazilian, manages to get invited to the party.

This is a several-times filmed play about lookalikes and the confusion they entail. The plot explores the progressive complexity of situations engendered by mistaken identities. All that is not without interest or entertainment value. The musical numbers are just so-so; they are poorly placed in the film, too, sometimes following one another without interruption, which gets a little monotonous.

Rating: 40

O santo milagroso (1966)

In a small town, the Catholic priest is worried about the competition from the Protestant pastor. The most notable of the recent defections to Protestantism is the local political leader, who converted after a quarrel with the Catholic bishop. To complicate matters further, the Church's sexton falls in love with the pastor's sister. One night the priest and the pastor are in the sacristy, where they, for the first time, are sitting together and playing chess. Someone knocks on the door: it's the sexton with the pastor's sister. The pastor, not wishing to be seen there, disguises himself as a covered saint (Lent is nearing its end, and it is the Catholic tradition to veil the saints' images). The priest lets them in, and tells them it is the image of Saint Francis under the cloth. The pastor sees an opportunity and speaks to the two youngsters as Saint Francis. He tells them that they should not pursue their romance because of their different faiths. The news of the "miracle" spreads through town.

Very naive comedy which shares some themes and one of the main actors with O Pagador de Promessas from a few years earlier. Curiously, both plays' authors went on to become telenovela (name given to Brazilian-made soap operas) writers. However, whereas that former movie was a Marxist drama, this is a comedy with no detectable leftist ideology.

Rating: 40

The Yellow Tomahawk (1954)

A scout serves as a messenger between the Cheyenne and the officer in charge of an Army outpost. Said officer, nicknamed by the Cheyenne as 'The Butcher', intends to build a fort in Cheyenne land, and the Cheyenne send him a warning that, should he carry on with his plan, all the people in his encampment will be massacred. He doesn't heed the advice, with predictable results.

Run-of-the-mill B-Western. The crux, so to speak, of the script is the thesis that a fierce animosity against a different race is an attempt to erase one's own connections with that race. I suppose the appearances of several known (and agreeable) faces in its supporting cast is the movie's major selling point. It was originally made in color, but for reasons unknown to me it was broadcast in black and white.

Rating: 31

Down Argentine Way (1940)

An American woman meets the son of a horse rancher from Argentina during a horse show. She makes him an offer on one of his horses, but he refuses it. The whole matter has to do with a past rift between their respective fathers. The IMDB summary is wrong. The girl actually falls for the guy in America and goes to South America after him. Anyway, then another subplot takes over which has to do with the rancher's past vow to quit entering his horses in flat races after an accident killed one of them. The girl encourages the rancher's son to start training a horse for flat racing. This is hidden from the guy's father. Then they sign the horse in to a big race, and the rancher finds out about it.

Strictly scriptwise, this is atrocious. But, as critics have remarked, the Technicolor is gorgeous, and there are some interesting musical numbers (the best one is an anthological tap dancing sketch). How this came to be regarded as "culturally, historically or aesthetically significant" is anyone's guess but mine.

Rating: 33

The Brass Legend (1956)

*detailed plot with possible spoilers*
A small town marshal plans to quit his job once his current term expires. His fiancée's kid brother spots a wanted criminal and tells the marshal about it, which then leads to the criminal's arrest. The kid's role in it is omitted by the marshal, for the sake of the kid's safety. The kid's father resents the omission and tells the local newspaper about the kid's role in the arrest. The kid becomes famous and there is an attempt on his life. The criminal escapes from prison before he goes to trial and sends word to the marshal that he wants a showdown between the two in a secluded place.
*end of possible spoilers*

B-Western without much to recommend it. The plot is reasonably coherent, although some have questioned the plausibility of some of the characters' behavior.

Rating: 32

Murder by Death (1976)

Second viewing; previously viewed between 1983 and 1986.

A millionaire invites several renowned detectives to a dinner in his mansion. He announces there is going to be a murder inside the house.

Mostly unfunny parody, with an uninspired script. There is a noticeable effort to capture the clichés of the whodunit genre (with a hardboiled detective thrown in for contrast), but it is all done in a rather mechanical manner.

Rating: 36 (down from 51)

The Broken Star (1956)

I could not write a better summary than IMDB has: "When a deputy marshal murders a henchman, steals the racketeer money he is holding, and claims self defense, the head marshal orders an investigation to find the truth." (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0049031/)

Run-of-the-mill Western whose main attraction for me was to watch some actors whose face I didn't recognize. The good guys in this one keep doing stupid things so as to allow the film to achieve a commercially acceptable length.

Rating: 31

Na corda bamba (1957)

A piano tuner gets entangled in an intrigue between two rival exiles from a distant country concerning the possession of a jewel. He is led to steal the jewel by one of the parties in that dispute. The tuner's nephew, who lives with him, finds the jewel and makes a gift of it to a woman he likes. Troubles follow.

Musical comedy with a banal plot and unsophisticated comicity. The musical numbers are nice, displaying elaborate conception and coreographies.

Rating: 33

Sagarana - O duelo (1973)

Based on the short story Duelo, by João Guimarães Rosa, submitted to a literary contest in 1938 and published, possibly after a rewrite, in 1946 in the collection Sagarana.

Turíbio, a killer for hire, returns home from a job one day to find his wife in bed with another man, an ex-military named Cassiano. Turíbio walks away without making himself noticed, and begins to plan for revenge. When he decides to act, however, he kills Cassiano's brother by mistake. It's Cassiano then who vows to take revenge on Turíbio, who flees. Their mutual chase goes on for several years.

This filmic transposition is mediocre, only making itself watchable through the intrinsic literary qualities of the original literary work, and  the competent performances of most of the actors. The plot bears similarities with Joseph Conrad's homonymous story.

Rating: 33

The Running Man (1987)

Second viewing; previously viewed on January 26,1991.

In 2017, the U.S. will be a totalitarian state. 'The Running Man' is a very popular TV game show which features prisoners who must fight killers for their lives. A former army pilot who had disobeyed orders, was imprisoned for it, and then escaped is recaptured and sent to fight in the titular game show.

Somewhat repetitive futuristic actioner which nevertheless is not completely without merit as a (to all accounts unheeded) political warning, nor completely without entertaining value.

Rating: 37 (unchanged)

Bohemian Rhapsody (2018)

The biography of a famous pop singer and composer. His ethnic origins, first woman, rise to stardom, conflicts with his band, gradual abandonment of heterosexuality, solo career, drug abuse, sickness, death (implied).

Biopic which seems to put all its efforts into making a not exactly noteworthy life into a definitely dull one through watering down and downright falsification. All of the acting here is sufficiently good, but I can't refrain from saying that the real Mercury had a toughness about him that is not captured by the lead performance.

Rating: 40

La menace (1977)

Uncertain whether I have seen this before; if so, it was between 1983 and 1986.

English title: The Threat.

*spoilers below*
A manager in a trucking company who was in a relationship with his boss has a new girlfriend and intends to quit the company to start his own business. His ex will not accept their breakup. There is an incident between the two women which finishes with the ex committing suicide. The circumstances make it appear as though she was murdered. The male protagonist tries to conceal his girlfriend's involvement in the incident, but she has left traces of it which are easily found out by the police. She is arrested. He devises a complicated scheme to lead the police to believe that he was the real culprit -- in order to collect the dead woman's inheritance -- and has framed his girlfriend. The police falls for it. The woman is released. The man flees to Canada where he stages his own death and calls up his girlfriend, setting up to meet her in Melbourne. Things then go horribly wrong.
*end of spoilers*

The final section with the trucks is quite harrowing and well done. The film as a whole however is predominantly an exercise in sadism of a cerebral -- though not exactly plausible -- kind. I guess the whole enterprise is not wholly despicable as a lot of mental -- and supposedly physical -- effort went into it. Perhaps the hidden moral of it is that life's difficult situations arouse extraordinary powers in a person's brain which are normally dormant when they could be used to prevent those difficulties.

Rating: 40

Ariel (1988)

A miner loses his job when the mine at which he worked is closed. He decides to relocate to a big city. On the way he is robbed of all his money. In the big city, he gets a job, gets a girlfriend, and gets into trouble.

In one scene, we see the main character reading a comic book in jail. In another, it is his girlfriend's son who is reading one (this time the comics are recognizable as Falk's The Phantom). The mental level of all the characters, no matter their age, is thus revealed as the same, and it is only natural that the narrative style does not stray from a comic book's. There is nothing remotely challenging about Ariel. For a Brazilian local, there is a certain strangeness in the notion of social problems such as the ones depicted in this movie happening in a country such as Finland. In the end, the destination is Mexico and all I could think is that this time he better keep out of jail, because, after a stay in the Finnish penal system, he wouldn't enjoy much the Mexican one.

Rating: 40

Yentl (1983)

Second viewing; first viewing with original audio; first viewing of the extended cut; previously viewed, dubbed in Portuguese, on May 8, 2002.

Based on the short story Yentl, the Yeshiva Boy, by Isaac Bashevis Singer, first published in 1960, and on a play derived from it.

In 1904, a Jewish woman living in Estern Europe wants to study the Torah and other related texts, but Jewish law forbids women from doing it. After her father dies, she takes a man's identity and enters a yeshiva (a school for the study of traditional texts of Judaism).

I didn't find the experience of viewing this for the second time too unpleasant. It is not badly made, and, for the most part, is easy to follow and reasonably well written. The actors, too, perform well enough. The songs are solid, both in music and in lyrics. Still, I don't see what made me like the film as much as I did on my previous viewing. Its dramatic limitations are evident. What begins as a paean to intellectual curiosity shifts very quickly into one of those farces about crossdressing that have been so popular since the days of Shakespeare. Only one year before Yentl's release in theaters there was Tootsie, which has similar plot elements, but with the sexes interchanged. Unlike Tootsie, however, here one does not have the protagonist becoming a better human being through impersonating an opposite-sexed person. The point in common to all those works mentioned (and others such as Grande Sertão: Veredas, a novel by Guimarães Rosa) is the development of sexual attraction between two people one of which thinks they are of the same sex. Yentl, however, is not particularly exciting in its flow of dramatic or comic events. The ending is somewhat fraudulent, because I never knew the American branch of Judaism to be more liberal than its European counterparts. But then again, I'm no authority on the subject.

Rating: 50 (down from 68)

La sindrome di Stendhal (1996)

English title: The Stendhal Syndrome.

A police officer suffers from the titular disorder whereby an individual is prone to fainting or hallucinating under the effect of artworks. She is working on the case of a serial rapist turned serial killer and her investigation somehow gets entangled with her particular health condition.

I just couldn't find enjoyment in this. When one reads the premise, it looks full of potential, but that is misleading. Actually, that is one of the characteristics of the giallo genre: to coat a formulaic plot of policework and shocking violence with some extraneous 'arty' themes or environments. To be fair, it isn't an extremely bad movie and watching it is possible without great suffering. Let's just say that, should one make a movie out of one's filmviewing life, the experience of viewing this film will end up in the editing room floor.

Saw an English-dubbed version.

Rating: 30

The Woman (2011)

While hunting in the woods, a man spots a woman who appears to be living as a wild beast. He captures her and takes her to his cellar, where he keeps her as a captive, engaging his entire family in the process of taming her. Some unexpected events, however, lead to a crisis.

Interesting, if overly violent, familial horror drama. To be frank, all through my viewing I probably misunderstood some of the aspects of the plot and consequently the ideology of the movie. Some viewers seem to have suffered the same setback. Thus I mistook this film for a brutally feminist manifesto, but certain plot points introduce some nuances into it which put that interpretation into question. I will not enter into much detail here, as some readers might want to watch the movie with a fresh mind, and have a full enjoyment of all its surprises. Suffice it to say that a certain plot twist hints at an explanation (which of course is not a justification) for the behavior of the main male character, and that explanation involves his wife. I say 'hints' because the exact way things happened is not explicitly stated in the movie. Anyway, to sum my assessment up, this is a movie which starts out as an intelligent and intriguing drama and shifts into a shock-oriented horror movie in its latter half; that shift is not totally felicitous.

Rating: 60

Hello, Dolly! (1969)

Based on the homonymous Broadway musical (1964), which was in turn based on the play The Matchmaker (1954) by Thornton Wilder, in turn based on that same author's earlier play The Merchant of Yonkers (1938), itself partially derived from the musical play Einen Jux will er sich machen (tr. He Will Go on a Spree) (1842), by Johann Nestroy, which was, in turn, and finally, an adaptation of the play A Day Well Spent (1835), by John Oxenford.

A seed merchant from the provinces seeks a wife in the big city. Coincidentally his employees profit from his absence to look for adventures in the same city as him. In a final coincidence, his daughter elopes with her sweetheart, both taking that same destination. A matchmaker has designs on marrying said merchant; chance and her interference will bring them all together.

This is a seriously flawed musical, for reasons which have been abundantly covered in reviews. It's still a watchable movie, its main assets being a few nice songs and a stunning production design.

Rating: 40

Lenin v oktyabre (1937)

English title: Lenin in October

Lenin's life in the days preceding the October 1917 revolution in Russia. He is hunted by the authorities, who even order a hit on him. The taking of St. Petersburg by the Bolsheviks is the climax of the film.

Well-made blend of intimate portrait and historical epic. Although it is somewhat depressing to watch this kind of story while knowing how the Soviet regime turned out to be and how it ended, it is not hard to concentrate on the adventurous side of the Revolution and get entertained by it. There are three versions of this film and I have no idea which one I watched. There is one mention of Stalin that I can recall and I have not spotted him on the screen, but then I was busy reading the subtitles, so I may have missed him.

Rating: 52

Mandacaru vermelho (1961)

A young woman who has been promised in marriage to a man elopes with another. The eloping woman is an orphan whose parents were killed in an ambush motivated by an extramarital affair which I am not sure I fully understood. Her aunt gives chase to the couple, aided by her employees.

Coming across as poorly conceived, especially in its conception of characters and their behavior, this film reportedly wasn't properly scripted, having been mostly improvised by its director. The result is far from brilliant or even entertaining, but, at least for Brazilians like me, makes for a curious viewing. The arid landscapes of Northeastern Brazil, as captured by its competent cinematography, are aesthetically pleasing enough.

Rating: 32

Paraíba: Vida e morte de um bandido (1966)

A criminal murders his lover for her "betrayal" (which will be explained in the course of the film). He is chased by the police. After taking a bullet wound, he takes refuge in the steeple of a church. There, he recollects his life of crimes, the most memorable events of which are his kidnapping of a journalist and a robbery attempt at a football stadium.

Mediocre criminal drama. The narrative is fluent, but that is the best I can say about this movie, which has a clichéd plot with some rather implausible details. The leading performance is not bad. A more detailed analysis (and a somewhat more generous assessment) may be found here (in Portuguese).

Rating: 31

Vassa (1983)

Based on the play Vassa Zheleznova, by Maxim Gorky, written in 1910 (first version) and 1935 (second version).

The titular character is a woman who is the de facto head of a bourgeois family in 1910s Russia. Her husband is about to be implicated in a charge of abuse of minors. In a later episode, she receives the visit of her daughter-in-law, who is involved with revolutionary activities and wants to take her son abroad. But Vassa doesn't want to part with her grandson.

Compelling character study which might be taken also as a study of bourgeois decadence. The text is strong, the mise-en-scène is impeccable, and the cast is terrific. I am sorry that I don't have any further insightful observations to add, but perhaps Janet Maslin's review, though a little too stern in my opinion, might help my interested readers.

Rating: 69

É de chuá! (1958)

Two guys need money to buy costumes for their Samba School (Escola de Samba), without which they will not be able to join the Carnival parade. Through the girlfriend of one of them, they hear about a woman who has spent a large sum of money on a Carnival costume. They decide to go over to her house and ask her for a donation. To their misfortune, said woman is really the wife of a thief and swindler who is throwing a jewel exhibition party as a set-up for stealing the jewelry after the show. The Samba School duo manage to enter the thief's house just before the jewel show. One of them mistakes the jewels for candies and ends up swallowing a valuable diamond.

Routine musical comedy with lots of musical numbers, none of them especially noteworthy. The comedy plot revolves mostly around the problem of making the protagonist expel the jewel he has swallowed. It's all very simple-minded and predictable.

Rating: 31

Boris Godunov (1986)

Based on the closet play Boris Godunov, also known as A Dramatic Tale, The Comedy of the Distress of the Muscovite State, of Tsar Boris, and of Grishka Otrepyev, by Alexander Pushkin, written in 1825, and first published in 1831.

Boris Godunov is regent of Russia, and after Ivan's son Feodor dies he ascends to the throne. There is a suspicion that Boris murdered Ivan's younger son Dmitry. Boris's rule is placed under threat when an escaped monk says he is the surviving Dmitry, and claims the throne for himself.

Lazy theatrical adaptation, a uniformly dull film which nevertheless exhibits very beautiful interiors from churches and palaces, and some exteriors which are also impressive. The false Dmitry is as much a protagonist as Boris, something which the shortened title simply ignores. I watched it on a very poorly subtitled copy, which means my assesment could be slightly more approving under better conditions.

Rating: 40

Samba em Brasília (1960)

Teresa, a young woman who is poor and lives at a shanty town, starts working as a cook at an upper-class residence. She suffers sexual harassment from the owner of the house; his son Ricardo also makes advances towards her, although he has an informal engagement to another woman. Teresa is rehearsing to be the standard bearer for the Samba School (Escola de Samba) of her community, but as she begins mingling with her bosses and their milieu, she gradually begins to disconnect from her former social environment. Ricardo starts courting her seriously, and then she has to choose between him and her other suitor from her community.

The cinematography on this is quite impressive, which makes the viewing experience relatively painless. The film is poor, even for Brazilian comedy standards of that era. The supreme aberration one has to withstand is the casting of European-descended and middle-class-mannered Eliana as a very poor woman living in a miserable neighborhood who performs at a Samba School and gives lessons on macumba to the lady of the house at which she works. The dramatic axis of the movie is a trivial examination of social rising, which here is based on looks and also on wits. The film's title bears no relation to the plot, and is only made less absurd by an equally out-of-the-blue musical number with motifs from the then newly inaugurated Brazilian capital.

Rating: 31

Persona (1966)

Second viewing; previously viewed between 1983 and 1986.

An actress suffers a nervous breakdown, after which she no longer speaks and remains in a semi-catatonic state. She is placed under hospital care. Her supervising psychiatrist thinks it would be better for her to stay out of the hospital and suggests she stays at her house on a secluded island. She is accompanied by a nurse. The nurse develops an emotional relationship with her patient.

A film with several interesting ideas and some gripping sequences. The theme of switching personalities was repeated in Performance, which was made around 1968. The theme of a vampiric relationship between two women was frequent in the 60s and later. Mulholland Dr. was avowedly inspired by this film. Other films by Lynch seem to have also been influenced by themes in Persona. Ambiguous feelings towards babies is a theme of Eraserhead; the metamorphosis into someone else as an escape from an intolerable condition is present in Lost Highway. Having characters stand for a philosphical or psychological entity is an idea which goes back to Robert Louis Stevenson's Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (perhaps further back, but I don't know). In 1972, there was the Brazilian film As Deusas which applied that concept (probably under the influence of this very movie). Unfortunately, Persona is sorely lacking in conceptual coherence and dramatic consistence. That was a time when freedom became a sort of motto and moral imperative for well-regarded filmmakers. Reason became a sort of bête noire for them. Most of them returned to it soon after, though. Persona is still an admired film, but I suspect its reputation will gradually adjust to its real worth. 

Rating: 51 (down from 67)

David and Bathsheba (1951)

Second viewing; previously viewed on August 28, 1999.

A king covets the wife of one of his generals. The king takes her as a lover, and she becomes pregnant of him. He tries to arrange things for it to look like the child's father is the woman's husband. When that proves unfeasible he sends the general to a deadly military mission.

This is what happens when Hollywood takes a biblical story and lays a coating of 20th-century ideology on it. The Bible story is basically about abuse of power. The movie has that angle too, but it makes David's relationship with Bathsheba a romantic one (in the sense with which the 20th century has endowed the word "romantic"). Anyway, both in the movie and in the Bible there is ample tolerance for the murderous behavior of kings. Not to mention that war itself derives from an abuse of power. But it would be too much to ask from a 1950s Hollywood movie to go that far. On a more down-to-earth note, a problem with this movie is that it suffers from too much padding with elements extraneous from the main plot, such as the protagonist's life history and poetic inclinations. But it's a watchable movie; the acting, in particular, is quite good, and so are the production values.

Rating: 54 (down from 60)

Biutiful (2010)

A man finds he only has a few months to live. He is separated from his wife and takes care of their two children. He works supervising the illegal work of illegal immigrants. He reunites with his wife for a while.

Not a very interesting film. It seems to believe that conveying intense emotion is enough to grab a viewer's attention. The plot has some interesting elements, but apparently there was not the will to make them into an exciting whole. Too many subplots lead nowhere  and the main plot (whatever you think it is) doesn't lead anywhere very interesting either. Anyway I gathered from the movie that immigrants are not only good but necessary, because without them who will take care of our children when we die?

Rating: 37

The Pelican Brief (1993)

Second viewing; first viewing with original audio; previously viewed, dubbed in Portuguese, on August 15, 2001.

Two Supreme Court justices are executed. A law student does some research work on who might want to get rid of two men who diverged in almost every issue; she comes up with a suspect. She writes a brief detailing how she came to that suspect. After that brief reaches powerful hands, people around her start to die and she must run for her life.

This is a reasonably well-made thriller, but only in a purely mechanical sense. In what regards the plot, the whole thing is very flawed in an essential way. After the law student has divulged her theory to the press, she is no longer a worthwhile target, so the notion that the bad guys would chase her relentlessly and indefinitely is ludicrous. In fact, even before that, they couldn't know who else knew about her findings, or even would come to the same conclusions as her on their own. After all, she used only public information on her research. It is true that, in midfilm, she does come into possession of some relevant material items, but she only gets to that position because she was being chased, so a misconception somehow made the plot become more plausible. But, if you can get past that, the film does move along in an agreeable pace, and many individual sequences are entertaining. The more, say, personal, or emotional, aspect of the characters is a weak spot of the movie, and does not come across as credible. Also, there is a bizarre product placement in action here, where the product is the main actress. Through compliments from at least one other character in the movie, the filmmakers seem to want the audience to believe she is a stunning beauty. By what one reads in the press from that period, and even later, it seems to have worked.

Rating: 42 (unchanged)

Vai que é mole (1960)

Three friends and partners in crime are released from jail on the same day. One of them receives the news that a relative of his died and named him a guardian of her young son. The chief of their gang wants to use the boy as an assistant in their thieving operations. After one of the three criminals decides to give back to its owner (a chorus girl) a purse they stole from her, the TV station for which she works decides to put him and one of his partners (the boy's father) in a show about honest people. Of course the girl doesn't know that they stole her purse, and they don't tell her either.

Although the plot is weak, relying as it does on every cliché we are used to in Brazilian comedies of that period, the film acquits itself a little better than its similars. It's basically a film for kids, or for adults with a kid's mind, but within that limited scope it manages to develop situations that signal its awareness of the social injustice in Brazil, which was acute in 1960 and still is. The emphasis is on slapstick and the pace is kept in a fast mode, only letting up for the occasional musical number.

Rating: 33

Tora! Tora! Tora! (1970)

A reconstruction of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941, and the events which preceded it.

This is a well-made war drama. It must be said that the first section, so to speak, of the movie, which accounts for about two thirds of it, and which explains how a series of errors on the part of the Americans contributed to the Japanese success, is quite dull, although I wouldn't know how to improve upon it. The last section is considerably more exciting.

Rating: 51

Samson and Delilah (1949)

Second viewing; first viewed between 1983 (probably) and 1986.

The Hebrew Samson gets involved with a Philistine woman, and then with another. But the Philistines are after him for his violence, and they use the latter of those women to capture him.

This biblical tale is a fantasy on the situation of living as a conquered or oppressed people. Closeness to the ruling ethnicity is at once dangerous and alluring. Many women lived this same dilemma in the war which ended four years prior to this film's release, and the ones who fraternized with the German enemy were shamed and punished. In the case of this movie it is a male who does the reproachable fraternizing. The fantastic element is given by the outstanding individual power of the protagonist. As a visual spectacle I found this film to be quite agreeable. As storytelling goes it does not really stand out.

Rating: 53 (up from 48)

Zé do Periquito (1961)

*spoilers below*

Zé Nó works as a gardener at a high school. He is somewhat infatuated with a girl student named Carmen, and that becomes an object of derision by Mexerico ('Gossip'), one of the boy students. Mexerico suggests to Zé Nó that he quit his job and try to make a fortune at some other line of activity, so that he becomes attractive to Carmen. Zé Nó accepts his suggestion and travels to a small town where he tries to earn a living by playing the barrel organ on the street. One local homeless woman nicknamed Pelanca ('Fold of Skin') approaches him and proposes a partnership which she says will make them rich. Pelanca knows every dirty secret of each person in town, and she helps Zé Nó establish a street commerce of selling little pieces of paper containing 'clairvoyant' information about the 'present, past and future' of each person. The fraud is enhanced by making a parakeet more or less randomly choose with its beak each piece of paper from a pile inside a box. Soon everyone becomes aware of the evil behind the façade of respectability of their fellow citizens, and that leads to feuds and enmities. Zé Nó returns to his earlier town with a sack of money. He proposes to Carmen, whose father is in a terrible financial situation, and sees Carmen's marriage with Zé Nó as a way out of his troubles. Carmen likes Zé Nó but is not attracted towards him; thus, she does not at first feel inclined to accept the marriage proposal. At her father's insistence, however, she accepts it. At the wedding reception, Mexerico plays a prank on the newlyweds and their guests: his wedding gift package when opened releases little mice which spread across the ballroom. After the mice are gone, Mexerico offers Zé Nó another package which he says has talcum powder which will take away the smell left by the mice. But it is actually itching powder which makes all the guests scratch themselves. Zé Nó returns to the small town where he made his fortune to collect Pelanca. By this time, the townsfolk have turned their rage against Zé Nó for seeding strife among the people. When Zé Nó shows up there, they chase him and he must hide from them. He and Pelanca leave town as fast as they can. Zé Nó then employs Pelanca as a maid at his home. Some days later, Zé Nó invites his wife Carmen to go out to the beach with him, but she says she prefers to stay at home. Pelanca then talks to her and scolds her gently for not going out with Zé Nó. After a while, Carmen's former school friends appear at her house and ask her out to the beach, where they hold a 'surprise' for her. Carmen decides to go with them, with plans to join Zé Nó at the beach. Once there, however, another devilish scheme by Mexerico unfolds: they take Carmen on a motorboat ride and then dump her on a stationed boat inside which is her high school sweetheart. Carmen gets furious and jumps to the sea, but before she can do it Zé Nó, who is looking through his binoculars from the shore, spots her and her former boyfriend inside the boat. When he gets home, they fight and she returns to her parents' house. The school principal happens to be visiting there, and he convinces Carmen to make up with Zé Nó, if she really likes him, which she says she does. Zé Nó says he will donate to charity all the money he earned with the 'clairvoyant' tickets, and he will only take Carmen back if she does not mind being poor. She says she doesn't. Zé Nó goes back being a gardener at the same high school he worked at before.

*end of spoilers*

This is probably the weirdest of all Mazzaropi movies which I have seen. The insertion of musical numbers at the most unexpected moments makes it even more bizarre. Every character except the female protagonist 'Carmen' seems to be a scumbag in this movie; as the film approaches the end, however, the film struggles to twist things in such a way that evil is concentrated in one single character ('Mexerico'), making him a sort of dramatic scapegoat. I didn't find this movie funny, let alone dramatically moving. But it is eccentric enough to arouse one's curiosity.

Rating: 32

Money from Home (1953)

Second viewing, at least; previously viewed on January 31, 1989, and possibly also earlier than that.

A gambler finds himself in debt to a gangster. The gangster tells the gambler that he must prevent a certain horse from entering a race. The gambler is forced to accept the mission. He passes his veterinarian cousin off as the hired jockey for the horse. Meanwhile they keep the real jockey, an alcoholic, locked up. But the gambler falls in love with the horse's owner.

This is not as bad as I thought upon my previous viewing. The most interesting section of the movie is the beginning, when some picturesque characters from the New York underworld are paraded. What follows is a formulaic comedy vehicle for the starring duo, but it has some funny moments and overall is not hard to watch.

Rating: 39 (up from 30)

Return from Witch Mountain (1978)

Sequel to Escape to Witch Mountain (1975). The two ESP- and PK-endowed kids from outer space are having a vacation in town, and are spotted by a duo of crooks who kidnap the boy with the intention of exploiting his psychic gifts. The girl befriends a gang of truant boys who help her locate and rescue her brother.

Less than electrifying adventure for juvenile audiences. While not an unpleasant watch, the parade of SFX-enhanced paranormality is unable to lift the film off from the strictly routine fare ground. I was left with a question from the first film, namely, why must they use a flying saucer to move to and from Witch Mountain, but it remained unanswered. Also unmet by this film was my curiosity about their "community", which is never shown.

Rating: 40

Toivon tuolla puolen (2017)

English title: The Other Side of Hope

The faithful translation of the title is reported by one IMDB user as being Beyond Hope. I cannot vouch for that. Google Translate gives it as I Hope Beyond That, which is somewhat different.

A Syrian refugee arrives in Helsinki. He applies for a staying permit, but is rejected. He escapes from his confinement just before his deportation and starts working at a restaurant whose new owner recently separated from his wife.

Bland fiction on the immigration topic which seems to be based more on propaganda than on the immediate reality of Europe. Its protagonist is conveniently without cultural particularities: he has abandoned his religion (though not faith per se), and has no political affiliation. On the other hand, Finland is depicted as having a xenophobia problem, at both governmental and street levels, an assumption which contradicts every personal and news-type report to my knowledge. As one comment on IMDB has implied, perhaps the writer-director's secret intention was to produce a warning against immigration to his country, and pose as a humane liberal while doing it.

Rating: 35

Escape to Witch Mountain (1975)

Second viewing; first viewed between 1983 and 1986

Two orphan kids endowed with telepathic and telekinetic powers are taken in custody by a man passing off as their uncle. This man works for a millionaire who wants to exploit the kids' powers for monetary gain. The kids escape and are helped by a solitary man driving a motor home.

Silly yet entertaining adventure for younger audiences. Although I always feel a little cheated by characters who use unrealistic powers to escape their predicaments, this film is so well made and moves at such an engaging pace that it is easy to overlook this aspect of it. There is not much to be said about the plot or the characters. This is, for better or worse, basically an action movie without further pretensions.

Rating: 57 (down from 63)

Comanche (1956)

The Comanche are raiding Mexican villages. The U.S. government has signed a treaty with the Mexican government by which the Comanche must be made to return to U.S. territory and stop their raids. An American emissary is assigned to meet with the Comanche chief and convince him to sign a treaty, but there is dissension amongst both White and Comanche.

B-Western with some long stretches of dialogue and a very conventional and predictable plot. Nestor Paiva does a very good Walter Brennan. The liberal-slanted plot portrays the Comanche in a favorable light, excepting a few bad apples amongst them. Their chief has enough good sense to admit they are better off making peace with the stronger White. Thus, the film's unstated assumption is that the pre-condition for a situation where diplomacy beats violence is a history of putting violence over diplomacy, without which Whites wouldn't be in a stronger position.

Rating: 32

Sabrina (1995)

Based on the play Sabrina Fair, by Samuel A. Taylor, first staged in 1953, and on the film adaptation which came out the following year.

Sabrina lives in the servants' quarters of a big mansion where her father works as a chauffeur. She has a crush on the boss's younger son David, who is a womanizer and a bon-vivant. The family business is run by David's older brother Linus. Sabrina's father's employer sends her to Paris to do an internship at a fashion magazine, all expenses paid. When she returns, some things have changed around the house, but she has changed as well.

Remaking a 50s movie without some plot modifications is very problematic, and this film suffers for it. Capitalism in the 90s was very different from Capitalism in the 50s. Marriage as a prerequisite for a business merger is a very rare occurrence, to say the least. To complicate things further, the romantic sensibility of the original film was already not exactly in tune with the ages. I do not remember the 1954 film all that well, so I checked for differences between the versions on the IMDB site. It seems the only relevant updating they did was to give the female characters a less subordinate position regarding their working status. But this is perfunctory considering that the main character is modeled after ancient fairy tale princesses and such. When you think about the film, it is hard not to notice that the most interesting character is, after all, Linus, not Sabrina. The film seems to want to demonstrate that it is unhealthy to devote one's life to work before one has sorted out a few essential aspects of one's personal life.

Rating: 32

Paris brûle-t-il? (1966)

English title: Is Paris Burning?

Dramatic reconstruction of the liberation of Paris. The Resistance is divided into several factions. The Allies initially intend to circumvent Paris, but are convinced to enter the city because the Nazis intend to destroy it in case of defeat.

This is a competent historical drama filled with impressive war action sequences, both staged and documental. Some people have complained that the plot is not easy to follow, but that is not true, although it helps to read the Wikipedia entry before watching the film. This film is ultimately a dramatization of a philosophical question: given the choice of saving a work of art and saving human lives, which is preferrable? In the film this question is a bit nuanced, since saving Art (which in the film is epitomized by the Louvre and Notre Dame cathedral) also implies saving the lives of Parisians; the question persists, however, because by circumventing Paris, while it meant sacrificing the art and the people of Paris, also meant putting a faster end to the war, and thus saving a greater number of lives. This is somewhat akin to the problem posed in The Doctor's Dilemma, a play by Shaw.

The version I saw was spoken in English, which meant all the non-anglophone actors were dubbed.

Rating: 60

Basic Instinct (1992)

Second viewing; first viewed on November 11, 1993.

A man is murdered during the sexual act. The police detective in charge of the investigation gets involved with the victim's sexual partner, who is a prime suspect.

Interesting thriller. Extensively parodied, it is by itself a comedy. I liked it better than on my first viewing. I still do not find it a great movie. Opinions apparently have diverged as to whether it is a feminist or a misogynistic movie. Males seem to lean toward the former and females toward the latter interpretation.

Rating: 50 (up from 44)

Above the Law (1988)

Second viewing, first with original audio; previously viewed -- with Portuguese dubbing -- on January 28, 2009.

A cop is suspended from the force and tries to investigate on his own a corrupt CIA agent.

Passable action thriller. Perhaps its most interesting aspect is that, while it attempts to express the view that State organizations are not above the law, it uses a protagonist who puts himself above the law to show it. The film never appears to be conscious of that paradox, except in the fact that in some countries it was titled Nico: Above the Law. Below is my first review of this movie, published here in this blog:

*quote*
A cop investigates a drug dealer and finds that he may be connected to corrupt
government agents. A senator and a priest are potential targets of this criminal
organization.

Dialogue and drama is very dumbed down and the action sequences are well staged.
The concept of a maverick cop defying corruption is an extremely enduring filmic
lineage which apparently developed without any real-life counterpart. In a very
minimum sense, it is done with competence.

*unquote*

Rating: 35 (up from 33)

Maverick (1994)

Second viewing; first viewed on August 14, 1994.

Based on the homonymous TV show created by Roy Huggins. It ran from 1957 to 1962.

A gambler is on his way to a poker tournament which will take place on a riverboat. He does not have the entire amount of the entry fee, so he plans to collect a few debts along the way, and earn the rest through gambling. He has vicious enemies which will do anything to prevent him from entering the tournament.

Western comedy with very lightweight humor, bordering on infantility. As a mild entertainment it works.

Rating: 37 (up from 23)

Suspect (1987)

Second viewing; first viewed on May 14, 1988.

A defense attorney and a member of the jury violate the rule that says they can't have contact with each other when they team up to investigate a murder case where the defendant is a homeless man. They follow a series of clues which might implicate powerful persons.

Suspense drama with very conventional characters and plot elements, but which arranges them in an unconventional manner. It is little more than a mechanical, contrived device, but it is moderately entertaining.

Rating: 40 (up from 28)

Jack (1996)

This film depicts the life of an individual with progeria, a disorder which is characterized by fast aging. Jack is at first homeschooled, but then his parents agree to send him to a school where he has to interact with other kids.

Cinema has courted abnormality ever since its early days. This film is a descendant of a long lineage which goes back to Freaks, and maybe even farther back. There is a certain amount of ambiguity in this sort of film, which borders on dishonesty, in that they somehow exploit the sensationalist aspects of abnormality, even though nearly all of them wrap them in a message of tolerance and open-mindedness about diversity. But Jack is considerably duller than Freaks, that's for sure, mainly because it's basically a monoconceptual movie (I would say it is a one-joke movie but the word joke would be somewhat controversial as applied here). The film's main artistic interest rests on the acting ability of its main performer. The script is weak, though, and oscillates between triteness and schmaltz.

Rating: 30

Hot Lead and Cold Feet (1978)

Western. A man fakes his own death and establishes in his will that his two sons, respectively a preacher and a gunfighter, ought to race each other for the inheritance. The race is comprised of several different stages: locomotive racing, mountain climbing, white water rafting, and stagecoach racing. The corrupt mayor, however, has plans to get the inheritance for himself.

Children might enjoy this, but probably not much, especially today's children. It is not very funny, but at least it's eventful. The villain turns out to be the politican (that happens all the time, doesn't it?).

Rating: 30

All That Jazz (1979)

Second viewing; previously viewed between 1983 and 1986.

An overworked choreographer and director who is also a womanizer, a chain smoker, a heavy drinker and a drug user suffers a heart attack and revisits his life choices as he deals wih the prospect of death.

Overrated musical with indifferent secondary characters, a trite approach to its themes, and a tiresome and repetitive structure. Some musical numbers are fine, and lend the movie a degree of watchability.

Rating: 48 (down from 63)

E o bicho não deu (1958)

Translated from the Wikipedia page (words between brackets were my minor improvements on the original):

*begin quote*
New chief of police Dr. [Farias] launches "Operation Animal", determined to stop animal gambling (jogo do bicho) in town. He puts detective Bartolomeu in charge of infiltrating the outlaw organization under the command of Flirt nightclub owner and animal gambling boss (bicheiro) Madruga, and finding out who is backing [his] illegal gambling racket. As he proceeds with the plan, Bartolomeu encounters his childhood friend Jujuba and falls in love with Terezinha, a florist, the daughter of Frederico. But Frederico and Jujuba work for the gambling racket. When he finds out Jujuba is an illegal gambling worker, Bartolomeu chases him and, while doing it, hits his head. As a result of that, he develops a split personality disorder: he is sometimes a friend of Jujuba's [who is also] working for the gambling racket, and other times he is back being a detective. The switch between personalities happens when he hears a whistle.
*end quote*

Unpretentious comedy. It's not exactly remarkable, but has some degree of merit for depicting the persistent social phenomenon of illegal gambling in major cities of Brazil. Despite having all the appearances of a harmless business, illegal gambling has connections with organized crime and is widely used for money laundering. The film is mostly comprised of slapstick action. It has a few musical numbers too.

Rating: 32

The Last Boy Scout (1991)

Second viewing; previously viewed on December 30, 1992.

A private detective teams up with an ex-football player to investigate a dishonest sports club owner whose activities resulted in the death of a stripper.

The humorous dialogue and the eventful succession of action sequences make this a watchable film. The dramatic situations oscillate between downright absurdities and a rehash of elements from a previous film by the same writer. Mostly, it's a mechanical film which fails to generate any real engagement from the viewer.

Rating: 43 (down from 59)

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