The President's Analyst - Flicker, 1967

A second viewing for me, but I saw it the first time as a kid, so it was unrated. The 1966-1970 period is a very strange one for movies, strongly reflecting the times. So many of these movies are dark comedies, with loose plots, wild slapstick and satire. I'm thinking of movies like Lord Love A Duck and Myra Breckinridge. The President's Analyst is definitely one of the better films of this genre, but it still doesn't really hold up entirely.

Coburn and Cambridge both do good work here though.

As a kid, I remember finding it very revealing that the phone company, which my father worked for, was the ultimate bad guy. And with the One Day At A Time handyman as their robotic head! That plot twist still saves the film from a lower rating.

A 6 rating for not taking itself seriously.

The Big Knife - Aldrige, 1955

It is pure coincidence that I saw this film so soon after Two Weeks In Another Town. Both are over-the-top melodramatic, super-cynical looks at Hollywood film making. The Big Knife is much grimmer, and clearly a notch better. Aldrige is a better fit for this type of film than Minnelli. The cast is quite good. Palance and Lupino are both in top form. Steiger is his usual blustery self, but solid. Shelley Winters has that pathos thing down pat. But Wendell Corey almost steals the show as Steiger's emotionless, completely conscious-lacking, hired man.

Good stuff, but I didn't like the ending. Still, 7 rating.

Two Weeks In Another Town - Minnelli, 62

Two Weeks In Another Town is a solid film that only misses a higher ranking by being a bit overly melodramatic. But, that's just Minnelli's style. He just oozes melodrama. When he and Kirk Douglas teamed up earlier in Lust For Life, we got a similar result -- good, but a bit over the top. Edward G. Robinson is his usual excellent self here and almost keeps things real. Cyd Charisse, George Hamilton, and Kirk are all acting to the rafters though, not in a real bad way mind you, just a different style of acting than I'd prefer, particularly for a plot about the cynical side of movie-making.

I give it a 6.

The Cooler - Kramer, 2003

The Cooler has some very good acting in it, as you would expect from William Macy and Alec Baldwin. It looks good too, so clearly some effort was put into it. However, the plot is so unrealistic, that it makes it very difficult to buy into the characters. So, all that good, realistic acting is wasted when the plot is completely nonsense. So, a 4 rating, but could be worth a look if you are good at looking beyond a illogical storyline.

Pearl Harbor - Bay, 2001

I can just picture the pitch made for Pearl Harbor: "Titanic was a huge hit! Pearl Harbor was an even bigger disaster, so lets add in a love story around it! And a hit song! We'll get the Armageddon director and make an even bigger spectacle. Can't miss!". Well, it can, actually. I wasn't a huge fan of Titanic, but Pearl Harbor is much worse.

The special effects are good, but that's about it. The song won an Oscar, although I can't see why. The acting is bad and the direction is worse. Plus it's just plain boring. The battle seems fairly accurate though, so generously giving it a 3.

Novo - Limosin, 2002

Novo is one of those vapid artsy films that tries to substitute sex for substance. Not much of a plot here, basically a Memento-like protagonist with bizarre short-term memory problems who has various sexual encounters and learns bits of his past. It's both confusing and boring, but it does have a few quirky, creative shots. Not worth the effort though -- 3.

Gentleman's Fate - LeRoy, 1931

Gentleman's Fate is a fairly late vehicle for John Gilbert, but he's still in fine form here. Most of Gilbert's latter movies are bad, but I think this is an exception, although I may be in the minority. It is famously known that Louis Mayer "destroyed" Gilbert's career after Gilbert punched him out -- when Mayer made a snide remark at a wedding ceremony (at the Hearst mansion no less) where Greta Garbo stood up Gilbert. If so, I think Mayer did less sabotaging of Gentleman's Fate than in Gilbert's other late movies.

Gilbert is a love-struck gentleman, just about to get married, when he suddenly learns that he has a father and brother, who turn out to be mob bosses. Gilbert's father is now dying and he wants to see the son he has shielded from the family business all his life.

A shocked Gilbert is forced to take a short rap for his dying dad. He loses his fiance in the process and his dad dies just before he's released. Gilbert initially rejects his brother and the family business, but quickly changes his mind and joins him after losing his fiance. Just like in The Godfather the younger brother gets progressively drawn into mob life.

Anita Page makes a late appearance as a mob moll who Gilbert falls for and then marries on the rebound after learning of his former fiance's marriage. No happy ending though, as he winds up getting plugged protecting her from a mob hit.

Overall a very solid effort, worth a 7.

Our Blushing Brides -- Beaumont, 1930

Our Blushing Brides is another Anita Page/Joan Crawford pairing, and I believe their last together. It's also a relatively early movie for Robert Montgomery, who also joined Anita in a rather poor Buster Keaton movie, Free and Easy, which came out the same year. Brides is a very strange movie, that doesn't quite know where it wants to go. It starts out as a realistic, and promising, look at working girls in a big department story. Then we have sort of a long, boring fashion show. And then it turns into a dull rich boy woos working girl love story between Joan and Robert.

Switch again to a maudlin cautionary tale, where Joan's two friends, Anita and Dorothy Sebastian, rush into marriage to escape their working-class existence, only to discover that one has married a philanderer and the other a crook.

The low point in this film is Anita's all-too-obvious suicide attempt while listening to a radio broadcast of her former husband getting married. Yi! Fodder to Joan to chew on though, and chew away she does. This is another one of those films where Joan is acting extremely butch. As in several other movies, she's got the masculine nickname, "Gerry", and she's far, far more over-the-top consumed with her close girlfriend than the male romantic lead.

Insanely, Joan rushes off to snatch Anita's ex, right in the middle of his wedding, to bring him to Anita's side. He doesn't want to go, but his brother, Montgomery, who is supposed to be Joan's love interest (if she could only distract herself from Anita) forces him to go.

The brother does a good job of lying to Anita, but it's all for naught and she dies in his arms. Joan cracks up, and this is probably the only think that could drive her back to Robert. A solid 3 rating, worth watching only for eye-rolling.

Dahmer - Jacobson, 2002

Dahmer is a tough film to watch and even tougher to rate. It's basically a psychological portrait of a serial killer, and the subject and actions depicted are both revolting and despicable. The title alone is exploitive, yet, to its credit, the film doesn't emphasize the most gruesome aspects of Dahmer's terrible crimes.

The acting is pretty good too. It does successfully give you some insight into Dahmer's character. Still, it is such an unpleasant character that I can't give this more than a 6. The non-linear story line is creative, but the story is just nasty. The movie doesn't try to either glorify nor explain Dahmer. It just tries to create a snapshot of him. The result is somewhat interesting, yet uncomfortable.

I can't help comparing this film with Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer. Both are well-acted movies which depict horrific, real life, killers. Henry is a much more violent and grusome film, yet it has it's own sort of dark humor to it. Dahmer has a creepier feel to it, while Henry is in-your-face offensive. I found them both repulsive, yet thought they were well made.

Anita Page trio

The beautiful Anita Page passed away not too long ago, so a bunch of her films were shown. I recorded several and am just getting around to them: Our Dancing Daughters, Our Modern Maidens, and The Broadway Melody.

Dancing Daughters was the only one I'd seen previously, and then I'd mostly paid attention to Joan Crawford, as this is a bit of a breakout role for her. However, on second viewing, I'd say that Anita Page outplays her as the conniving Annikins. It is quintessential flapper. I gave it a 6 and might have given it a 7 if it wasn't for a ridiculously awkward scene at the end where Ann falls down the stairs to her death. I know, it is rough to snit on a 1928 movie because of a bad special effect, but it really is hard to watch today. The rest of the film is solid though.

Modern Maidens, made a year later, pairs Joan and Anita once again, this time as rivals for Douglas Fairbanks Jr. Ironically, they were rumored to be enemies in real life. It has some solid scenes and great sets, but overall is weaker than Daughters. The ending is maudlin and doesn't make a whole lot of sense. Still, worth a 5.

Broadway Melody is also 1929, but it's a talkie, and Anita's first I believe. She's pretty good with the dialogue too. Not many silent stars could make the transition. Must have been really tough to do silent films concurrently with talkies, like Anita is doing here. It is a very interesting film, but the plot is weak. It's just a typical love triangle inside a musical.

Amazingly, although come to think of it, really not so surprisingly, Broadway Melody won the Oscar for Best Picture. Bessie Love also got a Best Actress nomination for playing Anita's sister and rival in love. She is good in this movie, as is Anita. Charles King as the male lead/love interest is not quite as good. Still, it probably was one of the better movies of 1929. I give it a 6.

Virgin Spring -- Bergman, 1960

I first saw The Virgin Spring about twenty years ago, so it was a big gap between viewings. Both times through I was blown away by how daring the the rape, murder, and revenge scenes are. I was also impressed by the classic Bergman symbolic shots, such as the scene where von Synow is attacking the willow tree in his anguish.

Second time through, I was watching it with my wife, on her first viewing. She liked it a lot but hated the ending, where the spring miraculously pops up where the daughter was murdered and the father vows to build a church there. I thought about this for a bit, and decided that I agreed with her. It does seem to be a dishonest ending to such a brutally honest movie.

Curious to see what I'd thought about it the first time I saw it, I looked up my rating and saw that I'd given it an 8. That's very high for me, so obviously I either wasn't that bothered by the ending or I thought the rest of the movie carries it above a 7. Now, I'm clearly thinking the latter. So, I leave it an 8, but I don't like that ending. And, I believe Bergman once said that he didn't like it either. It definitely doesn't seem to fit in with the rest of the film.

Introduction

I've seen a fair bit of movies and have had a "best film list" up for quite some time. I also maintain a large database of rated films on imdb. This is a 1-10 rating list sorted by year. However, I've never commented on films and often wanted to explain my ratings. For example, there are plenty of movies I've knocked down a rating number just because of one scene. Other films, I've bumped up a rating for being innovative in some way. This blog gives me a chance to explain stuff like that.