Quackser Fortune Has a Cousin in the Bronx (DVD)

Quackser Fortune Has a Cousin in the Bronx (1970) starring Gene Wilder, Margot Kidder. This DVD has no subtitles, no closed captions, nothing to aid the hearing-impaired. Furthermore, it takes place in Ireland, so everyone speaks with an Irish accent, making it even harder to understand. I didn't even bother to watch it all the way through. Grade: F

Let the Right One In (DVD)

Let the Right One In (2008) starring a cast of Swedish actors you've never heard of. Swedish boy named Oskar is bullied at school, forms unlikely friendship with neighbor girl named Eli, who just happens to be a vampire. Will she help him fight the bullies, or will she eat him? It seems clear that Eli really likes Oskar, and will seek her needed food elsewhere. Generally speaking, I don't care for vampire-themed movies, but this one was the rare exception. I felt genuine sympathy for Oskar and Eli, right up until the very end. One funny thing about this movie -- the DVD has available a version dubbed in English, plus English subtitles. By watching the English-dubbed version and reading the English subtitles, one gets a very strange impression of the movie, because the two are comically out of synch. Which is "right"? Beats me. Grade: B+

Pursued (DVD)

Pursued (1947) starring Robert Mitchum, Teresa Wright. The Rand and Callum families are feuding, and Jeb Rand (Mitchum), the only surviving Rand, is being hunted by the Callum clan. In an odd twist, Jeb is adopted at a young age by a Callum family. He ends up fighting with his stepbrother Adam and falling in love with his stepsister Thor (Wright). When, as an adult, Jeb ends up killing Adam (in self-defense), Thor's love turns to hate. This is a psychological Western with a non-standard plot, and even though the dialogue is a bit ham-handed at times, it's interesting to watch. The only subtitle option is the closed-captions, which are good enough. Grade: B

Exit Through the Gift Shop (DVD)

Exit Through the Gift Shop (2010) documentary. Street artist Banksy introduces us to a video camera fanatic named Thierry, who films everything. Thierry gets interested in the practitioners of street art, and starts following the artists all over the world, filming all the time. Miraculously, Thierry becomes friends with Banksy, and begins to travel with him. When Banksy's fame explodes after a show in L.A., Thierry is on the spot -- now is the time to put his video together and put out his documentary about street artists, including Banksy. But Thierry is ill-prepared, because he hasn't been keeping track of his reels of film, just throwing them into boxes and storing them. As events develop, Banksy takes over the making of the film and sends Thierry back to L.A. to do his own show. At this point one begins to wonder whether this movie is a real documentary or a put-on. If it's a hoax, it's an elaborate and effective one. The subtitles are good. Grade: B+

Toy Story 3 (DVD)

Toy Story 3 (2010) with the voices of Tom Hanks, Tim Allen, Joan Cusack, John Ratzenberger, Don Rickles, Wallace Shawn, Ned Beatty. The toys, led by cowboy Woody (Hanks), must cope with their owner Andy's departure for college. Although Andy intends to put them in the attic, they end up getting donated to a nearby daycare center, where the kids play with them rather roughly. The toy-world of the daycare center is ruled over by an evil plush bear named Lotso (Beatty), and things look grim for Andy's toys until Woody comes up with a plan for them to escape and go home. Generally speaking, I'm not a fan of animated films, but "Toy Story 3" was a shining exception. Pixar has really made an art of animation. It's entertaining for both adults and kids, with many clever jokes and a lot of heart. The subtitles are good, too. Grade: A-

The Kids Are All Right (DVD)

The Kids Are All Right (2010) starring Annette Bening, Julianne Moore, Mark Ruffalo. Same-sex parents Nic (Bening) and Jules (Moore) have two children that were conceived by a sperm donor; and the children, Joni and Laser, seek out their biological father Paul (Ruffalo) to satisfy their curiosity. While the kids are bonding with Paul, Nic finds that she resents him, but Jules, whom he has hired to do some landscaping, has sex with him. Naturally, when Nic finds out about Jules and Paul, things explode. My only complaint about this movie is that it ended too soon. I rarely complain about a film being too short, but in this case, after getting to know the characters, I didn't want to say goodbye to them. I suppose that's the mark of a good movie. The subtitles are very good. Grade: A-

Micmacs (DVD)

Micmacs (2009) starring Dany Boon. A man named Bazil (Boon) is the victim of a drive-by shooting, which leaves a bullet lodged in his head. After his recovery, he finds himself homeless and hooks up with a ragtag gang of street people. They agree to help him take revenge against the arms manufacturer who made the bullet that is stuck in his skull -- and, incidentally, made the mine that killed Bazil's father 30 years earlier. The gang of misfits are like a league of heroes, each with a special skill which can be used in getting revenge on the weapons dealers. They develop a Rube-Goldbergesque plot to bring down the bad guys, and therein lies the movie's problem. It's just too complicated to be enjoyed. Though the film is visually inventive, it seems too overtly political to suit its plot. It's in French, with English subtitles that are not very good. Grade: B-

Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work (DVD)

Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work (2010) directed by Ricki Stern and Annie Sundberg. Rivers, 75, still clings tenaciously to whatever fame she can find. The film does a brief look back at her career, including 20 years as Johnny Carson's first-string guest host, then her doomed decision to take Fox's offer of a show of her own. Following the failure of that show, her husband's suicide was a devastating blow. But she has continued to soldier on, refusing to even entertain the thought of retiring. She goes on "Celebrity Apprentice," and amazingly, wins. This is not a great movie, but is an absorbing peek into the life of a fame whore. The subtitles are good. Grade: B+

The Purple Rose of Cairo (DVD)

The Purple Rose of Cairo (1985) starring Mia Farrow, Jeff Daniels, Danny Aiello, Dianne Wiest. Directed by Woody Allen. Farrow plays a Depression-era waitress named Cecilia who's addicted to the movies and married to an abusive lout (Aiello). The film quickly takes a quirky turn when a movie character named Tom Baxter (Daniels) steps down off the screen and proclaims his love for Cecilia. Meanwhile, Gil Shepherd (also Daniels), the actor who plays Tom Baxter, wants his alter ego to get back up on the screen and behave. The studio executives aren't too thrilled about it either. This is a delightful fantasy that plays with questions of religion, reality, and the meaning of life. The subtitles are good. Grade: A

Punchline (DVD)

Punchline (1988) starring Sally Field, Tom Hanks, John Goodman. Housewife, mother of three and aspiring stand-up comic Lilah (Field) has to contend with husband (Goodman) who wants her to be available for his needs. Meanwhile, she seeks advice from fellow comic Steven (Hanks) who is about to get his big break, and really doesn't care about anyone but himself. The problem with the movie is that none of the comedy routines portrayed is really funny. None of the comics garners a genuine laugh. We may care about the characters, because they are likable, but they aren't funny. Hanks provides an occasional spark, but it's not enough to save the movie. The subtitles are barely adequate. Grade: B-

Pulp Fiction (DVD)

Pulp Fiction (1994) starring John Travolta, Samuel L. Jackson, Uma Thurman, Ving Rhames, Harvey Keitel, Bruce Willis. Directed by Quentin Tarantino. Tongue-in-cheek gangster movie features Travolta and Jackson as a couple of hit men, and Willis as a boxer who fixes a fight in reverse to make a killing from bookies. Several unforgettable sequences follow, too numerous to mention. If you've seen the movie before, you'll remember the scene with The Gimp and the cleaner named Wolf (Keitel). It's violent, it's bloody, and it's a real hoot. The subtitles are good. Grade: A-

Cairo Time (DVD)

Cairo Time (2009) starring Patricia Clarkson, Alexander Siddig, Tom McCamus. Magazine editor Juliette (Clarkson) travels to Cairo to be with her husband, Mark (McCamus), but finds him unavoidably detained. Instead, her guide to Cairo becomes Tareq (Siddig), an Egyptian man who formerly worked for Mark. Juliette and Tareq develop feelings for each other, but they never act on them -- except that Juliette goes with Tareq to visit the Pyramids, something she had promised Mark she would save for him. It's a good sort of culture-clash film, although it moves rather slowly. The subtitles are good. Grade: B+

The Public Enemy (DVD)

The Public Enemy (1931) starring James Cagney, Jean Harlow. A young hood named Tom Powers (Cagney) rises to become a gangster in the Prohibition era. Harlow plays his girlfriend. When "Nails" Nathan, the boss gangster, dies, war breaks out between the gangs. Ultimately, Powers dies. This is the movie that made Cagney a star. It's also the film in which he famously squishes a grapefruit in his girlfriend's face (not Harlow, but the girl that came before her). The ending is pretty horrifying. The quality of the script and the filmmaking are uneven. The subtitles, including closed captions, are good. Grade: B

Psycho (DVD)

Psycho (1960) starring Anthony Perkins, Janet Leigh, Vera Miles. Bank employee (Leigh) steals $40,000 cash, goes on the lam. Driving west, she has a few scares from an overly inquisitive cop, then decides to stop for the night in the Bates Motel. The manager of the motel, Norman Bates (Perkins), is very friendly -- at first. This movie is actually much better than I remembered it, even though there are a few improbabilities in the plotting. It's full of tension and the occasional gotcha! type scare. The only real weak point is the exposition by the psychiatrist at the end -- strictly amateur psychology. But by then we've had our thrills. Subtitled for the hearing-impaired. Grade: B+

Valhalla Rising (DVD)

Valhalla Rising (2009) starring Mads Mikkelsen. Invincible Viking warrior known only as One-Eye (Mikkelson) escapes from slavery, takes up with a band of Christians going on a crusade. They're headed for the Holy Land, but their ship gets lost in a mist, and when they find land they don't know where they are. They only know that members of their crew keep dying violently or going missing. Eventually the mystery is solved -- sort of. This film has too much bone-crunching, blood-spattering violence and too little plot for my taste. Really, don't see this movie. The subtitles are good. Grade: D

The Producers (DVD)

The Producers (1968) starring Zero Mostel, Gene Wilder. Written and directed by Mel Brooks. Washed-up Broadway producer (Mostel) talks meek accountant (Wilder) into plot to make a fortune by putting on a play guaranteed to fail. The resulting musical, "Springtime for Hitler," is a surprise smash, placing the producers in a difficult position. From that point on, the movie is largely anticlimactic, but the funny parts still make it worth seeing. The subtitles are excellent. Grade: B+

The Pacific (DVD)

The Pacific (2010) starring Joseph Mazzello, James Badge Dale, Jon Seda. This HBO production follows the battles of Marines in the Pacific theater during World War II. The first two episodes cover the battle of Guadalcanal. Although it tries mightily, somehow this miniseries failed to capture the essence of the Marines' experience for me. Most of the fighting takes place at night, and I frequently couldn't tell what was going on except that a lot of guns were being fired at advancing Japanese. There is one genuinely moving moment toward the end of Part 2, but it wasn't enough of a payoff for me. Grade: B

Prizzi's Honor (DVD)

Prizzi's Honor (1985) starring Jack Nicholson, Kathleen Turner, Anjelica Huston. Directed by John Huston. Dim-bulb Mafia hit man Charley Partanna (Nicholson) falls for sultry freelance assassin Irene Walker (Turner) at a wedding. But the Don's daughter, Maerose Prizzi (Anjelica Huston) still carries a torch for Charley, and she won't let him go easily -- especially after Charley finds out that Irene pulled a scam on a Prizzi casino in Vegas. The plot gets awfully tangled, but it's delicious to watch. Huston won a Supporting Actress Oscar for her sly performance as a Mafia daughter. The subtitles are excellent. Grade: B+

Prisoner of Paradise (DVD)

Prisoner of Paradise (2002), documentary directed by Malcolm Clarke and Stuart Sender. This movie tells the tragic story of Kurt Gerron, a popular and successful actor and director in 1930s Berlin. Gerron, a Jew, saw his career destroyed by Hitler's rise to power, and was later forced to write and direct a Nazi propaganda film about a concentration camp in which he was a prisoner. This story of one soul caught up in the Holocaust serves as an illustration of the entire massive horror that was visited on Europe's Jews by the Nazis. The captions are good. Grade: A-

Countdown to Zero (DVD)

Countdown to Zero (2009) directed by Lucy Walker. This documentary explores in a scary way the issue of nuclear proliferation. If you're looking for a film to cheer you up, don't look at this one. Over and over, it emphasizes that the probability of a nuclear accident -- or a terrorist attack -- is greater than zero, and thus eventually inevitable. The movie makes a strong case for nuclear disarmament, but I wasn't convinced that disarmament is really possible. It's a story that has been told before, but this film condenses and refines the message so that you can't ignore it. With closed-captions for the hearing-impaired. Grade: A

The Karate Kid (DVD)

The Karate Kid (2010) starring Jaden Smith, Jackie Chan. Young Dre (Smith) moves to China with his mother and soon falls prey to a pack of larger, older Chinese bullies -- who know kung fu. The maintenance man (Chan) in his building saves him from one attack, then agrees to teach him kung fu. This remake of the 1984 movie is somewhat freshened up by new locale, necessity for hero to learn to deal with language and cultural barriers. Although this film effectively duplicates the major plot points of the earlier movie, it may be pleasing to younger viewers who haven't seen the first film. The subtitles are very good, but the songs aren't captioned. Grade: B+

The Day of the Jackal (DVD)

The Day of the Jackal (1973) starring Edward Fox, Michel Lonsdale. In 1962, an organization known as the O.A.S. -- infuriated at French President Charles de Gaulle's decision to give Algeria its independence -- plots to assassinate him. When their early efforts fail, their leaders decide that an outsider, known only as the Jackal (Fox) must be hired to do the job. The movie tells two parallel stories -- the efforts of the Jackal to bring his plot to fruition, even though his cover has been blown; and the efforts of French Police Commissioner Claude Lebel (Lonsdale) to stop him before he can kill de Gaulle. The result is an exciting movie, full of suspense right up to the end. Based on the thriller by Frederick Forsyth. The subtitles are quite good. Grade: A

The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes (DVD)

The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes (1970) starring Robert Stephens, Colin Blakeley, Genevieve Page. Directed by Billy Wilder. Sherlock Holmes (Stephens) shoots cocaine when he becomes bored between cases, and is very tight-lipped about his relationships with women. Women, he says, are "wholly unreliable, and not to be trusted." But that doesn't stop him from taking the case of a Madame Valladon (Page), from Belgium. She shows up at his door one night, and claims to have forgotten who she is and how she got there. Holmes and Watson (Blakeley) end up traveling with her to Scotland to try to solve the mystery of her identity and her missing husband. The mystery ends up involving Holmes' brother Mycroft, the Loch Ness Monster, and German spies. It all adds up to a mildly diverting entertainment. The subtitles are good. Grade: B

The Prisoner of Zenda (DVD)

The Prisoner of Zenda (1937) starring Ronald Colman, Madeleine Carroll, Douglas Fairbanks Jr., C. Aubrey Smith, Raymond Massey, Mary Astor, David Niven. Colman, as a central European prince and his English cousin, plays a dual role. The prince, due to be crowned king, drinks some drugged wine and is unable to attend the ceremonies. His English cousin, a dead ringer for him, fills in. Problems arise when the English cousin falls in love with the princess Flavia (Carroll), who is destined to marry the leader of the country -- be it King Rudolph (Colman) or his evil half-brother Michael (Massey). The real King Rudolph is the prisoner of Zenda -- he's abducted and imprisoned at a hunting lodge called Zenda by the villainous Rupert of Hentzau (Fairbanks). His rescue is the action set-piece that forms the climax of the film. The subtitles are good. Grade: B

Get Him to the Greek (DVD)

Get Him to the Greek (2010) starring Jonah Hill, Russell Brand, Elisabeth Moss, Rose Byrne, Colm Meaney, Sean Combs. Hill plays a young record company lackey named Aaron Green who gets the assignment of shepherding drug-addled rock star Aldous Snow (Brand) from London to New York to Los Angeles in 72 hours for a comeback concert. Snow proves, naturally, hard to herd. Meanwhile, Green's wife (Moss), a medical student, decides that she and Green must move to Seattle. When he resists, she says that they should "take some time." This movie has one major weakness for me -- Jonah Hill in the lead role has approximately zero charisma. On the other hand, Brand -- who was so good in "Forgetting Sarah Marshal" -- has a lot of funny lines. Although Brand looks a bit the worse for wear, he holds up his end of the movie quite well. I felt of two minds about this film -- there are some very funny bits, but also some parts that I found too raunchy or distasteful. So a mixed review from me. To the DVD's everlasting credit, all of the loopy, funny songs are captioned. Grade: B

The Girl Who Played with Fire (DVD)

The Girl Who Played with Fire (2009) starring Noomi Rapace, Micheal Nyqvist. Part Two of Stieg Larsson's trilogy starring the girl with the dragon tattoo, Lisbeth Salander (Rapace), comes to the screen. Salander is suspected of murder when her fingerprints are found on a gun used to kill two writers. She goes into hiding, while journalist Mikael Blomkvist (Nyqvist) works to prove her innocence. It's a tangled plot, with many characters playing different parts. In particular, we find out who Salander's father is, and her brother -- neither one a savory character. The final half hour is truly thrilling. The story doesn't end here, of course; there's still one more movie to go -- "The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest" should come out next year. In Swedish, with English subtitles. Grade: A-

Splice (DVD)

Splice (2009) starring Adrien Brody, Sarah Polley, Delphine Chaneac. A pair of "brilliant" scientists, Clive and Elsa (Brody and Polley), succeed in creating a human-animal hybrid (Chaneac) by gene splicing. It's name is Dren (nerd spelled backward). This movie is kind of a cross of "Frankenstein" and "The Fly." You just know that the scientists are going to regret making this creature; the only suspense is in finding out what sort of danger it will pose. Soon we learn that Elsa had madness in her family, and it becomes a question of who poses the greater threat to whom -- Dren to Elsa, or Elsa to Dren? The script is weak and the acting is not much better, although Chaneac must be given credit for being a credible "monster." The subtitles are pretty good. Grade: C-

Kisses (DVD)

Kisses (2008) starring Shane Curry, Kelly O'Neill. A young Irish boy and girl flee their dysfunctional homes in the slums and go wandering in Dublin. What starts out as a lark turns increasingly dark as the hour grows late. The subtitles on this low-budget film are the strangest I've ever seen. For some reason, the filmmakers have decided to economize on subtitles. About half of the spoken dialogue is captioned; the rest is not. The result is a frustrating viewing experience in which one feels tantalizing close to being able to follow the movie, only to have it repeatedly slip away. Grade: C

Leaves of Grass (DVD)

Leaves of Grass (2010) starring Edward Norton, Richard Dreyfuss, Susan Sarandon, Keri Russell, Melanie Lynskey, Maggie Siff, Tim Blake Nelson, Ty Burrell, Josh Pais. Philosophy professor Bill (Norton) hears that his twin, pot-growing brother Brady (also played by Norton) has been murdered. This is soon revealed to be a cruel ploy by Brady to get Bill to come home to Oklahoma and bail him out of trouble. Bill hates every moment in Oklahoma -- until he smokes some of Brady's weed and meets Janet (Russell). From there, things get incredibly complicated. For a comedy, this film features a lot of (movie) violence. Still, except for one atonal performance by an actor, it's great fun to watch. The subtitles are adequate. Grade: B+

Prisoner of the Mountains (DVD)

Prisoner of the Mountains (1996) starring a cast of foreigners whose names you would not recognize. Two Russian soldiers of contrasting temperaments are captured by Chechen rebels, who hold them as hostages. A village elder hopes to exchange the hostages for his son, who is being held prisoner in the town by the Russians. In war, however, plans often go awry. This is a slow-paced, moderately interesting movie in which most of the action is confined to the last 30 minutes of the film. I felt something was lost in translation. In Russian, with English subtitles. Grade: C+

Solitary Man (DVD)

Solitary Man (2009) starring Michael Douglas, Susan Sarandon, Danny DeVito, Mary-Louise Parker, Jenna Fischer, Imogen Poots, Jesse Eisenberg. Douglas stars as Ben Kalmen, a failed car dealership owner who is emerging from trouble with the law and trying to put together another dealership. He's also an inveterate womanizer, who is not above sleeping with his girlfriend's (Parker) daughter (Poots). Kalmen's poor choices continue to get him deeper and deeper in trouble, and it gives Douglas a chance to show off his acting chops. DeVito co-stars as a genuinely decent man, which is certainly a change for him. The ending of the movie is kind of a cop-out, but it's interesting watching it get there. Good subtitles. Grade: B

Princess Caraboo (DVD)

Princess Caraboo (1994) starring Phoebe Cates, Jim Broadbent, Wendy Hughes, Kevin Kline, John Lithgow, Stephen Rae. In 1817 in England, a time when harsh laws constrain vagrants and beggars, a young woman (Cates) -- of exotic appearance and speaking no English -- appears on the side of a country road. She is quickly adopted by a couple (Broadbent and Hughes), who come to believe that she is a foreign princess named Caraboo who has washed up on English shores after escaping a slave ship. Rae plays a journalist named Gutch, who is enchanted with Caraboo but can't quite bring himself to believe her story. Others take her for an impostor, but she manages to win them over. The performances by the whole cast are very good. The fact that the movie is subtitled "A True Story" adds another layer of wonder to the whole entertainment. The subtitles are available in several languages, including English. I had a lot of fun watching it. Grade: B+

The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (DVD)

The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (1969) starring Maggie Smith. At a girls' school in Scotland in the 1930s, Miss Jean Brodie (Smith) teaches history -- officially -- while instructing "her girls" in art and culture. She fancies herself to be "in her prime," though viewers of the movie can see that she is verging on middle age. For her high spirits, the girls whom she teaches adore her -- but the authorities at the school where she teaches are not happy with her, nor her teaching methods. To top it all off, Miss Brodie is shockingly naive in her political beliefs -- she thinks that Mussolini in Italy and Franco in Spain are great men. She is a passionate person with many conflicting opinions. One must wonder if, ultimately, she will find life to be a disappointment. Smith won an Oscar for her performance. In acting, direction and staging, this is a nearly perfect film. The subtitles are very good. Grade: A

Priest (DVD)

Priest (1994) starring Linus Roache, Tom Wilkinson. Young priest named Father Greg (Roache) has trouble dealing with problems of the inner city, not to mention his own secret homosexuality. You might recognize Roache from his role on "Law & Order," the TV show (now canceled). Fr. Greg's first conflict comes about when a girl named Lisa tells him in the confessional that her father is sexually abusing her. How can Fr. Greg help her, without breaking the sacred trust of the confessional? Turns out, he can't. He can scarcely help himself. The scenes of two men making love to each other didn't do much for me, but the film's ending was still moving. The captions are very good. Grade: B

Please Give (DVD)

Please Give (2010) starring Oliver Platt, Catherine Keener, Amanda Peet, Rebecca Hall, Lois Smith, Ann Morgan Guilbert. A Manhattan couple (Platt and Keener) wait for their next-door neighbor (Guilbert) to die so that they can buy her apartment and expand their living space into it. When they meet the neighbor's granddaughters (Hall and Peet) things start to get complicated. It's an indie film -- not a big Hollywood production, but still a pleasure to experience. The actors all do a good job, and the script is well written and nicely balanced. The subtitles are excellent. Grade: B+

Pride and Prejudice (DVD)

Pride and Prejudice (1940) starring Laurence Olivier, Greer Garson. Olivier plays Mr. Darcy and Garson plays Elizabeth Bennet in this adaptation of Jane Austen's novel about social mores in the early 1800s in England. The five Bennet sisters -- and their mother -- are all aflutter when Mr. Bingham and Mr. Darcy, two very eligible bachelors, arrive in town. But Mr. Darcy gets off on the wrong foot with Elizabeth, and it will take the entire movie for things to be put right. Although this film was made 70 years ago, it holds up rather well. The English subtitles are very good. Grade: B+

The Pride of the Yankess (DVD)

The Pride of the Yankees (1942) starring Gary Cooper, Teresa Wright, Babe Ruth, Walter Brennan. Cooper plays Lou Gehrig, one of the greatest baseball players ever to wear the Yankee uniform, who died in 1941 from ALS, the illness that ever after was known as Lou Gehrig's Disease. The movie follows Gehrig's career from the time he was a young boy until he graduated to the major leagues, on to his courting and marriage to Chicago heiress Eleanor Twitchell (Wright). At the height of his happiness, he starts to show symptoms of the disease that we, the audience, know will kill him. My main complaint about this film is that Cooper, though his acting is good, just doesn't move like an athlete -- but maybe that's asking too much, at least of a movie of this vintage. Cooper was over 40 when this movie was made, an age which Gehrig never reached. The finale, Gehrig's famous farewell speech in Yankee Stadium, is very effective. The captions are good. Grade: B

Priceless (DVD)

Priceless (2006) starring Audrey Tautou, Gad Elmaleh. Gold-digger Irene (Tautou) mistakes bartender Jean (Elmaleh) for a rich man and sleeps with him. When she finds out he's just a working stiff, she drops him like a hot potato. But he continues to pursue her. Irene goes along with it, quickly draining him of all his savings, then telling him goodbye. But the plot thickens, as Jean acquires a sugar-momma of his own. For some reason, Jean can't stop loving Irene, even though she is a rather foul creature. No one is more surprised than I am to find that I didn't like Audrey Tautou's character in this movie, and thus found it hard to root for her to fall in love. Elmaleh, on the other hand, is an appealing guy and I did find myself rooting for him. All in all, an amusing, if not great, film. In French, with English subtitles. Grade: B-

Pretty Woman (DVD)

Pretty Woman (1990) starring Julia Roberts, Richard Gere, Ralph Bellamy, Jason Alexander, Hector Elizondo. Wealthy businessman Edward Lewis (Gere) picks up a poverty-stricken streetwalker named Vivian (Roberts) and takes her to his Beverly Hills penthouse. He needs a no-obligations companion for a week, so he hires Vivian for $3,000. Naturally, they fall (slowly) in love. Although Gere got top billing, this is the film that launched Roberts to stardom. The shopping scene on Rodeo Drive (accompanied by Roy Orbison's "Pretty Woman") is priceless. Alexander is very convincing as a sleazy lawyer who works for Lewis. The captions are very good. Grade: B+

Calamity Jane (DVD)

Calamity Jane (1953) starring Doris Day, Howard Keel. Calamity Jane (Day) sets off from Deadwood for Chicago to try and hire an actress to come and entertain at the local saloon. When the Army officer Calamity loves falls for the actress, Calam finds herself in the unaccustomed role of being jealous. Meanwhile, Calam's best friend Wild Bill Hickock (Keel) finds himself in love with her. Mixed in there, Day gets to perform the Oscar-winning song, "Secret Love," which would become a No. 1 pop hit for her. Calamity Jane is a light but enjoyable entertainment, a throwback to the days before rock 'n' roll. The subtitles on the disc are adequate at best, but the closed captions are good. Grade: B+

The President's Analyst (DVD)

The President's Analyst (1967) starring James Coburn. Dr. Sidney Schaefer (Coburn) is plucked from obscurity to be psychoanalyst to the President of the U.S. The job comes with lots of perks -- but also heavy responsibilities. It's not long before the president's analyst is driven crazy by the pressures of the job, and ends up on the run. Much silliness ensues as every foreign government, plus the "CEA" and the "FBR," try to chase Dr. Schaefer down. The ultimate is when he takes up with a band of hippies, the 1967 movie version, to avoid capture. The film spins off into lands of fantasy from there. Some pretty funny touches, but I found it ultimately unsatisfying. The captions are very good. Grade: C+

Date Night (DVD)

Date Night (2010) starring Tina Fey, Steve Carell, Leighton Meester, Jimmi Simpson, Common, Taraji P. Henson. Married couple Claire and Phil Foster (Fey and Carell) decide to spend their "date night" at a nice uptown restaurant. They don't, however, have reservations, and they have to steal someone else's reservation to get a table. Oops. The people whose reservation they steal are in big trouble with the bad guys (Simpson and Common), who naturally mistake the Fosters for them. After escaping the bad guys on their first encounter, Claire and Phil go on the run. Several comedy set-pieces follow, some funny, some not so much. The car chase scene stands out as a bad idea. Fey and Carell, however, are good together on screen, and there were moments, particularly early in the film, where I laughed out loud. The captions are excellent. Grade: B-

The Postman Always Rings Twice (DVD)

The Postman Always Rings Twice (1946) starring Lana Turner, John Garfield, Cecil Kellaway, Hume Cronyn. Cora and Nick (Turner and Kellaway) are a married couple who own a diner by the side of the highway; Frank (Garfield) is the hired hand who arrives hitchhiking one day. Things get sticky when Cora and Frank fall in love, then decide to do away with the likable Nick. Cronyn plays a sleazy lawyer named Keats who, after Nick's death, ends up playing Cora and Frank off against each other. Many complications follow, but suffice it to say that Cora and Frank both end up paying for their crime. I was not too thrilled by this film. In particular, I thought the chemistry between Turner and Garfield seemed phony. Neither was a great actor. The captions on this disc are very good. Grade: B

Posse (DVD)

Posse (1975) starring Kirk Douglas, Bruce Dern, Bo Hopkins, James Stacy, Luke Askew, David Canary. Old West lawman named Nightingale (Douglas) aims to advance his campaign for Senate by catching notorious crook Strawhorn (Dern). But Strawhorn proves to be elusive prey. Once captured, he soon escapes and begins to wreak havoc. In a surprising turn of events, Strawhorn takes Nightingale captive, and it is up to the posse to rectify the situation. Nightingale's electioneering forms the backdrop against which the good guys vs. bad guys action takes place. The ending is quite a surprise, definitely not what you'd expect in a Western. The subtitles supplied on the disc are good. Grade: B

Emmanuelle (DVD)

Emmanuelle (1974) starring Sylvia Kristel. The actress who plays Emmanuelle is very pretty. She has sex with various men -- and women. Her husband tells her he wants her to be free to do whatever she wants. But when she fails to come home one night, he is alarmed. Later, he entrusts her to the tender care of an older man named Mario, who is to instruct her in the ways of "eroticism." Mario spouts a bunch of nonsense. That's pretty much the plot, such as it is. What a travesty. Grade: D

The Three Faces of Eve (DVD)

The Three Faces of Eve (1957) starring Joanne Woodward, David Wayne, Lee J. Cobb. Woodward won a Best Actress Oscar for her performance as Eve, a woman with multiple personalities and three intertwined, yet separate, lives. Her performance is great. The rest of the movie leaves much to be desired. In particular, Eve's cure seems to come much too easily. It's explained in only the most superficial terms. Still, an enjoyable 90 minutes can be spent watching this movie. The subtitles are very good, except that the songs aren't captioned. Grade: B

A Face in the Crowd (DVD)

A Face in the Crowd (1957) starring Andy Griffith, Patricia Neal, Anthony Franciosa, Walter Matthau, Lee Remick. Directed by Elia Kazan. Small-town radio producer (Neal) plucks drunken bum (Griffith) from jail, makes him a star. Turns out he has a talent for manipulating audiences, even on TV. Unfortunately, when he hits the big time, he also turns out to be an unscrupulous womanizer, and the power of being a TV star goes to his head. "A Face in the Crowd" is a sharp observation of the growing strength of television as a medium, and its power to make or break a man -- or a woman. As such, it is a cautionary tale, still relevant today. The subtitles on this disc are pretty good. Grade: B+

Twelve O'Clock High

Twelve O'Clock High (1949) starring Gregory Peck, Hugh Marlowe, Gary Merrill, Millard Mitchell, Dean Jagger. Peck plays General Frank Savage, an Army Air Force officer in World War II who is tasked with taking over an air group and restoring morale. He thinks the previous commanding officer failed because he cared too much about the men. Only trouble is, after Savage whips the air group into shape and commands it for a while, he falls prey to the same "weakness." This is a pretty good movie, even inspiring, but the ending feels a little flabby. Good subtitles. Grade: B+

Pork Chop Hill (DVD)

Pork Chop Hill (1959) starring Gregory Peck, Harry Guardino, Rip Torn, George Peppard, Robert Blake, Martin Landau, Harry Dean Stanton, Gavin MacLeod, many more. Based on a true story. A group of combat soldiers, led by Lieutenant Joe Clemons (Peck), try to take a seemingly worthless hill near the end of the Korean War. It's 1953, and peace negotiations with the enemy are already under way. Neither side, however, has stopped fighting. When Clemons' men do take the hill, they have to immediately shift over to defense. On the American side, it's one SNAFU after another. It's interesting to see a combat movie that was made after the Korean War, but before the Vietnam War. Those were definitely different times. The captions on this film are just adequate. Grade: B

The Pope of Greenwich Village (DVD)

The Pope of Greenwich Village (1984) starring Eric Roberts, Mickey Rourke, Daryl Hannah, Geraldine Page. Charlie (Rourke) and Paulie (Roberts) are cousins, and even though Paulie is a screw-up, Charlie hangs with him. After Paulie gets him fired from his job at a restaurant, Charlie finds out that his girlfriend, Diane (Hannah) is pregnant. Then Paulie comes up with the idea for a big score; Charlie and Paulie hire a safe-cracker. Naturally, things go south from there. This movie features a cast of accomplished actors, both in the main roles and in the co-starring roles. The ending is a little vague, though. The only subtitle option is closed captions. Grade: B

Poltergeist (DVD)

Poltergeist (1982) starring Craig T. Nelson, JoBeth Williams, Beatrice Straight, Dominique Dunne, Oliver Robins, Heather O'Rourke. Directed by Tobe Hooper. Produced by Steven Spielberg. Family's placid existence is disturbed when Carol Anne (O'Rourke), the five-year-old daughter, is kidnapped by the "TV people," who only she can see. The climax is foreshadowed early on when the dad (Nelson) learns from his boss that the entire neighborhood was built over a cemetery. Famous tag line, "They're here," is spoken by Carol Anne when the poltergeist, whatever it is, first appears in the TV. The family calls in a team of parapsychologists to try and get Carol Anne back. Then they hire a clairvoyant. This is followed by a lot of hokum, flashing lights and a scary appearance by The Beast. The bottom line is, this movie is just a lot of fun to watch, even when it's being silly. Spielberg's hand is very apparent, for anyone who's familiar with his other films. The disc includes good subtitles. Grade: B+

The Secret in Their Eyes (DVD)

The Secret in Their Eyes (2010) starring Ricardo Darin, Soledad Villamil. A retired judge (Darin), with nothing left to fill his days, finds himself haunted by a murder case from 25 years ago, which ended with the killer being freed and recruited by the government. In flashbacks, we see the judge as a young man, pursuing the killer. And we see Irene, the love of his life, helping him catch the criminal, then marrying someone else. Twenty-five years later, Esposito, the judge, determines to start looking for his man once again. He finds him in a most surprising way. This movie deservedly won the Oscar for best foreign picture. The subtitles are great. Grade: A-

Point Blank (DVD)

Point Blank (1967) starring Lee Marvin, Angie Dickinson, Keenan Wynn, Carroll O'Connor. Crook named Walker (Marvin) is double-crossed by his partner in crime, shot twice and left for dead. Two years later Walker comes back, looking for revenge. Not only for being shot, but he wants his share of the loot -- $93,000. This film is supposedly regarded as one of the top films of the '60s, but I can't see it. It was released in 1967, takes place in San Francisco and Los Angeles, and there's not a long-hair to be seen. What's that about? The subtitles are fine. Grade: B-

The Pledge (DVD)

The Pledge (2001) starring Jack Nicholson, Robin Wright Penn, Benicio Del Toro, Vanessa Redgrave, Tom Noonan, Patricia Clarkson. Directed by Sean Penn. Retiring police detective Jerry Black (Nicholson) takes on one last case when a young girl is raped and murdered. Although the first suspect confessed and then killed himself, Black is not convinced that the real killer has been found -- and he swore to the girl's mother that he would find the guilty man. This movie features a star-studded cast, and while the mystery is engaging, it's also fun to play name-that-star while you're watching it. Overall, however, this film was a big disappointment, and the ending is particularly unsatisfying. The disc offers a choice of English subtitles or closed captions. Grade: C-

Max Headroom (DVD)

Max Headroom: The Complete Series -- Disc 1 (1987) starring Matt Frewer, Amanda Pays. This is a ground-breaking, short-lived TV series that ran on ABC in 1987-88. It features a virtual person named Max Headroom (Frewer) who is created when his human progenitor Edison Carter (also played by Frewer) is believed to be dead and his personality is transferred into a computer. Carter is a TV reporter for "Channel 23," a sinister media organization which wields way too much power in a future, dystopian society. The first episode is the one in which Carter uncovers the network's practice of showing "blipverts," ads which are compressed to run in a short time so that viewers can't switch the channel. Only trouble is, blipverts kill. Pays plays Carter's "controller," Theora Jones, who, besides being lovely, is a computer genius. The real heart of the series is, of course, Max Headroom, who became a celebrity in his own right in the late '80s and even appeared on "The Late Show" with David Letterman. The bits in which he appears are amusing. The first episode especially, in which he is created, is very entertaining. Subsequent episodes, not so much. Concept: A. Execution: B-. Only closed captions are offered for the hearing-impaired.

Letters to Juliet (DVD)

Letters to Juliet (2010) starring Amanda Seyfried, Christopher Egan, Gael García Bernal, Vanessa Redgrave, Franco Nero. Sophie (Seyfried) journeys to the Italian city of Verona with her fiance Victor (Bernal) on a "pre-honeymoon." But Victor is so busy talking with suppliers (he is about to open a restaurant in New York) that Sophie is left pretty much on her own. She ends up helping a group of Italian women who write replies to letters to Juliet, of "Romeo and Juliet" fame, which are left on a wall under a balcony in Verona. When she answers a letter from Claire (Redgrave), a British woman who was in love with an Italian named Lorenzo, she is surprised a few days later by Claire herself, who shows up in Verona searching for her long-lost love. With Claire is Charlie (Egan), Claire's grandson, who takes an instant disliking to Sophie. But since Sophie is free, the trio sets out to find Claire's Lorenzo, who they hope is still alive and living in the area. The setup is so romantic, you just know somebody is going to fall in love. Now let's see, who could it be? My bet is, you'll see it coming a mile away. But you'll have to see the movie to be sure. The subtitles are good -- even the songs are subtitled. And I enjoyed hearing Italian spoken, in the few scenes where it made up the dialogue. Grade: B

Kick-Ass (DVD)

Kick-Ass (2010) starring Aaron Johnson, Nicolas Cage, Chloe Moretz, Mark Strong, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Lyndsy Fonseca. Ordinary high schooler Dave (Johnson) decides that he's going to fight crime in a superhero suit of his own design. At first he's a spectacular failure, but he persists. Soon enough, he becomes an Internet sensation; then he is joined by Hit Girl (Moretz) and Big Daddy (Cage), two costumed crime fighters who are way better than him at what they do -- they use swords and guns. Meanwhile he pursues his high-school crush (Fonseca), a girl who hangs out with him because she thinks he's gay. Even though this movie has elements of satire in it, it takes its crime-fighting seriously. In the end, there's plenty of criminal ass that needs to be kicked, and Hit Girl -- with a crucial assist from Kick-Ass -- is the one to do it. The finale is spectacular. This disc has subtitles for the hearing-impaired. Extras: None. Grade: A-

Please Don't Eat the Daisies (DVD)

Please Don't Eat the Daisies (1960) starring Doris Day, David Niven, Janis Paige, Spring Byington, Patsy Kelly. Day and Niven play a married couple; he's a rookie theater critic, she's a stay-at-home mom to their brood of four children, all boys. Just when Larry's (Niven) career begins to take off, the family is evicted from their apartment and must quickly find somewhere else to live. Kate (Day) wants to get a house in the country, but it's hard to find anything decent on short notice. Nevertheless, they move to the country (70 miles out of New York), and then the fun really begins. Well, it's supposed to be fun. The two stars are expected to carry the movie with the force of their personalities, but I really felt the chemistry between Day and Niven wasn't quite right. They may have been big stars in 1960, but much of their luster has faded by now. The movie I found to be mildly amusing and mostly harmless. The subtitles are adequate. Grade: B

Play Misty for Me (DVD)

Play Misty for Me (1971) starring Clint Eastwood, Jessica Walter, Donna Mills, John Larch. Directed by Clint Eastwood. Radio disc jockey Dave Garver (Eastwood) is pursued by crazy fan Evelyn (Walter). When she starts to smother him, he pushes her away, and she becomes a stalker. The movie never explains how she knows where he lives. Maybe 1971 was just a more innocent time. The dialogue is wooden at times, as is Eastwood's acting. He's a good action hero, but this film calls for something a little more nuanced. Eastwood the director does take full advantage of the scenery; the movie is set in Carmel, California, and the seaside scenes are beautifully shot. The subtitles are more than adequate. Grade: C

The Exploding Girl (DVD)

The Exploding Girl (2009) starring Zoe Kazan, Mark Randall. Ivy (Kazan), a college student on spring break in Brooklyn, finds that her relationship with boyfriend Greg is fizzling via cell phone. Meanwhile, her longtime platonic friend Al (Randall) is obviously in love with her. To top off her troubles, Ivy has epilepsy. This is a modest little indie film, with a pretty simple plot. It was watchable, but not great. It does come with English subtitles, which is a plus. Grade: B

Red Riding - 1974 (DVD)

Red Riding - 1974 (2009) starring Andrew Garfield. When a young girl is found murdered, journalist Edward Dunford (Garfield) thinks he sees a pattern linking the killing to earlier disappearances of girls. But when he starts asking questions, the police come around and rough him up. Soon after, a fellow journalist and friend dies in an "accident." Dunford suspects foul play. The deeper he digs, the more trouble he stirs up. In the end, this movie gets more and more violent, until it goes out in a blaze of gunfire. The question is, will you want to see Parts 2 and 3 of the Red Riding trilogy? I don't think I'll be renting them. The subtitles that come on the disc are very good, but curiously, closed captions are not offered. Grade: B

The Player (DVD)

The Player (1992) starring Tim Robbins, Greta Scacchi, Fred Ward, many more. Directed by Robert Altman. Robbins plays Griffin Mill, a Hollywood producer who is being harassed by a writer whom he apparently brushed off. When the harassment goes on too long, it starts to drive Mill crazy, and he starts to act crazy. Vincent D'Onofrio (of "Law & Order: Criminal Intent") appears as David Kahane, the writer who's mad at Mill because he said he would get back to him and didn't. The real story of this movie, for me, was the amazing, large cast and the plethora of celebrity cameos that Altman managed to shoehorn in -- just incredible. The DVD includes an Extra that shows all the cameo players and lists their film credits. The movie itself drags a little in spots, but I'm sure it's full of movie in-jokes and references. I caught a few of them. The ending is killer. The subtitles are OK. Grade: A-

Platoon (DVD)

Platoon (1986) starring Tom Berenger, Willem Dafoe, Charlie Sheen. Directed by Oliver Stone. "Cherry" Chris Taylor (Sheen) arrives in Vietnam in 1967, at the height of the war. Berenger plays Barnes, a hard-ass sergeant who leads the platoon in the destruction of a village. Dafoe plays Elias, the good sergeant to Berenger's bad sergeant, trying to bring some reason to the chaos of the war. The combat sequences are as intense as any I've seen on film. This movie won four Oscars, including Best Picture. It offers a choice of subtitles in English or closed captions. Grade: A

Sunshine Cleaning (DVD)

Sunshine Cleaning (2008) starring Amy Adams, Emily Blunt, Alan Arkin. Rose (Adams), in desperate need of money to get her young son into a private school, decides to start a business cleaning up biohazards and crime scenes. She ropes her sister Norah (Blunt) into being her partner in the enterprise. While dealing with gruesome scenes of carnage and death at work, the pair are also trying to get their personal lives in order. At the same time, the job brings up painful memories of their mother's suicide. I really wanted to like this movie, and it has its likable elements, but overall I was disappointed. The script was just too thin -- not enough good lines, not enough funny jokes, just not satisfying. The subtitles, though, are quite good. Grade: B-

The Wire (DVD)

The Wire (2002) starring Dominic West. This HBO series has been praised to the skies by other critics, so I finally decided to take a chance on renting it. It's really not possible to judge an entire series by the first three episodes (contained on this disc), but so far so good. The show is a gritty dramatization of the illegal drug scene in Baltimore, seen alternately from the point of view of the cops and the perpetrators. The acting is good and the writing is very good. There are subtitles included on the disc, or if you prefer you can use the closed captions provided by your TV. I will definitely be renting more discs in this series. Grade so far: A

Diary of a Wimpy Kid (DVD)

Diary of a Wimpy Kid (2010) starring Zachary Gordon. Greg Heffley (Gordon) enters middle school with no idea what it takes to be "cool." In fact, he already thinks he's pretty cool (he would never describe himself as a wimp), it's just a matter of getting the rest of the world to recognize it. Unfortunately, it's his dorky best friend Rowley who climbs the vine of popularity, while Greg's stock just continues to sink lower and lower. Naturally, it all resolves itself in the end. This movie is OK entertainment, but it definitely lacks depth. It seems clearly targeted at tweens -- kids the same age as the kids in the film. Everything is kept simple -- too simple, for my adult tastes. The subtitles are OK, kind of hard to read. Grade: C+

The Pied Piper (DVD)

The Pied Piper (1972) starring Donovan, Donald Pleasence, Jack Wild, John Hurt, Michael Hordern. In the Middle Ages, during the time of the great Plague, a traveling band of minstrels arrives at the walled town of Hamelin. One of them (Donovan) is known as the Pied Piper, and when he plays the flute it has magical effects. When the town is found to be infested with rats, the Piper offers to get rid of them -- for a payment of a thousand guilders. The burgomaster agrees to the terms -- anything to get rid of the rats, which some believe spread the Plague. But after the rats are vanquished by the Piper, the burgomaster reneges on their deal, with terrible consequences for the town. The movie is rated G, though whether any children would be interested in seeing it I have my doubts. I found it to be barely passable entertainment. It was interesting to see Donovan again -- young. The subtitles consist of closed captions -- good enough. Grade: B

Millions (DVD)

Millions (2005) starring Alex Etel, Lewis McGibbon, James Nesbitt. Directed by Danny Boyle. Two young brothers (Etel and McGibbon) discover a satchel full of money (over 200,000 pounds British) and decide to keep it a secret. Spending the money proves to be a problem for the boys, however, especially since the conversion from pounds to Euros is only a week away. Meanwhile, the man who stole the money wants it back and comes looking for it. There are elements of the mystical in this film, and elements of pure fantasy. There are also elements of pure greed. It all comes together somehow into a satisfying and moving conclusion. The subtitles are hard to read, however. Grade: A-

Pit and the Pendulum (DVD)

Pit and the Pendulum (1961) starring Vincent Price, John Kerr, Barbara Steele. Directed by Roger Corman. In 16th-century Spain, the son of an Inquisitor (Price) is haunted by a scene of horror he witnessed as a boy. His dead wife's brother (Kerr) comes to his castle to investigate how she died, and mayhem ensues. The first half of the film is rather slow, but things pick up after that. This film probably seemed like pretty hot stuff back in 1961 (even though it came out after "Psycho"), but by today's standards it's very tame -- not necessarily a bad thing, come to think of it. It has closed captions for the hard of hearing. Grade: B

Ajami (DVD)

Ajami (2009) starring a non-professional Arab and Israeli cast. Set mostly in the city of Jaffa, a part of Tel Aviv, this movie tells a complex story of tribal violence, racial intolerance and crime. Jews, Christians and Muslims co-exist in Jaffa, and the tensions among them are made palpable in the film. It starts out with a killing, which turns out to be a revenge killing, and which is followed by more killing. The closest thing I can think of for a comparison is the American movie "Crash," which had multiple story lines, interwoven, with themes of race and violence. Frankly, I had trouble following "Ajami," but I came away feeling that I had seen a good movie with profound impact. It just didn't translate very well culturally. The subtitles are OK, but it's unavoidably confusing when some characters speak in Hebrew, some in Arabic. Grade: B+

Pillow Talk (DVD)

Pillow Talk (1959) starring Rock Hudson, Doris Day, Tony Randall, Thelma Ritter. Brad and Jan (Hudson and Day) share a party line, and Jan is weary of overhearing his romantic conversations with his many girlfriends. Besides, she can't get the line free to place an outgoing call. A plot twist has Brad pursuing Jan romantically, though under an assumed name -- he knows he'd never have a chance if she knew it was him. Randall plays Brad's friend Jonathan, who is in love with Jan, and Ritter adds spice as Jan's perpetually hungover housekeeper. Although the movie is in some ways quite retro (who's ever heard of a party line?), it is for its time rather risque and filled with double entendre. It's actually rather fun. The subtitles are fine. Grade: B+

Pierrepoint (DVD)

Pierrepoint: The Last Hangman (2005) starring Timothy Spall, Juliet Stevenson. Based on true events. Albert Pierrepoint (Spall), a hangman in England from the 1930s to the '50s, is chosen by Field Marshal Montgomery to execute Nazi war criminals after World War II. The number to be hanged is large (47 in one week) but Pierrepoint goes about it with characteristic focus and efficiency. He doesn't care about the crimes of the condemned, only that they die quickly and painlessly. Unfortunately for Pierrepoint, what he does for a living, previously a secret, becomes public knowledge while he is in Germany. When he returns to England, he finds himself the focus of controversy. In a cruel twist of fate, one of the English killers to be hanged turns out to be someone he knows. Altogether, it makes for a fascinating movie. The subtitles are good. Grade: B+

Tortilla Soup (DVD)

Tortilla Soup (2001) starring Hector Elizondo, Elizabeth Pena, Jacqueline Obradors, Tamara Mello, Raquel Welch. Widower Martin (Elizondo), a professional chef, has three grown daughters living at home. Unfortunately, the girls have a way of interrupting meals with announcements, which frequently lead to family arguments. The daughters are all ready to move out, and each is going her separate way. Meanwhile, a brassy neighbor lady (Welch) sets her sights on Martin. The food preparation scenes alone are worth the price of admission. This is a lightweight, but entertaining movie. The subtitles are good. Grade: B

Picture Perfect (DVD)

Picture Perfect (1997) starring Jennifer Aniston, Jay Mohr, Kevin Bacon. Kate (Aniston) fakes an engagement to Nick (Mohr) after her boss tells her she needs to be more committed to get ahead. But it's Sam (Bacon), the office Lothario, who she's really attracted to. She talks Nick into coming to New York and pretending to be her fiance, and once he gets there she finds herself -- surprisingly -- attracted to him. This movie is basically a bit of fluff designed as a vehicle for Aniston, and it delivers about what you'd expect. Not great, but OK entertainment. The subtitles are very good -- even the songs are captioned. Grade: B

The Picture of Dorian Gray (DVD)

The Picture of Dorian Gray (1945) starring George Sanders, Hurd Hatfield, Donna Reed, Angela Lansbury, Peter Lawford. In Victorian England, the aristocratic Dorian Gray (Hatfield) is convinced that it would be a good thing if his portrait aged while he stayed young. His wish is granted by a mysterious Egyptian statue of a cat. After he falls in love with a nightclub singer named Sybil Vane (Lansbury), he treats her cruelly as a test of her love. She kills herself. From then on it's downhill for Dorian Gray. The movie is not very explicit, but we are made to understand that he has descended into a life of sin; tragedy piles upon tragedy. It's a very literate script, based on a book by Oscar Wilde, but unfortunately the subtitles are hard to read. It's a pretty unforgettable film, with an impressive cast. Grade: B+

Sybil (DVD)

Sybil (1977) starring Joanne Woodward, Sally Field, Brad Davis. Woodward plays the compassionate psychiatrist Dr. Wilbur to Field's Sybil, a woman who has 16 distinct personalities, or alters. Having just read the book "Sybil," I was curious to see how closely the movie (actually a TV miniseries) would hew to the book. As it turns out, not very. The completely extraneous character of Richard (Davis) is added, and he has no real counterpart in the book. Nor does the heavy emphasis on a certain Christmas holiday come from the book. Nor does Sybil ever cook Christmas dinner for Richard and his son. The dream sequence is totally different from the book. And so on. On the other hand, Field's performance as Sybil is outstanding and can't really be faulted. Likewise, the portrayal of the horrendous abuse -- torture, really -- that Sybil suffered at the hands of her mother is true to the spirit of the book. The subtitles consist of closed captions, which are adequate. Grade: B-

Picnic (DVD)

Picnic (1955) starring William Holden, Kim Novak, Rosalind Russell, Cliff Robertson, Susan Strasberg. On Labor Day, 1955, former college football star Hal Carter (Holden) rolls into the small Kansas town where his old frat buddy Alan Benson (Robertson) resides. Alan is the son of the biggest (well, richest) man in town, and unemployed Hal is hoping to get a job. Nobody counts on Hal getting Madge (Novak), Alan's girl. They all go to a Labor Day picnic together, and there the action takes place. After Hal and Madge end up dancing together, the rest of the world gets forgotten. But then things turn sour, because Rosemary (Russell) is jealous of the young love she sees playing out before her -- and because she is drunk. Everyone says things they will later regret, and Hal and Madge end up running off in Alan's car. Whether they can possibly end up together then becomes the theme of the rest of the movie. It's a pretty interesting film, but was somewhat less so for me because I knew that in 1955, Holden was 37, Novak 22. Not such a clear match, seen in that perspective. The subtitles are very good. Grade: B

Pickup on South Street (DVD)

Pickup on South Street (1953) starring Richard Widmark, Jean Peters, Thelma Ritter. Pickpocket named Skip McCoy (Widmark) accidentally comes into possession of top-secret microfilm when he robs courier named Candy (Peters). Once he realizes the value of what he's got, he becomes greedy. Then, when an informer named Moe (Ritter) is killed, things get really serious. The movie has an odd strain of patriotism running through it, with people frequently referring to other characters as "Commies." In the end, loyalty to America wins out over criminal motives. One has to wonder what effect the hearings of the House Un-American Activities Committee had on the plot of this film. The subtitles are good, but hard to read. Grade: B

Pickpocket (DVD)

Pickpocket (1959) starring Martin Lasalle, Marika Green, Kassagi. Directed by Robert Bresson. Poor Frenchman (Lasalle) seeks out a life of crime, finds someone to train him in the tricks of the pickpocket's trade. He practices the art of the filch constantly, even at the expense of his social life -- such as it is. But then he comes under pressure from the police, and goes on the lam. When he returns to Paris, a young woman he knows named Jeanne (Green) has had a child while he was gone. He tries to go straight and take care of Jeanne and the child, but can he do it? The commentary that is included on the DVD makes it clear that many cinema scholars consider this a great and groundbreaking film, and I can't argue with them. It's certainly unique. Unfortunately, the subtitles are not very good -- and the film is in French. Grade: A-

The Piano Teacher (DVD)

The Piano Teacher (2001) starring Isabelle Huppert, Benoit Magimel. Middle-aged piano teacher (Huppert) is a brilliant musician and very strict teacher, but in her private life she has some pretty kinky ideas about sex and love. She also lives with her mother, which makes relationships rather dicey. When a younger man (Magimel) conceives a passion for her, she accepts his advances -- but only up to a point. It's a fascinating, weird, unique film, which I don't think will be to everyone's taste. The ending kind of threw me, but otherwise I enjoyed the ride. The subtitles are good enough -- and necessary, since the film's mostly in French. Grade: B

Greenberg (DVD)

Greenberg (2009) starring Ben Stiller, Greta Gerwig, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Rhys Ifans. Roger Greenberg (Stiller), after suffering a nervous breakdown in New York, travels to Los Angeles to house-sit for his overbearing brother. Roger gets involved with Florence (Gerwig), the aimless but attractive gofer who usually acts as personal assistant for his brother's family. For some reason Florence likes him, even though he is in general a jerk and treats her poorly. Is it possible these two could end up together? You'll have to wait until the last five minutes of the movie to find out, but it's an entertaining wait. Gerwig is a real revelation. The film is rather well written. The subtitles are pretty good. Grade: A-

The Piano (DVD)

The Piano (1993) starring Holly Hunter, Harvey Keitel, Sam Neill, Anna Paquin. Written and directed by Jane Campion. In the late 19th century, a Scottish woman named Ada (Hunter) and her illegitimate daughter (Paquin) are sent to remote New Zealand in an arranged marriage with a farmer (Neill). With her, Ada brings her most precious possession, a piano which she plays with virtuoso skill. But her new husband knows little of women, and trades her piano to a neighbor (Keitel) for 80 acres of land. Ada strikes a secret bargain with the neighbor to earn her piano back and slowly, but ever so slowly, he seduces her. (This movie is memorable for the nude scenes by Keitel.) The bargain proves to have unexpected consequences, culminating in a heinous crime committed against Ada by her husband. Not to worry; the ending is satisfactory. Hunter and Paquin both won Oscars for their performances. The subtitles consist of closed captions, which are adequate. Grade: B+

The Pianist (DVD)

The Pianist (2002) starring Adrien Brody. Directed by Roman Polanski. Brody won an Oscar for his portrayal of Polish classical pianist Wladyslaw Szpilman, who survived the Nazi occupation of Warsaw during World War II. Polanski also won as Best Director. Szpilman, who refused to leave Warsaw when he had the chance, is witness to the humiliation of the Jews by the German occupiers, followed by the ghettoization of the Jews and eventually the worst imaginable atrocities. The first moment of truth comes early in the movie, when he is being loaded onto a train along with his family and many fellow Jews. One of the Polish guards recognizes Szpilman and pulls him out of the line. The train was going to Treblinka, where Szpilman almost surely would have died; he never saw his family again. The film is based on Szpilman's memoir, which he published after the war. His is a harrowing story, at times hard to watch, but always worthwhile. We should never allow ourselves to forget. The subtitles are good. Grade: A

Phoebe in Wonderland (DVD)

Phoebe in Wonderland (2008) starring Elle Fanning, Patricia Clarkson, Felicity Huffman, Bill Pullman, Campbell Scott. Nine-year-old Phoebe (Fanning) wins the part of Alice in her school's production of "Alice in Wonderland." But Phoebe shows signs of mental illness -- obsessively counting her steps, spitting at fellow students, spewing inappropriate words. Her mother (Huffman) blames herself, because she is a work-at-home mom. As Phoebe's troubles continue, she begins to see characters from "Alice," who give her "advice." Finally, it turns out that Phoebe is actually a little girl with the early stages of Tourette syndrome, and it all makes sense. I found this to be an interesting and thought-provoking movie, and I'm glad I rented it. The subtitles are very good. Grade: B+

A Prophet (DVD)

A Prophet (2009) starring Tahar Rahim. A 19-year-old Arab named Malik (Rahim) is thrown into a French prison, where it's sink or swim. He's sentenced to six years. The Corsican mob gives him an offer he can't refuse: kill another inmate, or be killed himself. He is soon working for the Corsicans, and under their protection. Then he starts making deals on his own. And so on. Usually, I like foreign movies, but this one just didn't do it for me. Something about it was just too confusing. Maybe it was just over my head, or maybe it was the translation from French to English subtitles. At any rate, I didn't enjoy it at all. Grade: C

The Ghost Writer (DVD)

The Ghost Writer (2010) starring Ewan McGregor, Pierce Brosnan, Olivia Williams, Kim Cattrall, Eli Wallach, James Belushi, Tom Wilkinson, Timothy Hutton. Directed by Roman Polanski. A writer known only as "The Ghost" (McGregor) is hired to doctor a manuscript of the memoirs of former British Prime Minister Adam Lang (Brosnan). Ominously, the previous ghost writer who worked on the manuscript died in an "accident" in which he fell off a ferry and drowned. Lang is clearly a stand-in for former British P.M. Tony Blair, and the action takes place during the administration of George W. Bush. When The Ghost actually goes to work for Lang at his Massachusetts hideaway, things start to go very wrong. He keeps digging deeper into Lang's past, and what he discovers doesn't add up. Soon, he finds himself running for his life, pursued by a mysterious black sedan. There are several twists and turns still to go in the plot of the movie, and I wasn't disappointed. It's jolly entertaining, as long as you don't think too much about the director's sordid past. The subtitles are all right. Grade: B+

The Philadelphia Story (DVD)

The Philadelphia Story (1940) starring Katharine Hepburn, Cary Grant, James Stewart. Socialite Tracy Lord (Hepburn) is preparing to marry, two years after divorcing her first husband Dexter Haven (Grant). Helped by Haven, tabloid reporter Macaulay Connor (Stewart) has gained entrance to her house the day before the wedding. Madcap antics ensue -- mostly involving the consumption of copious quantities of alcohol. Still, it's fun to watch the three superstars of their time on screen together. Stewart won a Supporting Actor Oscar for his performance. The subtitles are slightly better than adequate. Grade: B

Girl with a Pearl Earring (DVD)

Girl with a Pearl Earring (2003) starring Scarlett Johansson, Colin Firth, Tom Wilkinson, Judy Parfitt, Cillian Murphy. In 1665 in Delft, Holland, a girl named Griet (Johansson) is hired as a maid in the household of master painter Johannes Vermeer (Firth). She's a good maid, but she catches Vermeer's eye and he wants more from her. He wants her to help him mix his paints; and to pose for a painting -- a painting which will become the classic "Girl with a Pearl Earring," now considered a masterpiece. But her seemingly improved status comes at a cost. Vermeer's wife is insanely jealous of Griet, and one of his daughters takes a special disliking to her. Meanwhile, Vermeer's patron (Wilkinson) has taken a leering fancy to Griet, and makes trouble of a different kind for her. One feels at all times that her virtue is in peril; as a mere maid, there is little she can do to protect herself and still keep her job. Johansson is perfect as Griet, conveying a wide range of emotions with few words. The filmmakers have done an excellent job of creating a world -- Holland in the 17th century, as we can easily imagine it to have been. All the details are spot on. The movie's subtitles are useful and unobtrusive. Grade: A-

Easy Rider (DVD)

Easy Rider (1969) starring Peter Fonda, Dennis Hopper, Jack Nicholson. After a drug deal in L.A. nets them a large amount of money, two buddies (Fonda and Hopper) set off on a cross-country motorcycle ride, headed for New Orleans and Mardi Gras. Along the way, they pick up a lawyer named George Hanson (Nicholson) and he goes along for the ride. Tragedy ensues. From that point on, the film just gets trippy and weird. In the end, the rednecks win. This movie does have excellent subtitles, however. Even the songs are captioned. Grade: B-

Peyton Place (DVD)

Peyton Place (1957) starring Lana Turner, Hope Lange, Arthur Kennedy, Lloyd Nolan, Russ Tamblyn. In 1941, on the eve of World War II, the inhabitants of a small New England town struggle with family problems, personal relationships, rape, unwanted pregnancy, gossip, scandal.... Why, it's a regular soap opera. Then comes the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, and all the young men of the town are called away. You'd think the soap opera would get swallowed up in the Second World War, but no, it goes on. It is a high-class soap opera, however, and I found myself quite involved in the story, right up to the end. The subtitles are very good. Grade: B+

Vincere (DVD)

Vincere (2009) starring Giovanna Mezzogiorno, Fillipo Timi. Vincere means "win" or "to win" in Italian. This movie tells the story of Ida Dalser (Mezzogiorno), an attractive woman who falls in love with the young Benito Mussolini (Timi). In 1914, they meet and get married, but World War I separates them, and Mussolini (gasp!) marries another woman. Ida begs him to acknowledge her as his wife, and her son as his son, but Mussolini and the Fascists have other ideas. When she insists that she is Mussolini's wife, mother to his first-born son, they shut her away in a mental hospital. What's worse, they take her son away from her. Even though there was a language barrier (this movie is in Italian, with English subtitles), I felt that this was a powerful film which told a tragic story. It must have had strong resonance in Italy, since it dealt with a shameful chapter of Italian history, and was made there. The subtitles are adequate. Grade: A-

The Petrified Forest (DVD)

The Petrified Forest (1936) starring Leslie Howard, Bette Davis, Humphrey Bogart. Wanderer named Alan Squier (Howard) stops at a gas station in the remote desert southwest, where he meets Gabrielle (Davis), the daughter of the owner. They soon find themselves held hostage by a notorious gangster (Bogart) in the restaurant connected to the gas station. It's a stagey, as opposed to cinematic, production -- which is no surprise, since it was adapted from the stage for the screen. It's interesting to see the actors in their youth, especially Davis and Bogart. It was Bogart's first great success in movies. The movie itself is pretty run-of-the-mill. Grade: B

Peter Pan (DVD)

Peter Pan (1953) -- animated. I can't remember when I first saw this movie. My first memory of Peter Pan is of a picture book I had when I was four years old -- which would have been in 1953, the year this movie was released. I guess I got the book instead of going to see the film (my family was very poor in '53), but I treasured that book, and read it over and over. The movie is a delightful reminder of a childhood experience that stands out like a remembered dream. The film tells the story of Wendy, Michael and John, the Darling children, and how one day they fly away with Peter Pan to Neverland, where children never have to grow up. Pan's ongoing battle with Captain Hook is one of the comic subplots, as is Tinker Bell's jealousy of Wendy. Of course, everything works out in the end, and the animation is top-notch. The subtitles are very good. Grade: A

Personal Velocity (DVD)

Personal Velocity (2002) starring Kyra Sedgwick, Parker Posey, Fairuza Balk, David Warshofsky, Brian Tarantina, Tim Guinee. Delia (Sedgwick) leaves her abusive husband, taking her three kids with her. She gets a job as a waitress, and has to fend off the leering advances of the cook's son. Greta (Posey) has a kind, considerate husband and works for a publisher. Her unexpected success places temptation in her path, and she has a problem with fidelity. Paula (Balk) is pregnant, and headed upstate when she picks up a young hitchhiker. He's been injured, and she tries to help him -- at some cost to herself. The three stories in this movie are only tangentially linked, but each one is interesting in its way. The subtitles are good. Grade: B

The Runaways (DVD)

The Runaways (2010) starring Kristen Stewart, Dakota Fanning, Michael Shannon, Scout Taylor-Compton, Alia Shawkat, Stella Maeve, Riley Keough. Set in the 1970s, this movie portrays the genesis and rise to fame of The Runaways, a real girl band of the era. Stewart plays guitarist Joan Jett, and Fanning is lead singer Cherie Currie. The girls have to fight the rock fans' bias against women, plus their own battles with substance abuse. It turns out to be pretty standard rock-band-makes-it-good-then-breaks-up fare, but with a feminine twist. Unfortunately, the subtitles are lousy. In a film saturated with music, the songs are not captioned. I know it can be done, because I've seen it done in other movies. If you're not already familiar with the music of the '70s, you'll be lost half the time. I was. Grade: B-

Peter's Friends (DVD)

Peter's Friends (1992) starring Stephen Fry, Kenneth Branagh, Rita Rudner, Emma Thompson, Hugh Laurie, Imelda Staunton. Directed by Kenneth Branagh. Sometimes referred to as the British "Big Chill"; ten years after graduation, Peter Morton (Fry) inherits the family mansion and invites a group of friends from college to stay with him for a weekend. The friends all bring their own baggage, both literally and figuratively. One of them brings her boyfriend of two weeks. Others bring spouses, not part of the original group. The interplay of all the various characters, changing partners, etc., is cleverly told. Which is a way of saying that the script is very good. Rudner and Thompson deliver standout performances. The subtitles are excellent. Grade: B+

Green Zone (DVD)

Green Zone (2009) starring Matt Damon, Greg Kinnear, Brendan Gleeson, Khalid Abdalla, Amy Ryan, Igal Naor, Jason Isaacs. Early in the Iraq War, Army Chief Roy Miller (Damon) questions why the intel is bad on the location of weapons of mass destruction (WMD). Kinnear plays a government weasel who won't listen to the soldiers on the ground. Gleeson is a CIA agent who encourages Miller but won't tell all he knows. Ryan plays a journalist who wrote articles on WMD based on faulty sources. The movie shows Iraq after the invasion as a chaotic place, with various U.S. factions playing off against each other in a giant clusterfuck, which it undoubtedly was. Dear old George W. Bush even makes an appearance. The subtitles are pretty good, but the film's kinetic action is hard to follow even with captions. Grade: B+

Persuasion (DVD)

Persuasion (1995) starring Amanda Root, Ciaran Hinds. Set in 1814, in the wake of war with France, Anne Elliot (Root) lives a quiet life with her father and sisters -- until poverty overtakes them, and the family (except Anne) is forced to relocate to Bath. Anne goes to stay with her "sick" sister Mary, and it is a fateful turn of events. Home from the war is Captain Frederick Wentworth (Hinds), who proposed to Anne eight years before and was refused. Anne loved him, but was talked out of making the match because his prospects were deemed poor by her family. Now Wentworth has returned, having profited from his part in the war and become quite rich. Based on the Jane Austen novel of the same title, the movie reflects the mores and conventions of a long-past time in England -- 200 years ago now. The story is told at a leisurely pace, but rewards the patient viewer. The subtitles are good. Grade: A-

A Perfect Murder (DVD)

A Perfect Murder (1998) starring Michael Douglas, Gwyneth Paltrow, Viggo Mortensen. When financial tycoon Steven Taylor (Douglas) discovers that his wife Emily (Paltrow) is having an affair with David, an artist (Mortensen), he digs up dirt on David and tries to hire him to kill his wife. There is no such thing as a perfect murder, of course, and complications ensue. For those who aren't familiar with it, this is a '90s update of Hitchcock's "Dial M for Murder." Unfortunately, it's not a very good one. In fact, this is a terrible movie. It's filled with glaring errors, logical flaws in the script that are obvious while you're watching it. Furthermore, the subtitles are poor -- hard to read and incomplete. Grade: D

Amelie (DVD)

Amelie (2001) starring Audrey Tautou, Mathieu Kassovitz. Sheltered young woman (Tautou) encounters real life at the age of 23, decides to try and manipulate the lives of those around her to make them happier. When she finally finds a young man she is interested in, she pursues him in a rather elliptical fashion, always working on a new stratagem. The movie is shot with a saturated color palate that I find very pleasing. It is cleverly written, and Tautou is brilliant in her starring role. I found this to be a charming, original film in all its facets. In French, with English subtitles. Grade: A

Pepe le Moko (DVD)

Pepe le Moko (1937) starring Jean Gabin, Mireille Balin. French film about gangster (Gabin) who is hiding out in the Casbah section of Algiers and eludes capture until he is lured out by an attractive woman (Balin). The evocation of the Casbah seems very convincing, although Gabin doesn't seem quite menacing enough to be a gangster. Although this film is quite old, it's still entertaining to watch. The subtitles are, unfortunately, not easy to read. Grade: B

People Will Talk (DVD)

People Will Talk (1951) starring Cary Grant, Jeanne Crain, Hume Cronyn. Dr. Noah Praetorius (Grant) falls in love with Deborah Higgins (Crain), a pregnant patient, and marries her. Meanwhile, Praetorius' enemy (Cronyn) manages to gin up a trial of the doctor based on his association with an old friend. The last 15 minutes of the film are dynamite, but they hardly make up for all the nonsense that went before. The subtitles are good. Grade: B-

Pelle the Conqueror (DVD)

Pelle the Conqueror (1988) starring Max von Sydow, Pelle Hvenegaard. It's the 19th century, and widower Lasse Karlsson (von Sydow) and his son Pelle (Hvenegaard) emigrate from Sweden to Denmark looking for high-paying jobs. What they find is wretched poverty working on a rich man's farm. There is plenty of drama to witness on the farm, however, as Lasse and Pelle are not the only workers there who are miserable and only wish to escape. But things seem to be looking up for Lasse and Pelle when they meet the "widow" Olsen, who has a home and a cow. From the context and the dialogue, it becomes clear that the help on the farm are no more than indentured servants. Most of them are Swedish immigrants, and have virtually no rights. The movie itself, however, is a rich and varied tapestry depicting life in another time, a distant place. The two-and-a-half hour playing time, usually too long for my taste, seemed like barely enough. The film is in Danish and Swedish, with English subtitles. Grade: A

What About Bob? (DVD)

What About Bob? (1991) starring Bill Murray, Richard Dreyfuss, Julie Hagerty. Murray plays Bob, a phobic, half-crazed patient who pursues his psychiatrist Leo (Dreyfuss) on vacation in New Hampshire. Much to Leo's distress, his family seems to like Bob better than him. Slowly, one baby step at a time, Bob drives Leo insane while co-opting his family. The movie has some genuinely funny moments, and may be just the thing if you're looking for some light entertainment. The subtitles are quite good. Grade: B+

Payday (DVD)

Payday (1973) starring Rip Torn, Ahna Capri, Elayne Heilveil, Cliff Emmich, Michael C. Gwynne. Torn stars as Maury Dann, a second-rate country music star who's on the road with his band, raising hell, wooing women and partaking freely of drugs and alcohol. Dann indulges his every whim, even to the point of killing a man, and expects his manager to fix whatever situation he gets himself into. It's a pretty wild ride, and Torn is pretty great in the role. One complaint: The songs aren't subtitled. Grade: B+

The Pawnbroker (DVD)

The Pawnbroker (1965) starring Rod Steiger, Geraldine Fitzgerald, Brock Peters, Jaime Sanchez. Directed by Sidney Lumet. Steiger stars as Sol Nazerman, a Jew who survived the Holocaust during World War II and now, 25 years later, owns a pawn shop in New York City. Nazerman is clearly suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, because he continually has flashbacks to his life in the concentration camp. The unspeakable horrors that he has been subject to are revealed gradually, in flashbacks of increasing intensity, and we watch him crumble before our eyes. This is a powerful film, full of meaning, and not easy to watch. But it is certainly worth seeing. There are no subtitles offered on the disc, but it does have closed captions, which are available on most modern TVs. Grade: A-

Pauline at the Beach (DVD)

Pauline at the Beach (1983) starring Amanda Langlet, Arielle Dombasle, Pascal Greggory, Feodor Atkine. A teenage girl named Pauline (Langlet) spends the summer at the beach with her older, sexy cousin Marion (Dombasle). They both become involved with males that they have newly met. Henri, who hooks up with Marion, turns out to be something of a playboy. A friend, walking by his beach house, sees another woman naked in his room. The "friend" tells Marion. High jinks ensue. This movie is in French, with English subtitles. It's somewhat talky, but still quite entertaining, what with all the skimpy swimsuits and casual nudity. Grade: B+

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (DVD)

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2009) starring Michael Nyqvist, Noomi Rapace, Sven-Bertil Taube. Mikael Blomkvist (Nyqvist), apparently disgraced journalist, is hired for a six-month job of solving a 40-year-old murder mystery. Lisbeth Salander (Rapace), computer hacker extraordinaire, becomes interested in Blomkvist's case, believing that he was framed. Soon (and I'm not clear on exactly how it happens) the two are working together on the cold murder case. It is customary when reviewing a movie that has been made from a popular book to compare the two, usually to the detriment of the film. In this case, however, I think the movie is actually better in many ways than the book. I felt the book was guilty of many excesses, and these have been corrected in the film. The script is more economical, shorn as it is of much of the verbiage of the book. The story is set in Sweden, and the dialogue is in Swedish, with English subtitles. The DVD has an English soundtrack available, for those who don't like subtitles, and also features an interview with Rapace. Grade: A

Paths of Glory (DVD)

Paths of Glory (1957) starring Kirk Douglas, Ralph Meeker, Adolphe Menjou, George Macready. Directed by Stanley Kubrick. In World War I, an ambitious French general (Macready) orders his men to take an impregnable German position. When the attack fails, the general orders an example made: Three of the men will be placed on court-martial for cowardice, under penalty of death. Colonel Dax (Douglas) acts as defense counsel -- and conscience of the film -- for the accused men. This movie is now recognized as one of the great anti-war films. Some also see it as anti-military, with some justification. The subtitles are adequate. Grade: A-