2023-2024 List
Films watched between Nov. 16th 2023 and Nov. 17th 2024
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- DirectorTaylor HackfordStarsMikhail BaryshnikovGregory HinesJerzy SkolimowskiA Russian American ballet dancer's airplane is forced to land in USSR, where he's "repatriated". He stays with an American man married to a Russian. Will the American help him flee USSR?Starts off with an excellent performance, but can't live up to that promise. Needed more dancing, less slow plotting, and the ending is idiotic. More or less held my attention, but next time I'm hitting the fast forward button and skipping the boring bits.
- DirectorJosef von SternbergMel FerrerNicholas RayStarsRobert MitchumJane RussellWilliam BendixNick Cochran, an American in exile in Macao, has a chance to restore his name by helping capture an international crime lord. Undercover, can he mislead the bad guys and still woo the attractive singer/petty crook, Julie Benson?I thought I heard a joke here about Bendix being in Saigon before coming to Macao, but that joke actually makes no sense so I must have made it up myself. Noirvember review (and poem) to come! (This was probably a re-watch, but I don't remember for sure)
- DirectorMichael CurtizFriz FrelengStarsJack CarsonDoris DayLee BowmanAn agent must search for a new personality to replace a popular singer who refuses to renew his radio contract. He finds one in the form of a single mother, but complications soon occur.Surprisingly entertaining, but not fantastic. Apparently there was a legal contestion about the title song and if it was also the Johnny Dollar song.
- DirectorHal AshbyStarsBeau BridgesLee GrantDiana SandsAt the age of 29, Elgar Enders (Beau Bridges) "runs away" from home. This running away consists of buying a building in a black ghetto in the Park Slope section of Brooklyn. Initially, his intention is to evict the black tenants and convert it into a posh flat. But Elgar is not one to be bound by yesterday's urges, and soon he has other thoughts on his mind. He's grown fond of the black tenants and particularly of Fanny (Diana Sands), the wife of a black radical; he's maybe fallen in love with Lanie (Marki Bey), a mixed race girl; he's lost interest in redecorating his home. Joyce (Lee Grant), his mother has not relinquished this interest and in one of the film's most hilarious sequences gives her MasterCharge card to Marge (Pearl Bailey), a black tenant and appoints her decorator.Watched the first few minutes of this and decided it was pretty stupid. Did not watch the rest.
- DirectorDon SiegelStarsClint EastwoodLee J. CobbSusan ClarkArizona Deputy Sheriff Coogan is sent to New York City to escort an escaped fugitive back for trial.Glanced at this again but after the first NYC scene in the police station decided I didn't need to see it again so soon. Keeping the 6 stars up I gave to it previously. (Incomplete re-watch)
- DirectorRonald NeameStarsPeter FinchMary UreNatasha ParryA doctor's sophisticated wife joins him at his remote Asian practice to try and patch up their marriage. Increasingly violent friction between local rubber plantation workers and the authorities force both parties to make decisions.This was not really what I expected. First of all, I thought it might be b+w. It wasn't. It's an okay story but not astonishingly exciting in any way.
- DirectorJack BernhardStarsJean GillieEdward NorrisRobert ArmstrongA mortally wounded female gangster recounts how she and her gang revived an executed killer from the gas chamber, to try and find out where he buried a fortune in cash.A delicious little b-noir with a tres fatale femme. (Side note: the policeman asks the doctor for "keep awake" pills) (A re-watch but it had been awhile)
- DirectorRaoul WalshStarsTeresa WrightRobert MitchumJudith AndersonA boy haunted by nightmares about the night his entire family was murdered is brought up by a neighboring family in the 1880s. He falls for his lovely adoptive sister but his nasty adoptive brother and mysterious uncle want him dead.Dad wanted to watch this again so we did. (Re-watch)
- DirectorJack SholderStarsKyle MacLachlanMichael NouriClaudia ChristianA cop and an FBI agent race for answers after law abiding people suddenly become violent criminals.This movie seems to be teen-age summer block buster type repetitive nonsense, watched the first quarter or so but then stopped. Maybe watchable in a different mood. Advertised as a horror/sci-fi/comedy mash up, fails to be scary. Obvious McLachlan is also an alien from the very start, and I didn't even read the synopsis until after giving this movie a try. It's sort of mindlessly entertaining. Probably best watched with pizza, popcorn and friends.
- DirectorGeorge MillerStarsJack NicholsonCherSusan SarandonThree single women in a picturesque village have their wishes granted, at a cost, when a mysterious and flamboyant man arrives in their lives.Some of this is funny, (jack Nicholson on the bed being seductive is a highlight) a lot of it is strange, and all of it seems to go on long. (I might of seen this ages and ages ago but I'm not sure it should count as a re-watch because I really didn't remember it)
- DirectorRobert AldrichStarsRock HudsonKirk DouglasDorothy MaloneAt a Mexican ranch, fugitive O'Malley and pursuing Sheriff Stribling agree to help rancher Breckenridge drive his herd into Texas where Stribling could legally arrest O'Malley, but Breckenridge's wife complicates things.About a quarter into this movie I became fascinated with how skinny the intense Kirk Douglas was (his all-black clothing in this movie does nothing but accentuate this) and then I had trouble concentrating on anything else except his legs. And the fact he's here as one of those people who look like their heads are too big for their bodies. Sorry Mr. Douglas. (This was probably a re-watch)
- DirectorCharles LaughtonStarsRobert MitchumShelley WintersLillian GishA self-proclaimed preacher marries a gullible widow whose young children are reluctant to tell him where their real dad hid the $10,000 he'd stolen in a robbery.The only question is - is this a seven or an eight? Need to write this a proper review for noirvember. Noir Eddy calls this a "noir fairytale" and I agree. (re-watch, but it's been... a decade and a half, at least?)
- DirectorPhilippe FalardeauStarsReese WitherspoonArnold OcengGer DuanyA group of Sudanese refugees, given the chance to resettle in the U.S., arrive in Kansas City, Missouri, where their encounter with an employment agency counselor forever changes all of their lives.Pretty much goes as you expect. Sentimental scenes, check. Happy ending, check. Witherspoon doing her patented busy modern woman thing, then discovering she has a heart, check. Watched this for library film club. Not bad. Not terribly good. Just a movie.
- DirectorJerry HopperStarsSterling HaydenGloria GrahameGene BarryA chief of police detectives fired for brutality, tries to get evidence on a man suspected of killing 3 of his officers.I see that I previously gave this five stars. On this re-watch, I would probably give it a six. Going to have to track down my first review of it here on IMDB now... okay, well, very unhelpfully, I just say back in 2020 or 2021 it was a bit disappointing. Well, it was fine this time. Let's upgrade that rating, shall we? Not all of the plot makes terrific sense, that's true, and it's abit of a tale of two halves, but as a little noir crunchy it's quite satisfactory. You can't eat steak every night. (re-watch)
- DirectorRoman PolanskiStarsJack NicholsonFaye DunawayJohn HustonA private detective hired to expose an adulterer in 1930s Los Angeles finds himself caught up in a web of deceit, corruption, and murder.7 or 8? Maybe an eight, because even though I was resisting watching this for close to a year (it's been on my PVR for quite some time) when I finally decided that on the last night of noirvember, I really should give it a try (this is a re-watch but I didn't remember it well enough to remember if I liked it or not and my resistance was based on the descriptions of it that I was picking up from writing craft books) I didn't want to stop the movie until it was over even if it did mean staying up late.
- DirectorTom GriesStarsCharlton HestonJoan HackettDonald PleasenceAging cowboy Will Penny gets a line camp job on a large cattle spread and finds his isolated cabin is already occupied by an abandoned woman traveler and her young son.nice. definite echoes of shane, I would say, but also a bit of it's own thing - definitely going for "more realistic" and a bit of a surprise ending. (re-watch but it's been awhile)
- DirectorMark SandrichStarsFred AstaireGinger RogersRalph BellamyA psychiatrist falls in love with the woman he's supposed to be nudging into marriage with someone else.Realized after I started watching this I've already seen it and not toooo long ago (although my watching it predates my lists on imdb) but who cares, it's what I wanted to watch - a silly dance-y movie during the dark of december (re-watch)
- DirectorDanny DeVitoStarsDanny DeVitoBilly CrystalKim GreistA bitter ex-husband wants his former spouse dead. A put-upon momma's boy wants his mother dead. Who will pull it off?This is silly. Part of this movie is in that compilation of writer's block moments in movies. There was (another) silly slapstick moment in this film that made me laugh a lot, unexpectedly. I'd watch this again, even if it's not a great movie.
- DirectorJohn FordStarsRichard WidmarkCarroll BakerKarl MaldenThe Cheyenne, tired of broken U.S. government promises, head for their ancestral lands but a sympathetic cavalry officer is tasked to bring them back to their reservation.This movie must have had a weird history, because it clearly ran out of money at the end, and the whole dodge city segment has very little relationship to the rest of the story - it's like they started filming it without knowing where it was going and just went with whatever occurred to them at the time until the studio said "woah!" It looks really good for most of it, though. Even if the geography gets pretty questionable, you don't really care, because it's still pretty. (Re-watch)
- DirectorLewis AllenStarsFrank SinatraSterling HaydenJames GleasonIn the city of Suddenly, three gangsters trap the Benson family in their own house, on the top of a hill nearby the railroad station, with the intention of killing the president of the USA.This is essentially a silly movie, which ignores some basic physicality (Hayden looks like he could just flick Sinatra with a finger and would be Presidential assassin Sinatra would be a threat no more - although Sinatra is trying real hard to be intense) in general, it tries hard, and there's lots of location shooting which is nice from a historical interest perspective. It's just that the script and set up is fundamentally unconvincing. I don't remember seeing this before.
- DirectorTim BurtonStarsMichael KeatonDanny DeVitoMichelle PfeifferWhile Batman deals with a deformed man calling himself the Penguin wreaking havoc across Gotham with the help of a cruel businessman, a female employee of the latter becomes the Catwoman with her own vendetta.Movie club watch! (Also actually almost certainly a re-watch, but without any memories attached.) Thanks to Dad going deaf, he seems to have enjoyed this more than me, with this movie played too damn loud.
- DirectorMichael CurtizStarsErrol FlynnOlivia de HavillandLionel AtwillAfter treating a Monmouth rebel against King James II in 1680s England, a young Irish doctor is exiled as a slave to Jamaica where he captures a Spanish galleon and becomes the most feared pirate of the Caribbean.This is fun (re-watch)
- DirectorGeorge SeatonHenry HathawayStarsBurt LancasterDean MartinGeorge KennedyA bomber on board an airplane, an airport almost closed by snow, and various personal problems of the people involved.And this is fun, too. Van Heflin as the mad bomber looks like an somewhat unwell 70-something-year old smoker, (he was actually in his early 60s) but anyway he's still got his voice. I wondered while watching if this was his last film because he looks done - turns out it was. This film has a ridiculous script, but it's not a terrible performance to go out on, you feel sorry for the character (as well as the actor.) However, and pushing top-billed Lancaster aside, Helen Hayes is one of the highlights as the habitual stowaway - she adds needed humour and lightness to what would otherwise be in risk of being a terrible grind. I can understand why this film is mocked - some of the special effects are not so special, for starters - but it's not meant to be taken too seriously, it's just a big dumb holiday-time film, and you don't have to turn it into camp to enjoy it. Most of the people in this movie are doing the best they can with a silly situation, many of them, I'm sure, recognized the lack of artistic merit in the film (not just Lancaster, who apparently called it a piece of junk) ---- (a piece of junk that is also an obvious propaganda piece for the airline industry) but we also need to recognize this film was one of the first of the big disaster movies. I recommend going into this movie knowing as little as possible about what others think about it, you'll probably enjoy it more that way. 6.5 stars. P.S.- Dad says he didn't have to put his carry-on through any x-ray machines when he flew to London at roughly about this time but can't remember when that screening practise became standard - anyway this film is clearly made before that security measure was undertaken. (Rewatch)
- DirectorGeorge AbbottStanley DonenStarsDoris DayJohn RaittCarol HaneyAn Iowa pajama factory worker falls in love with an affable superintendent who had been hired by the factory's boss to help oppose the workers' demand for a pay raise.(probably a re-watch) What can I say. I was in an unusual musical mood for Christmas this year. This worked.
- DirectorVincente MinnelliStarsFred AstaireCyd CharisseOscar LevantA pretentiously artistic director is hired for a new Broadway musical and changes it beyond recognition.Not as fun as some of the other Astaires, but still an enjoyable Christmas-time watch, there's a bit of sarcasm in here (courtesy of Oscar Levant, of course, who turns on "come on gang, let's put on a show") - and it just doesn't quite fit with Astaire. (I suspect this was a re-watch)